Deathday - 100 years discrepancy

[joanne0012]

No: HPFGUIDX 69475

--- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, Random <random832 at r...> wrote:
> 
> On Thursday, July 10, 2003, at 05:05 PM, jlh_hp wrote:
> 
> > First post.  How did I go all this time not knowing this was here?
> > I just started re-reading PS/SS, after finishing OOP.  I have done
> > this several times with the first four, while waiting for OOP.
> > However I never noticed the discrepancy between PS/SS on p. 123
> > Nearly Headless Nick says "I haven't eaten for nearly four hundred
> > years".  Then in CoS p. 129 Nick says "Well, this Halloween will be
> > my five hundredth deathday".  How did Sir Nicholas leap forward 100
> > years between Harry's first and second years at Hogwarts?
> 
> Well, perhaps on the big deathday anniversaries (100th and 500th) he 
> _does_ eat... that is what i've always thought. time since last eaten 
> hardly means time since death.
> 
> --Random832

This is a well-known Flint, of special importance because Nick's deathday is 
the only specific date (with year) given as a reference point for the books.  
Anyway, I figure that Nick merely misspke when he said 400 and meant 500 
but the thought was just too awful to bear.  Or he was rounding down.