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

[Matt]

No: HPFGUIDX 109626

--- serenadust wrote:
>
> 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.
> 
> <snip>
> 
> 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).  

Or if there is no strict cutoff at all.  Or if there are exceptions to
the cutoff and one was made for Angelina or Hermione.  Or if Angelina
was held back a year at Hogwarts.  Or if (like most American schools;
I don't know the UK practice) they permit students to be held back a
year before entering, and Angelina was.  Or ....

> 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.

What the timeline indicates (at least to me) is that Rowling
*intended* Hermione to be the youngest of the trio.  You can call her
September birthday an inconsistency if you want -- based on
extrapolating to a fictional school some preconceptions about the way
school admissions work at some real world schools -- but it's awfully
hard to make a case that Hermione was "really" born a year earlier
unless you have a conception of fictional reality that is divorced
from the author's intent.

-- Matt