Ages of HP Characters

[kiricat2001]

No: HPFGUIDX 33050

--- In HPforGrownups at y..., "catlady_de_los_angeles" <catlady at w...> 
wrote:
snip 
> 
> JKR said Snape 'is' thirty-five or thirty-six.  I interpreted 
that 'is' to mean that he was 36 
> years and several months at the moment GoF began in summer of '94. 


My impression of the "Snape is 35 or 36" comment was that that was 
his age at the end of GoF.  Not that one year either way cleans up 
the potential mess in your time line regarding the date on the Potter 
plaque in the movie.  I remember being surprised at that age because 
I had pictured Snape in my mind's eye at around 50.  I had to do some 
quick mental readjusting.  And then, once I had that settled, the 
movie gives me Alan Rickman...
 

> However, that damn plaque in the movie messes it up. James Potter, 
> Seeker, 1972. In my world, James would have been a third-year 
in '72. 
> If the plaque stands for winning the Quidditch Cup, therefore Gryff 
> won it when James was third-year, then Gryff surely won it in other 
> years that James was on the team. And if the plaque is Player of 
the 
> Year and he won it as a third-year, he should have won it that much 
> more when he was older, more experienced, and bigger and stronger.
> 
> DO YOU THINK THE PLAQUE COULD HAVE BEEN Rookie of the Year? Do you 
> think the great James Potter might not have made it onto the first 
> string until his third year, or that he was really Class of '75 not 
> '76 (and won Rookie of the Year as a second-year)? Lexicon Steve 
says 
> the movie is not canon, but I want that plaque to be real because I 
> want James to have been Seeker not Chaser.


Since the plaque is for an individual, not a House team, I don't 
think the plaque is for winning the Quidditch Cup.  Maybe there are 
MVP or Rookie of the Year awards, but we haven't been told about them 
in the books.  You would think that awards would be announced or 
presented at the end-of-year feast.  Surely Harry would have won a 
Rookie award at the end of his first year, if such a thing exists.  

Ron gets to clean trophies when serving detention in CoS.  Perhaps 
the movie will use that to show us additional clues...

Marianne