[HPforGrownups] Lifespans?

[manawydan]

No: HPFGUIDX 131750

Potioncat wondered again:
> You would think if he was too long ago, Sirius wouldn't know much
> about him. And for that matter, I wonder how Sirius knew PN was so
> unpopular?
>
> Here's how I came up with a possible date. For an arbitrary reason, I
> made most of the generations 30 years. That's on the older side. I
> also made Sirius' parents older than that, given that Mrs. Black is
> an elderly witch in her portrait.

30 years is the standard "generation" in our own world. It's difficult to
estimate how that would be modified in the WW. On one side, there are those
who'd point to the fact that wizards reach sexual maturity at the same time
as Muggles and, at least in Harry's case, can start having children early.
Others would say that early maturity doesn't necessarily mean that it's
socially typical to have children young, and that one of the reasons that we
see so few brothers/sisters in the books is that it's quite normal to have
children with long gaps in between. If that is so, then a WW generation
would be much long than a Muggle one, perhaps (if like me you assume that a
WW lifespan is Muggle x 3) as long as 90 years.

My only reason for leaning that way is that if you have a 30 year generation
for the WW, coupled with the extra lifespan, the WW would be up to its waist
in grandparents, great-grandparents, great-great-you get the picture.

I could of course be wrong. The books have one person's perspective
(Harry's), and a person with no surviving relatives at that.

If I'm right, it could date Black dad at 1870, granddad at 1780 and
great-granddad at 1690. He'd be my candidate for Phineas, for no particular
reason but that Phineas seems to have an 18th century "feel" to him. If that
were so, then, let's assume that he became Head at the age of 100, in 1790,
and held the position for 90 years until Dippet took over. That would mean
that he could have been Head while Dumbledore was a pupil!

> And, now it crosses my mind, those Blacks don't live very long lives,
> do they?

Depends how old Mrs B was when Sirius was born. She could perhaps have been
in her 120s. Scary. But JKR alone knows all.

hwyl

Ffred

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