Vauxhall Road again

[carolynwhite2 at aol.com]

No: HPFGUIDX 87251

--- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, "Shaun Hately" <drednort at a...> 
wrote:
> On 17 Dec 2003 at 16:13, annemehr at y... wrote:
> 
> > Annemehr:
> > But I'm afraid I have a complication for you.
> 
> Shaun:
> Good - this is what I am looking for.
> 
> > "Harry saw at once that it was a diary, and the faded year on the
> > cover told him it was fifty years old.  He opened it eagerly. On 
the
> > first page he could just make out the name 'T. M. Riddle' in 
smudged ink."
> 
> Shaun:
> The thing is, though, when it says 'fifty years old' does it mean 
> *exactly* fifty years old or *approximately* fifty years old.
> 
> 50 years is a nice round number - it wouldn't be that uncommon for 
> a person in 1992, to describe a book printed in 1938 or 1939 as '50 
> years old'.
> 
> Other issues to be considered - possibility is that the diary could 
> have beeen for more than one year (five year diaries were not 
> uncommon back then - especially if you were talking about something 
> that was well put together).
> 
> I've seen other diaries - especially those sold in small newsagents 
> - which were printed for generic years (dates were printed inside 
> but without the days of the week) and you added the date yourself 
> to the cover. I've no idea if that was done back in the 1930s and 
> 1940s but I know it was more recently - I used them at school.
> 
> One other issue to consider... Britain had paper rationing during 
> World War II. I wonder how easy it would be to buy a 1942 diary 
> under those circumstances. I confess I have no idea - it just 
> occurred to me now.
> 

Carolyn:

Shaun, your research about the Vauxhall road name was marvellous, but 
I am glad Annemehr whizzed in with this comment about the dating of 
the diary (thanks Annemehr -waves - you beat me to it by about 1 
minute !). 

I think you are clutching at straws here. I really think that the 
phrase 'the faded year on the cover' says exactly what it means - its 
a printed date, we presume 1943 from all the other canon evidence 
cited elsewhere. Hermione spots the significance of this at once, as 
she is no dunce, she means exactly 50 years ago, not approximately, 
because she associates it specifically with the date on the shield, 
and the last opening of the chamber of secrets. She says (caps are 
JKR's emphasis in the text, not mine):

'And this diary is fifty years old' said Hermione, tapping it 
excitedly.
'So'.
'Oh Ron, wake up' snapped Hermione. 'We know the person who opened 
the Chamber of Secrets last time was expelled FIFTY YEARS AGO. we 
know TM Riddle got an award for special services to the school FIFTY 
YEARS AGO.'
(CoS, p.174 UK edition)

On the issue of paper shortages and rationing - yes, they were quite 
severe, and I would have thought that this would have pushed the 
price up. Which makes me question even more where or how a poor 
orphan boy found the muggle money to buy it.

So what if he didn't ? A further thought is that it was bought for 
him by a muggle who could afford it. This would avoid the need for 
Tom to be anywhere near dangerous, war-torn muggle London (though, I 
suppose it wouldn't have been a dangerous place for a wizard, who 
could protect himself from danger). 

On the other hand (sorry, thinking aloud here), Tom would not have 
been able to use magic to protect himself, as an under-age wizard at 
the time (and as a star pupil and prefect he would have been noticed 
if he had; this was long before he went really bad). Wonder whether 
the MoM was as officious in policing this in wartime London.

Carolyn