JKR Chat

[hp_lexicon]

No: HPFGUIDX 92133

--- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, "mad_maxime" <mad_maxime at h...> 
wrote:
> 
> 
> Max:
> 
> It's also possible that JKR is not as tuned in to the exact ages of
> all her characters as some of the readers.  I think she was 
speaking
> off the top of her head, and might have 'flubbed up' a bit.

I think this is clearly a flub, but an instructive one. We don't 
know for sure how old Charlie and Bill are, and she didn't either 
(hence the caveat at the beginning about maths). What we do know now 
is that they are relatively close in age--that there really isn't a 
gap. She may have guessed the years wrong off the top of her head, 
but the basic concept is still there. Using this understanding, we 
can say that Charlie must be "within a few years" of Percy and also 
of Bill. 

I think it's highly unlikely to the point of silliness that Charlie 
would still have been at Hogwarts when Harry arrived. They would 
have met, plain and simple. No two ways about it. The Quidditch 
conflicts just adds weight to the argument against Charlie being 
there.

However, if he left a year before, what would we have left? All the 
players are second or third year and have been playing at least a 
year before that year. That young team couldn't win the cup last 
couple of years, even with Charlie. Wood is frantic to put a team 
together but can't fill the Seeker slot, now abandonded by Charlie. 
Then Harry comes along. The rest is history.

Steve
who liked every response except the ages of the Weasleys one!!!