OOP: Sirius and his mother--ages

[FrisbeeK]

No: HPFGUIDX 64476

--- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, "Theodore Harvey" 
<theodore_harvey at h...> wrote:
I thought I'd mention a picky detail about 
> Sirius and his mother that bothered me.  We know from various 
> clues that Sirius is a fairly young man--the Lexicon estimates b. 
> 1960, so 35-36 in book 5.  OoP describes his mother, who died 
> about ten years ago (i.e. c. 1985), as an old woman.  But if Sirius 
> was really only about 25 when his mother died, how could she 
> have been as old as the description of her portrait would imply? 
> Are witches capable of having children at a much later age than 
> Muggles?  I just wondered if anyone had any thoughts on this.

Actually my thought on this would be that repeatedly JKR 
characterizes Lupin, Sirius, Snape as looking old and worn and 
haggard - as if they appear much older than they are.  It could just 
be that time is not kind to the Black family and that Mrs. Black, 
despite her age, just looks old and raggedy.  I'm sure there is some 
scientific explanation for my theory that could be tied into 
purebloods and with a diminished population; inbreeding and recessive 
genes and all that.  

FK