Reconciling Prophesy Dates and Re: OOP: Harry's Career Choice- Mentor

[Grey Wolf]

No: HPFGUIDX 62159

Rowen Avalon wrote: 
> "I'll tell you why," said Black. "Because you never did anything 
> unless you could see what was in it for you. Voldemort's been in 
> hiding for fifteen years...."
> 
> And I thought, that's odd. I wonder why. Of course, now that I've 
> read OoP, I would assume that this is when he found out about the 
> prophecy. BUT I'm having a hard time reconciling these 15 years in 
> book 3 with Trelawney's stated "almost 16 years" at Hogwarts in Oop. 
> I also have problems with V's defeat being 12 years ago, because it's 
> really 12 1/2 years at the end of book 3.
> 
> Could I get some theories or explanations by someone who is good with 
> time? I think it all depends on whether JKR is rounding up or down in 
> her years, but it doesn't seem consistant. I always have a hard time 
> dealing with ... time. Ok, but you know what I mean.
> 
> Again sorry if it's a repeat. I'm working on reading the posts...
> 
> Rowen Avalon

When people quote years in the past, they tend to round things. "About 
ten years ago", when said by me, is anything between 5 and 15 years 
back - I'm very imprecise. Dumbledore has lived for 150 years, so when 
he says "15 years back" he *can* mean "17". Or "12", for that matter. 
He wasn't rtrying to give an exact time, just a frame of reference. It 
wasn't as precise as Trelawny's answer, which had to be exact for the 
inspection. Dumbledore was only letting now it hadn't happened the year 
before Harry joined Hogwarts but rather before he was born.

Hope that helps,

Grey Wolf, who admits it might just be JKR's ability with numbers once 
again, but will still try and find plausible, non-metathinking answers.