Is Hermione Older or Younger than Harry?

[potioncat]

No: HPFGUIDX 92538

Ali wrote: 
But, I suppose for me it riles because it should 
> have been such an easy thing to have got right from the start. 
There 
> could have been one sentence from Hermione in which she had said 
> that of course she should really have been in the next year, or 
some 
> such statement, and I would never have questioned it. I just don't 
> think that the Hermione of PS would have kept her young age a 
> secret. I also think it's harder than ever to argue that Hogwarts 
> runs on different terms to English schools when prior to Hogwarts, 
> the kids were either educated at home, or in Muggle primary 
schools.




Potioncat here:
I'm a very vague person when it comes to numbers.  I'm constantly 
getting my children's ages wrong. (And I call myself their mother, I 
get names wrong too.)  So these age problems with the Weasleys and 
Hermione do not bother me.  After all, look at the amazing details 
in the clues that do matter to the story.

I think though, that Hermione would not have gone out of her way to 
let the others know she was younger, given the hard time she had 
fitting in and fighting her "Miss Know It All" reputation that 
followed  her, I think into CoS. For all we know, she finished grade 
school early (Or is that allowed in England?) or, she was advanced 
enough that she simply left school early to go into Hogwarts.

Potioncat, who thinks JKR has a lot in common with Molly.