Timeline - Charlie - The Legend or the Experience?

[Steve]

No: HPFGUIDX 85962

--- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, "erinellii" <erinellii at y...> wrote:
>  Troels Forchhammer: 
> > As far as I can find it was McGonagall who compared Harry to
> > Charlie,
> > 
> >      'He caught that thing in his hand after a fifty-foot dive,'
> > Professor McGonagall told Wood. 'Didn't even scratch himself. 
> > Charlie Weasley couldn't have done it.'
> > 
> > Unless it was another passage that I didn't find, that you thought
> > of?
> 
> 
> Erin:
> It was this one:
> 
> "That Quidditch cup'll have our name on it this year," said Wood 
> happily as they trudged back up to the castle. "I wouldn't be 
> surprised if you turn out to be better than Charlie Weasley, and he 
> could have played for England if he hadn't gone off chasing 
> dragons."
> 
> PS/SS Ch.10, p.170 hardback American edition 
> 
> Erin

bboy_mn:

I take that statement to be sufficiently vague, that I see no need to
conclude from it that Wood has seen Charlie play. Wood could just as
easily be speaking of 'the legend' of Charlie Weasley rather than the
actual experience of having seen him fly.

If you insist on it being an experience, here is a perfectly logical
explaination. Wood is a Quidditch nut, an obssessed fan, and always
has been. So Wood's father, as a special treat, took him to the
Quidditch final game at Hogwarts the year before Wood started school.
It was an opportunity for Wood to be introduced to Quidditch at
Hogwarts and to see the school before actually attending it as a student. 

Perhaps, his father brought Wood to several Quidditch finals as Wood
came closer to Hogwarts age and become more enthusiastic about
attending school. 

Alternately, perhaps Wood, as a young boy, was reluctant to leave home
and go to school. So his father took him to a school Quidditch game to
show him what a fun time school would be.

The point is that Woods statement is sufficiently vague that no
conclusion can be draw from it, and I don't see it as forcing us to
view alternate data in a different light. Absent this 'evidence', the
other clues create a relatively consistent timeline. 

Just a thought.

bboy_mn