JKR Chat

[capehoneysuckle]

No: HPFGUIDX 92053

Karen wrote:
> > > JKR Chat ref:
> > > Luisa: How old are Charlie and Bill Weasley in relation to their 
> > > other siblings? 
> > > JK Rowling replies -> Oh dear, maths. Let me think. Bill is two 
> > years 
> > > older than Charlie, who is two years older than Percy. 
> > > 
> > > Taking the above as 'fact' add the seven year rule from POA and 
> > the 
> > > PS/SS quote of not having won "since Charlie left".
> > > 
> > > What theories have we got.
> > > 1) Charlie left school early?
> > > 2) Charlie left the team earlier than 7th year?
> > > 3) JKR can't remember what she's already written?
> > > 
> > > Let me know if there are any other possibilities, because she's 
> > now 
> > > sent my timeline into mass confusion.

Sam:
> > Maybe he did leave early.  Do you have to come back for 6th and 7th 
> > years? Not everyone needs to get there Newts.  Since the twins were 
> > able to leave early maybe Charlie did too.

Meri:
> Also we assume that the Quidditch house cup was played every year 
> that Charlie was at shcool. I can't imagine that Hogwarts just 
> started to get exciting/dangerous upon Harry's arrival. Perhaps there 
> were tournament cancellations before Charlie's graduation due to, 
> well, any number of things. Or else he got a real good dragon related 
> internship that he couldn't pass up. 

Honey(me):
I think that the question of the Weasley family timeline is very
interesting, and have long been a fan of the "missing Weasley child"
theory. I agree that the JKR chose to answer this question just for
the purpose of refuting those theories. However, that leaves us to
explain the apparent inconsistencies in the timelime. (Or just call it
a flint, but let's give it a go first.)

I think we must assume that Charlie left Hogwarts after his OWLs,
since it is clearly possible to leave without NEWTs, and he was
apparently neither an academic star or planning a career requiring any
NEWTs. I don't think he was likely to have left before the OWLs, since
an OWL in Care of Magical Creatures probably would have been required
for his job.

Tournament cancellations for the last year or two of Charlie's school
years would work, so we can use that as a last resort if no other
reasonable timeline emerges.

We are constrained by two bits of canon:

1) Oliver Wood's speech before the first Quidditch game in POA,
"Gryffindor haven't won for seven years now." (Bloomsbury paperback
p.108). This would be in the fall of the 1993-94 school year, if we
assume the lexicononical year of Harry's birth.

2) Fred, speaking to Harry after his appointment to the team in
PS/SS,"We haven't won since Charlie left, but this year's team is
going to be brilliant." (Bloomsbury pb p.114). This would be in fall
of the 1991-92 school year.

So let's guess that Wood meant that 1993 was the seventh year since
the last winning Gryffindor quidditch team, so maybe they last won in
the 1987-88 school year. Let's guess that Charlie Weasley left at the
end of that year, and make him 15 at the beginning of that year. Now,
could Percy be two years younger than that?

No. But if JKR was guessing today (sort of sounds like she was), and
make Percy three years younger, and give him a birthday right after
the Hogwart's cut-off date, so that he the oldest in his class, that
would just about do it. Thus we get Charlie born in 1972 (fifteen in
Sept. 1987) and Percy born in fall of 1975 (turning sixteen just
shortly after school starts in 1991).

Just a thought about how the conflicting bits of canon might fit
together without having to posit a flint.

Honey