Bertha, Florence, Frank, Alice, Bella, Rudolphus... and Snape?

[justcarol67]

No: HPFGUIDX 106141

Neri wrote:
I've just found the canon proof that Bellatrix is older than Sirius 
by 2 years. How, oh how could I miss it before??? Here it is:
<snip quote>

Sooooo. Sirius didn't see Bella since he was 15, Harry's age in OotP.
That is, when Sirius was 15 (Year 5) it was Bella's last year in 
Hogwarts. And Sirius is very specific about it. He doesn't mean he 
didn't see her at the Black's house. He means he didn't see her even 
at Hogwarts, because he includes even "a glimpse" in Azkaban as a 
single exception. 
 
So we already have:
 
Canon (1): Bella is two years older than the marauders, Lily and 
Snape.
<snip>

Carol responds: 
I've posted on this topic before at least twice--no doubt you skipped
the thread or overlooked the information because my posts tend to be
long. :-) In any case, I agree with you except that I interpret the
age difference as *three* years. Harry is just *barely* fifteen. He's
just completed his fourth year and is about to enter his fifth. If
Sirius was the same age when he last saw Bellatrix, it would have been
at the end of her seventh year, when she finished school, at the time
Sirius finished his fourth--not his fifth, when he would be sixteen or
about to turn sixteen. (Harry doesn't reach that point until the *end*
of OoP, about nine months after the scene you're referring to.) So
Bellatrix would be seventeen or eighteen when she left school; Sirius
barely fifteen or about to turn fifteen. That's a three-year
difference, not two (for the other Marauders and Severus as well as
Sirius).

Otherwise, I agree with you. I've always thought that Severus was the
youngest member of the gang, "adopted" because of his precocity in
casting hexes. It stands to reason that Rodolphus is a little older
than Bellatrix, and Rabastan, who appears to be part of a threesome
with his brother and future sister-in-law, is probably Bellatrix's
age, though of course I'm guessing here. I also think that Lucius
Malfoy, five years older than Severus and presumably a sixth year when
Severus entered Hogwarts, was the original leader of this gang, just
as he's the leader at the MoM (with Bellatrix an unofficial second in
command, at least in her own view).

It all fits with the idea that Severus was the youngest member of the
"gang of Slytherins," all of whom had finished school by the time of
the Pensieve incident, which explains why he was alone when James and
Sirius confronted him at the end of their fifth year. And it ties in,
too, with Snape as Malfoy's "lap dog." When did Sirius see them
together? At Hogwarts, when Severus was a child and Lucius was a
teenager. What does "lap dog" mean? Little pet. The "baby" of the gang.

So I agree with you that the members of the gang were all older than
Severus and that one of the older boys was more likely than he to be
the one who kissed Florence and hexed Bertha. (Unless Sevvie was
precocious in that respect, too, and we have no evidence to indicate
that he was.) Seriously, I think Rodolphus is a good candidate, hexing
Bertha to make sure she doesn't tell Bellatrix. Or maybe it was the
unattached Rabastan. Certainly not the insufferably horrible Walden
Macnair, if his adult self is any indication.

But where does the idea of Florence as Death Eater come in? I've
missed a lot of posts and evidently missed that one. Can you direct me
to the right thread?

Carol