Lily & Petunia, who's older?

[frankielee242]

No: HPFGUIDX 41948

Greg wrote:
> > Lily gets her letter when she's 11.  The whole family 
> > goes off to Diagon Alley, and everyone, including Petunia, falls in 
> > love with the magical world.  For the next two or 3 years until 
> > Petunia turned 11, all her parents talked about was the day that 
> > she'd get her own letter.  Then, the whole summer of her 11th year 
> > goes by & no letter for Petunia.  Rather than admit that the 
> magical 
> > world rejected her, she decides to reject the magical world by 
> > hating all things magical, including her nephew who even at a young 
> > age showed he had the gift she never did.  I think that scenario 
> > makes more sense than the jealous older sister bit, but maybe 
> that's 
> > just me.
> 

Amelia wrote:
> Having Petunia be younger than Lily could also square with theories 
> that James and Lily were aurors and didn't settle down to start a 
> family right away after graduating from Hogwarts.  One would assume 
> that the older sister would end up having children first, but Petunia 
> and Lily had children at the same time.  Perhaps Petunia got married 
> at a young age (it seems doubtful that she would have pursued much 
> post-secondary education) while Lily was off having her adventures.
> 
> Then again, maybe Lily IS younger and she and James DID have Harry 
> pretty soon after Hogwarts.  In that case, Petunia would have spent 
> many more years trying to find someone to marry than her younger 
> sister did, which also seems plausible. ;)


Interesting ideas, but going by the character timelines posted on the
Lexicon, plus taking into account that James, Sirius, Lupin, Snape and
Pettigrew were supposedly all in the same year AND the fact that
Dudley and Harry are the same age, Amelia's second theory seems more
probable to me.

Woof, long sentence. Sorry. According to the timelines posted on the
Lexicon, James and Lily had Harry rather early... They would have been
20 or 21 when Harry appeared on the scene. I just can't see fussy,
anal retentive, responsible, perfectly-normal-thank-you Petunia Evans
rushing headlong into a marriage with Vernon Dursley, setting up house
on Privet Drive and producing Dudley that quickly.

All in all, Petunia's behavior seems consistent with a jealous and
neglected older sister (whether or not she was actually overlooked is
beside the point, she sure feels that way-- think of her tirade at the
beginning of SS/PS. Can you say *baggage*?). What's writing a
sociology paper about mice in a maze compaired to turning a teacup
successfully into a mouse and back again? Strikes me that everything
was fine in Petunia's world until the day little Lily came home from
the hospital... and stole the show.


Frankie