JKR Chat: Weasley Ages

[justcarol67]

No: HPFGUIDX 92137

Debbie wrote: 
> I don't think it makes sense for Charlie to have left early.  For one 
> thing, based on what we learned about career qualifications in OOP, I 
> think it's quite unlikely that Charlie could have qualified for his 
> job with the dragons had he not earned his Newts in Care of Magical 
> Creatures.  The twins, on the other hand, left to become 
> entrepreneurs, and didn't need credentials.
> 
> The possibility that the Quidditch Cup wasn't played Charlie's last 
> year seems more appealing to me, except that it doesn't explain why 
> Charlie wasn't at Hogwarts in PS/SS, and it means that Gryffindor 
> hadn't won the Cup since a time before Charlie left.
> 
> Debbie
> polishing up her application to assist JKR in revising the series to 
> eliminate Flints such as this


Carol:
First, I agree that Charlie would have needed his NEWts to qualify for
such an exotic and dangerous job, and certainly he would have needed
to be at least seventeen to be hired for it. I also think it's
unlikely that the greatest quidditch player the school had seen in
many years, captain of his team as well, would have left the school
for any reason. (Look at Oliver Wood.)

But even if Charlie did leave  a year early, he still, by JKR's
calculations, would have been seventeen when Ron was eleven. Yet the
Gryffindor team had last won the cup seven years before SS/PS--meaning
that it was won when Charlie was ten, before he even entered the
school! Something isn't right here, and I think it's JKR's math
(combined with a spur-of-the moment response). Clearly it's not
something she's thought about. In other words, I agree with Debbie:
It's a Flint and nothing but a Flint.

IMO, Charlie was in his seventh year (and seventeen years old) seven
years before SS/PS, making him nine years older than Percy and
thirteen years older than Ron.

(BTW, if the seven years before comment is from CoS, just subtract one
year from my calculation of his age.)

Carol (who isn't good at math, either, but knows an inconsistency when
she sees one and would love to join Debbie in assisting JKR with her
revisions)