The Animagi was Re: Giving the map to Lupin (Was: Lupin...

[Geoff Bannister]

No: HPFGUIDX 90209

--- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, MadameSSnape at a... wrote:
 
> Geoff:
> Not necessarily. Pupils who are in what is now Year 11 (the old 
Fifth 
> Year) and coming up to GCSE examinations are those folk whose 16th 
> birthday falls between 1st September and 31st August of the year in 
> which they are the year. When they enter the Sixth Form they are 
> already 16.
> **********
> Sherrie, again:
> 
> That may be the case IRL, but it appears to me that Hogwarts 
students' ages 
> correspond with their years - or rather, with the beginning of 
their years.  
> First years are 11, Seconds are 12, and so on, though they will 
most likely have 
> birthdays during the year.  We know Angelina, for example, turned 
17 in 
> October of her sixth year (GoF, p. 230 UK paper) - therefore, she 
was 16 when that 
> year began.  We can also infer that the Prank hadn't happened yet 
at the time 
> of "Snape's Worst Memory", so Sirius could not yet have turned 16 
at the end 
> of his fifth (O.W.L.s) year.  

Geoff:
Your interpretation agrees with what I said -  I have commented on 
the age business before but I haven't time to track my message number 
tonight. To summarise, a pupil entering the First Year should have 
reached eleven no later than 31st August of that year so, during 
their First Year, they will become 12, so that when they enter the 
Second Year, they are already 12... and so on hence pupils coming 
into the Lower Sixth  are 16 - which fits quite correctly with 
Angelina who is 17 in the October of the First Year Sixth.

Sirius must therefore have been sixteen when he came into the Sixth 
Form - at the latest he could have a birthday during the summer 
holidays.