Hermione's Birthday; SHIP (FITD)

[psychic_serpent]

No: HPFGUIDX 55420

--- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, "pennylin" <pennylin at s...> 
wrote:
> The DVD contains a calendar, which includes a reference to
> Hermione's *12th* birthday on September 19th of the CoS school 
> year.  [snip] 
> Therefore, the long-standing debate of interest to so many of us 
> (and utterly bewildering to so many others) appears to be settled 
> canonically, with the following results:
> 
> a.  Hermione turns 12 roughly 6 weeks after Harry does, so she is 
> 2 months younger, not 10 months older.
> 
> b.  This raises a question of how the Magical Quill operates.  I 
> would personally think that this confirms my long-standing belief 
> that the Magical Quill operates on a calendar year (so someone 
> turning 11 on January 2nd would start on September 1st, as would 
> someone who doesn't turn 11 until December 30th of that same year).
> 
> Heidi has already told me that she is convinced that the Magical 
> Quill might be tied to the fall equinox (with a cut-off date of 
> September 21st).  This question can perhaps be settled depending 
> on whether Angelina Johnson returns to Hogwarts in OoP.  If she 
> does return, then it means she turned 17 in mid-October of her 6th 
> year.  This would mean that Angelina turned 12 shortly after 
> starting Hogwarts in her first year ....... supporting Heidi's
> theory that the cut-off date is possibly September 21st.  If 
> Angelina had her 7th year in GoF and doesn't return as a student 
> in OoP, then it will cut more toward the calendar-year cut-off 
> date, IMO.

Actually, the calendar year argument does not work completely, 
because although we do not know Angelina's year for certain, we do 
know Cedric Diggory's.  He was in sixth year in GoF and turned 
seventeen before Halloween, thus qualifying for the Tournament.  
Therefore we can deduce that the cut-off date is neither September 
1, as many people have asserted in the past, nor the end of the 
calendar year, but sometime between September 19 (Hermione's 
birthday) and Halloween (or, more likely, mid-October, since 
Angelina's birthday had already passed by the time Halloween rolled 
around).  This makes Heidi's equinox theory far more plausible.

> The other alternative is that Hermione was some exception to the 
> rule for the cut-off date.

That is another possibility, given that she is frightfully smart, 
that Cedric does demonstrably have his seventeenth birthday before 
Halloween of his sixth year, and he doesn't seem to be the sort to 
have to repeat a year (JKR's explanation for her original "Flint").  
The autumnal equinox has a nice earthbound significance to it, 
however, that is inherently appealing.  (Although numerous sources I 
looked up put it on September 22, not 21.)  Another possibility is 
that the cut-off date is tied to the lunar cycle in a given year, 
which would make it somewhat irregular.  If all students are in the 
same Hogwarts year who are born before the full moon that comes 
right after the autumnal equinox (or September 1), then there might 
be a moving target.  If this were the system, and in 1980 the first 
full moon after September 1 were after Hermione's birthday, she'd be 
in.  If, in a different year, the next full moon was on September 2, 
most September babies would have to wait a year (unless the moon had 
to be full after some other randomly-selected date).

> c.  In any case, it is abundantly clear that if Hermione is 6 
> weeks younger than Harry, then there is no chance whatsoever that 
> they are siblings.  :--)

Erk.  I'm not sure why this theory EVER had to be put to rest, but 
I'm glad this does the trick!  

> SHIP: Also of interest on the DVD is, of course, an interview with 
> JKR and Steve Kloves.  

Loved the interview, chock full of great information, but I'm not 
even going near the shipping waters.  I'd be more interested in know 
what particular thing couldn't be changed in the second film because 
of something that happens in Book 6.  I know, it's a little over two 
months before Book 5 arrives and I want Book 6.  Have you seen the 
number of folks on the group today?  I hardly think I'm alone!

--Barb

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Psychic_Serpent
http://www.schnoogle.com/authorLinks/Barb