Hermione's Age (was:Re: DVD timeline mystery)

[mongo62aa]

No: HPFGUIDX 55633

hp_lexicon <hp_lexicon at y...> wrote:

Last night I spent some time updating the Lexicon's day-to-day 
calendars of the first two books, integrating the DVD timeline a 
little more closely with what was already there. I discovered 
something very interesting. 

They have a date wrong. 
 
<snip>
 
The big deal--and this is kind of weird--is that *I* had the date 
wrong on my calendar. 

<snip>
 
Now I suppose there's no reason why they couldn't have made the exact 
same error. But I can't help but wonder how it happened that they 
reproduced in their timeline the same error that was found in mine. 

Curious...
 
Steve Vander Ark
The Harry Potter Lexicon

Gina: Oh, that's very funny Steve!  Makes you wonder if TPTB use the 
lexicon as a reference as much as we fans do!  Wouldn't that be an 
amazing compliment?!

Kathryn: Compliment...maybe, but if they had used the Lexicon, I'd be 
rather annoyed that they didn't give Steve or the Lexicon the credit 
for all the work and research done to make the timeline.

Me: It looks to me that they did in fact use the Lexicon as a source 
for their dates, even if they copy-and-pasted them without credit.

But that means that Hermione's 'official' age is now set in stone, 
because of Steve's OPINION that she is younger than Harry.  No 
offence Steve, I idmire your work a great deal -- I simply feel that 
it is much more logical for her to be older than Harry, given the UK 
educational practices.

As for why she would have approved this timeline, (with the one 
modification to Tom Riddle's Hogwarts dates -- apparently necessary 
for Tom to be able to spend some time under Grindelwald's tutelage) 
well, we already know that JKR is not very comfortable with numbers 
(i.e. the number of students at Hogwarts issue) and may have missed 
the importance of that particular date to the fans.  Or not.

Bill