[HPforGrownups] Re: Mistaken identity - part three

[Diana Williams]

No: HPFGUIDX 80916

From: "laylalast" <liliana at worldonline.nl>

And then on to the age of Bertha at the time of the kissing scene:

>"K":
I think it's important to remember the age of Bertha at the time she
was snooping as we will see later.

GoF/Ch 30 Instantly, a figure rose out of it, a plump, scowling girl
of about sixteen...

Lilian:

This is what Harry sees, he sees a girl who HE guesses is about
sixteen. That does not set it as canon that Bertha was actually
sixteen at the moment. She might have been younger, she might have
been older. When I was 16 I was constantly mistaken for 18. By the
time I was really 18, and thus a legal adult, I had to prove that
time and time again as everybody then thought I was 16.
So Bertha may very well have been 17-18 and sitting her NEWTS and
MWPP-S-L-F two classes lower, sitting their OWLS at their 15-16th.

Me:
Yes, but in GOF, Sirius states that Bertha was a couple of years older than
they were.  Even if Bertha was in her 7th year and, assuming the "couple"
means 2 so that Snape/Sirius/James were in their 5th year, we know from PoA
that the "prank" took place in their 6th year.  Bertha was gone by then.
And I doubt that Sirius would wait a whole year to get around to taking
revenge on Snape by setting up the prank.

Diana W.