Hermione's age - why it matters was Canon disagreement; author intent

[alhewison]

No: HPFGUIDX 39432

--- In HPforGrownups at y..., dfrankiswork at n... wrote:
 
 <<Another hoary debate is over Hermione's age: is she nearly 11 or 
nearly 12 at the begining of PS?  It has produced some pretty 
impassioned writing on both sides.  However, when interested listies 
outside the debate asked (more than once) why it mattered, hardly 
anyone was able to explain it - only Penny really rose to the 
challenge, and she struggled, IMO.>>

I couldn't find the last list discussion on this, and forgive the 
repetition. To me, it matters quite simply because I, and I suspect 
many other readers like to be RIGHT. Many things in the Potterverse 
are still open to interpretation, and will be right until the end of 
the series, but the age of one of Harry's best friends despite being 
trivial should just be pure fact, and unchallengeable. 

I was so adamant that I was right about my interpretation, that I 
dared to challenge "Steve of the Lexicon" offlist - only to presented 
with the only piece of canon on the matter. From memory this was 
Dumbledore calling Harry and Hermione "13 Year old wizards" at the 
end of POA - implying that Hermione must have her birthday after 
Harry. Of course, being stubborn I think that JKR simply over-
generalised here, and Hermione MUST be older than Harry. (I won't 
repeat all the arguments here, and I fully understand why people 
disagree with me.

Isn't the divide for the Hermione age-dispute also along Nationality-
boundaries. We Brits who *know* that JKR is basing Hogwarts on our 
system like to press home the advantage when we can. I can't even 
count the number of times I have read Brits complain when the 
words "Hogwarts" and "graduation" come together - I personally don't 
like it either, for what that's worth. And yet, Hogwarts is only 
based on the English* system but it isn't part of it, and just as JKR 
so freely interprets other ideas, she could quite easily have a 
graduation at the end. Afterall, there is no Wizard University which 
there should be if JKR was rigidly following the English system.

Ali

(who will have to eat Humble Pie *IF* JKR does categorically state 
that Hermione is younger than Harry - though I do acknowledge that 
the gifted Hermione is well able to stand her ground against her 
peers however old she is <g>).

*I'm not confusing English and British here, but the Scottish 
education system is different to the English/Welsh one, and JKR is 
following the English/Welsh one.