The timeline on the DVD *confirms* canon;

[serenadust]

No: HPFGUIDX 55939

--- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, "pennylin" <pennylin at s...> 
wrote:

 I (Jo S.) wondered:
> 
> <<<<OK with me.  I still don't see Hermione's age having any real 
plot 
> importance, unless it's just not been revealed yet.  I really 
didn't 
> care until this DVD timeline issue came up, and I still don't get 
> why it is so very important to you <referring to Ebony, not Penny 
BTW> that she be younger by a matter 
> of months rather than older.  Did I miss a post explaining that?  
If 
> so, please direct me to it because I have a feeling that I'm 
missing 
> *something*.>>>>>>>>>


Penny replied:

<snip statement concerning shipping>

 
> I do think that Hermione's age gives us some clues as to how the 
Magical Quill operates, which is why I've always found the topic of 
interest.  Of course, I thought that it operated on a calendar year, 
and Barb quite rightly pointed out that this can't work with 
Cedric.  Which takes us back to the Magical Quill operating on: the 
fall equinox, some other autumnal date or that Hermione was just a 
quirk in the system.  So, unfortunately, we're still not completely 
happy with the new "canon" on that particular score (to the extent 
you consider the DVD timeline to be "canon" that is).  


I'm also fascinated with the operation of the Magical Quill which is 
a big part of why the issue of the DVD timeline has caught my 
interest in a way that Hermione's age never did in earlier 
discussions.  As I mentioned in my earlier post, Harry gets his 
first Hogwarts letter about one week before his eleventh birthday.  
If you assume (as I sort of did) that everyone gets their letters 
shortly before they turn eleven, then the 1979 birthdate for 
Hermione would have her receiving her letter almost a year in 
advance of her actual arrival at Hogwarts.  This "works" for me for 
two reasons. First, if Hermione had nearly a whole year for her 
Muggle parents to adjust to the idea and obtain her books and 
supplies, then I can easily believe that she learned all the 
books "by heart" and has had time to practice and master some simple 
spells (on top of mastering everything she needed to learn at her 
last year in her English "Muggle school", of course).  Clearly if 
her birthdate is 1980 as the timeline states, she couldn't possibly 
have gotten the letter a week before her eleventh birthday; she was 
already at Hogwarts then.  With this scenario we can't figure out 
when the heck she got the letter.  This just bugs me.

Secondly, all the available canon implies that Hermione is the 
product of an English school and an English family. Not Scottish, 
certainly not American, and not Portugese as some posters seem to 
have suggested.  As Ali confirmed in her post ::waves to Ali::  it's 
overwhelmingly standard in that system for the age cut-off to be 
September 1 with virtually *no* exceptions.  IMO JKR indirectly 
backs that up by *always* having the Hogwarts Express depart on 
Sept. 1, suggesting (to me, anyway) that she's attempting to reflect 
the standard British/English calendar.  The school year ending in 
July also supports this calendar.  If Hogwarts accepts all the 
Muggle-born first years who have spent their school careers up to 
age 11 in that system, it just doesn't make sense to me to have a 
different cut-off.

I also think that the fact that Angelina Johnson having just turned 
17 in late October (GoF, chapter 16) supports the Sept 1 cutoff if 
she is a 6th year student at that time.  We should have that 
confirmed if she's a seventh year in OOP.  Now, if the cutoff is in 
fact the autumnal equinox, as some have suggested, then that *could* 
solve the problem, but that's pure speculation at this point, and I 
don't want to assume that without some real evidence.

Anyway, I just really want a description of how that Quill works and 
when the letters go out.  I don't know why I'm inclined to be 
so "Loony" on this topic, since I'm completely bored by the "how 
many students" at Hogwarts discussion as well as most of the 
numerically based arguments.  I really, really hope to get the 
details in a future book or interview, but still have the feeling 
that Hermione's birth year is still inconsistent at this point, and 
as such, feels Flint-y to me.



Jo Serenadust, who wishes that JKR had made Hermione's birthday 
August 19 at this point