[HPforGrownups] Re: Bill's Visit

[Derek Hiemforth]

No: HPFGUIDX 86952

>> Derek:
>> In GoF, the trio are in their fourth year, and the Weasley 
>> twins are in their sixth.  If Bill had graduated only five 
>> years before, then he'd be younger than the twins, and only 
>> a year older than the trio...

>Meri:
>I'm sorry, perhaps I am reading your answer wrong, but if Bill had 
>graduated five years before GoF that would make him at least eight 
>years ahead of HRH (he would have left the seven year school one 
>year before they started) and at least five years older than the 
>twins (who would have been in their first or second year when he was 
>a seventh year). Maybe you could explain your logic, because it is 
>canon that Bill's already graduated from Hogwarts and gotten a 
>job, so how is it possible that he could be younger than the twins.

Derek:
You're right; I miscalculated.  I'd gotten it turned around in my head,
figuring things as though he'd *started* five years before GoF.  Sorry
about that... don't know where my brain was.  :-S

But I'm still not sure there's enough time to squeeze Bill and Charlie
in there.  Even if we say that Gryffindor's last Quidditch Cup win with
Charlie may have been early in his Quidditch career rather than at the
end of it (which seems odd, if their Seeker was really good enough to
play professionally), then Charlie had to have graduated no later than
1989.  We know that Slytherin had won the last seven Quidditch Cups as
of the time HRH started.  That would mean Slytherin had won in the
school years ending in 1985-1991, with Gryffindor's last win coming in
the school year ending in 1984.  Since Harry was the only first-year
player in a century, we know 1983-84 couldn't have been Charlie's first
year; it had to be at least his second, with him starting in the 1982-83
school year.

So this would mean that Charlie graduated in 1989.  Since Bill is
older, he would have graduated no later than 1988.  If he'd graduated
in 1988, it would have been more than five years between then and the
events of GoF (which start in 1994).

And all this is a best-case scenario, wherein we assume that Gryffindor
failed to win the Quidditch Cup five times in Charlie's last five years
as Seeker, despite his pro-caliber talent.  It seems much more likely
that the Quidditch Cup win for Gryffindor in 1984 before the Slytherin
streak was in fact Charlie's *last* year, and he attended Hogwarts from
1977-1984.

Although, if that's the case, it is somewhat odd that there would be a
9-10 year gap between Bill/Charlie and Percy.  That long a gap between
siblings certainly isn't unheard of, but it's somewhat unusual to have
two kids, wait ten years, then have five more...

- Derek