Is Hermione Older or Younger than Harry?

[serenadust]

No: HPFGUIDX 92585

> --- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, "snapesmate" 
> wrote:
> 
> >> Yes, JKR actually stated hermione was 10 when she started at 
> Hogwarts during an interview.  Of course, I now cannot find the 
> confounded thing.  I have researched so many over the last 2 days 
> that for the life of me I cannot remember where I read the 
> transcript of the chat.  I do remember it was a webchat though!  I 
> will keep looking for it because I know we all like "proof" in the 
> way of dates and "locations" of chats and interviews, LOL!  Not 
> proof as in we do not believe each other, but as in we like to 
> reference it for ourselves...>>>


I'd like to add a "me too" to the request to anyone who could 
provide a link to a webchat, newspaper/magazine interview or any 
authoritative source (other than that confounded DVD timeline <g>) 
where JKR directly addresses this issue.  Of all the spirited 
discussion topics we've had on HPfGU, the ones dealing with 
Hermione's age when she began Hogwarts are probably among the most 
trivial as far as the plot's concerned.  Yet, something about it 
really seems to touch a nerve with many listmembers.  I used to 
think that it was only shippers who had some strong feeling that she 
just *had* to be younger than Harry for the ship to "feel right", 
but now I just think that it's more general frustration with trying 
to get JKR's world to fit together coherently.

Ali wrote:
 
> I think a lot of people would be grateful if you could find that 
> interview - largely to shut me up about Hermione's age. Until the 
> timeline was published on the CoS DVD, I was aware of no *proof* 
of 
> Hermione's age. I could be wrong, but I don't think that it had 
ever 
> been said. Certainly, the Lexicon had placed Hermione's birthday 
as 
> after Harry's, but that was not cast in stone - at least, not 
until 
> JKR confirmed the timeline.



Well, *I* don't want you to shut up about Hermione's age because I 
absolutely agree with you!  I know that the Lexicon has placed 
her birthday in 1980, but I believe that the only canon basis for 
this was Dumbledore's statement in PoA about Harry and Hermione 
being "two 13 year old wizards".  I sympathize with Steve's task in 
addressing this topic in the Lexicon and needing to draw the line 
somewhere in what consititues "canon" support, but IMO this single 
statement is the weakest of evidence (although, it's really all 
there is at the moment in all 5 books).  After all, if we want to be 
technically correct, Hermione is not a wizard, she's a witch but no 
one would expect Dumbledore to have said "13 year old *witch* and 
wizard"; it's too clunky to read properly. By the same token, I 
don't really think we can reasonably expect Dumbledore to have 
memorized each student's birthdate and to carefully calibrate his 
statement, ie "a 13 year old wizard and 14 year old witch", so it's 
not unreasonable to assume that he would refer to all students in 
their third year as "13 year old wizards".

In addition, the fact that Angelina J. has her 17th birthday in 
October while she's in her 6th year, seems to be pretty persuasive 
evidence that Hogwarts is consistent with the British school 
system's August 31 cut-off date.  Otherwise, one has to assume a cut-
off between Sept. 19 (Hermione's birthday) and mid-October, and that 
simply doesn't make any sense, to me.

Ali wrote:
 
> I only reopened this argument up at the weekend, in post 92319. 
For 
> what it's worth, I now think that JKR would probably make Hermione 
> younger than Harry, because it would be easier to make up some 
> rationale for the Hogwarts school year being different to the 
> English school year or more probably that Hermione was a special 
> case, than it would be to admit that she didn't think the age 
thing 
> through.


I expect that you are probably right (unfortunately) in that JKR 
would do what you suggest, although I would think that the cleanest 
way out for her would be to say that Hermione's birthday is really 
August 29th, and leave it at that.  At least that way, she can still 
keep the same astrological sign (Virgo), if that actually matters to 
anyone.

Ali continued:

 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.

That's my sticking point as well.  I think that the reason so many 
American listmembers don't have a problem with thinking that she's a 
year younger is that schools in the US have wildly differing cutoff 
dates (state to state, public vs private) and tend to be fairly 
flexible about when they allow parents to enroll their kids in first 
grade.  As you've pointed out, this is not the case in the UK, and 
Hogwarts would have to follow the standard British schedule in order 
to accomodate all the muggle-born students.  It just doesn't make 
sense to me that Hermione was a unique case of early admission if it 
hasn't been specifically addressed in any of the five books so far.


Jo S., who's joined this discussion very late, but still insists 
on "old" Hermione until she gets a darn good explaination from JKR 
<g>