Scottish school cut-off dates- Hermione's birthday riddle solved?

[serenadust]

No: HPFGUIDX 109612

--- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, "sarah_haining" 
<sarahlizzy at h...> wrote:

> I tend to stay out of timeline subjects as they usually just make 
my 
> head hurt, but I might be able to help here. But please be patient 
> if this isn't all that useful! :)
> 
> Bookworm is right - the cut off date for the school year may well 
be 
> the 31st of August in ENGLAND but that is not the case in Scotland.
> 
> Scottish school cut-off dates are at the end of February/start of 
> March (not sure of the exact date). This would easily allow for 
all 
> of the trio to be born in 1980, with Hermione as the youngest of 
the 
> three, no?
> 
> Hope this helps.

The problem with Hermione's year of birth is not only reconciling it 
with the standard English school cut-off date, but with the fact 
that Angelina Johnson becomes 17 in October of her sixth year.

Angelina came over to them, sat down, and said, "Well, I've done it! 
Just put my name in!"
"You're kidding!" said Ron, looking impressed.
"Are you seventeen, then?" asked Harry.
"'Course she is, can't see a beard, can you?" said Ron.
"I had my birthday last week," said Angelina
GoF, chapter 16.

If the cut-off were at the end of February/beginning of March, then 
Angelina should have been a seventh year student in GoF and left 
school at the end of that year.  The only way that Hermione could be 
younger than Harry is if the cut-off date falls between her birthday 
(Sept 19) and Angelina's (3rd week in October).  It's possible that 
Hogwarts cut-off falls somewhere during that 4 week period but it 
doesn't seem very likely.

In spite of the timeline in the Lexicon and the CoS video, I still 
think that Hermione is the oldest of the trio.  It's not really very 
important, but unless JKR can explain that Hermione received a 
special exception to enter Hogwarts a year ahead of schedule, or 
says that Hogwarts cut-off is October 1, then that timeline is yet 
another Flint.

Jo Serenadust, lobbying for "Old" Hermione since 2001