Is Hermione Older or Younger than Harry?

[mongo62aa]

No: HPFGUIDX 92511

--- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, "Robert Jones" 
<jones.r.h.j at w...> wrote:
> We know from the books that Harry was born on July 31st and that 
> Hermione was born in September (her parents gave her an early 
> birthday present so she could buy stuff in Diagon Alley).
> 
> But was she born in the same year as Harry or the previous year?  
> That is, is she one or two months younger or ten or eleven months 
> older?  No great plot point turns on this, I was just wondering.
> 
> Bobby

This is a subject of considerable dispute.  'Officially', she is 
younger, according to the CoS DVD timeline, apparently endorsed by 
JKR.  My problem with this is that this timeline is, in my opinion, 
wrong.  She did NOT write it herself, it was taken from the Harry 
Potter Lexicon, which had put it together according to their own 
preconceived ideas.  We know this, not only because they are EXACTLY 
alike, except for one date involving Tom Riddle's early years, but 
because the HP Lexicon had made a mistake on which day of the week a 
particular event occured (Friday instead of Saturday), and the CoS 
DVD timeline also had the incorrect day.  In addition, information 
given out by JKR on the March 4 2004 chat contradicts several dates 
in the DVD timeline.  So I do not consider the CoS DVD timeline to 
be canon.

As far as I can tell, the decision of whether Hermione is younger or 
older than Ron and Harry is emotional.  Those who want Hermione to 
be the youngest chose the later year of birth.  Those who don't care 
if she is younger or older go by what evidence there is, and tend to 
choose the earlier year of birth, making her the oldest.

The evidence with canon concerns known birthdates.  Harry was born 
on July 31, and remains eleven all through his first year.  In GoF, 
Angelina Johnson, a sixth-year, turns seventeen sometime before 
October 31.  The cut-off date must lie between those two dates.

Almost all of the U.K. has an August 31 cut-off.  If the Hogwarts 
cut-off date were different, then Muggle-born, and non-homeschooled 
magical-born, students born between September 1st and the Hogwarts 
cut-off date would end up with one year less of muggle schooling 
than the other muggle-borns.  This would be a considerable 
disadvantage for muggleborn and non-home-schooled magic-born 
students born between those dates.  The fairest cut-off date for 
Hogwarts students is August 31.  This is also the only possible cut-
off date where all the students are the 'correct' age during the 
Welcoming Feast.

In my opinion, Hermione is the oldest of the trio.

Bill