Hermione Aging via Time turner

[David]

No: HPFGUIDX 53552

Mark D wrote:

> I haven't spent 'way too much' time doing speculative math, but 
> Hermione must have aged extra hours during PoA through her use of 
> the Time Turner, but hoe much?
> 
> From the book, I believe she had almost triple classes which would 
> mean she might have aged 26-27 hours for each 24 hour day.

I believe this to be a gross overestimate.

 I suggest 
> she might have occasionally abused the time turner to get extra 
> sleep and study at the same time.

Given the strict warnings issued by McGonagall, and Hermione's 
attitude to rule-breaking in general and misuse of the Time Turner 
in particular, I think this highly unlikely.  I think it probable 
that she used the TT only to get to lessons and exams when she had 
to.  The fact that she was obviously stressed and tired shows IMO 
that she was fitting the extra homework into normal time and not 
getting extra sleep.

> The result of overuse of the time turner would  be that Hermione 
> might now be older than Harry or Ron. Could she have gained an 
extra 
> 6 months during her third year? This would explain why Hermione 
> seems so much more mature than Harry or Ron.

My estimate is as follows.  At the end of POA, Hermione states that 
dropping Divination and Muggle Studies will allow her to dispense 
with the Time Turner.  So we may assume that she uses it to attend 
two extra subjects.  I would suggest, with about ten subjects 
altogether for the normal student, that would amount to between one 
and two hours a day, with the likely estimate well towards the low 
end of the range.

That only applies five days a week, during term time.  British 
school terms amount to under 40 weeks per year: I think the Hogwarts 
year is slightly shorter than that, but you can check the Lexicon 
timelines for a better estimate.

Putting it together, one or two hours a day, 5 days a week, 40 weeks 
a year leads to between 200 and 400 hours in the year.  That's 
roughly between eight and seventeen days.  Hardly 'way too much 
math' and hardly any ageing either.

> (It also makes it less 
> creepy that Krum at 18 yo is so smitten by Hermione at 15 yo.)

I find it hard to understand why this should be thought creepy.  
Nobody at Hogwarts seems to mind the age difference, whatever other 
objections they may have.  She may be 14 for most of GOF, of 
course ;-) .

David, noting that Kathryn is the first known (to him) British 
exponent of the 'Young Hermione' theory