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

[Devika]

No: HPFGUIDX 55644

--- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, "mongo62aa" 
<william.truderung at s...> wrote:
> 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
> 

> 
> 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.
> 

I think that it's possible that WB used Steve's timeline as a model 
for theirs.  If so, they should have given him credit for it.  
Whether or not they did use it, I think that Steve deserves a lot of 
praise for the work he put into the timeline and everything else in 
the Lexicon. 

As far as the reasons for JKR's approval of the timeline are 
concerned, the fact is that she *did* approve it.  It is now 
official.  I think that a lot of us forget that this is JKR's work 
first and foremost.  The fact that we are obsessed fans does not mean 
that we have more information, or even as much information, than JKR 
does about the world that she created.  

Many people have said that JKR is not very comfortable with numbers 
based on her estimate of the Hogwarts population.  Personally, I 
don't understand this reasoning.  It does not take a mathematical 
genius to figure out a person's age.  Surely the countless people on 
this list who have argued about Hermione's age can't all claim to be 
more "comfortable with numbers" than JKR.  I know how much debate 
there has been about the number of students at Hogwarts, and JKR has 
made mistakes before, but that's no reason to say that she has 
definitely made a mistake this time.  

There could be any number of reasons for why JKR chose to give 
Hermione a September birthday and make her younger than Harry and 
Ron.  Whatever the reason is, it is JKR's reason, and these are her 
books and her characters, after all.  While many might disagree with 
it, there doesn't seem to be any compelling reason for why it is 
impossible.  Whether or not WB and JKR used Steve's timeline as a 
model is irrelevant to the debate on Hermione's age.  No one forced 
JKR to accept all of the dates in the timeline.  If she had had any 
major reason to make Hermione 13, then it would not have been 
difficult for her to change that on the DVD timeline.  If JKR 
verifies a timeline saying that Hermione turned 12 during her second 
year, then I'm inclined to believe it, regardless of what we think we 
know about JKR's mathematical abilities.  

Devika