Precious little to celebrate for 11 years...

[huntergreen_3]

No: HPFGUIDX 128726

I was reading through SS for the first time in awhile, and something 
struck me. Its mentioned twice that the Voldemort times lasted eleven 
years. [first was in the above quote, and second when he says "for 
eleven years I have been trying to persuade people to call him by his 
proper name: /Voldemort/."]
Firstly, I was wondering what exactly marked the beginning of the 
eleven years. Its so specific, it could have easily been rounded to a 
decade or ten years, but it wasn't, so it makes me think that 
Voldemort first "showed his true colors" in a big act, which possibly 
incited all the fear surrounding him at once rather than little-by-
little. People have been afraid to even say his name for eleven 
years, I wonder what he did that made him so prominent. If there 
wasn't a big act, but rather a large number of quiet disappearences 
and rumors, but never anything large to mark a beginning of 
his "reign", why would Dumbledore be so specific?

Secondly, I did some basic math with those years and came up with 
something interesting. According to JKR, Sirius (and by implication, 
the other three mauraders and Lily and Snape), was 22 at the time 
Dumbledore said that, which means at the start of Voldemort's rule, 
they were in their first year at Hogwarts. I guess its pretty 
obvious, but I had never made that connection before. IMO, this sheds 
a lot of light on the relationship between Snape and James, and why 
Sirius made a specific point of mentioning that James hated the dark 
arts. If Snape was as into the dark art and knew as many curses as 
Sirius suggested, it makes me wonder who taught him them and why. 
Were his parents DE's or just concerned about the coming days and 
taught him those to protect himself? Considering the choices he made 
later in life, I'd guess the former. After all, being into the dark 
arts in that sort of climate would be something you'd do better to 
hide. Its easy to see why Snape would be so unpopular (just like 
people of certain races have problems when there are wars in their--
or their ancestor's--home countries). 

Also, this means that Lucius Malfoy was 16 when Voldemort first rose 
to power, and the other DE's who showed up at the graveyard and the 
DoM were all most likely still in school as well. Was he already 
recruiting them? Surely they weren't *already* active DEs, unless 
they dropped out of school (probably not, since they weren't *open* 
DEs). Voldemort must not have been as successful as everyone thought 
then, because it appears all of his original followers either died in 
prison or were killed before they made it there. Were they the 
parents of the current DEs? 

I'd guess that the war going on when James et al were in school is 
why they all ended up in the Order (unlike Molly and Arthur who 
weren't in the original Order even though they were older and, 
presumably, more experienced). Just as Dumbledore has a beyond 
headmaster relationship with some of pupils now (not just Harry but 
Hermione and the Weaslys), it makes sense that he would have had 
acted similarily during the first war. James and Lily were only 22 
and had faced Voldemort personally more than once, that's pretty 
young by any standard to be involved so heavily in the war. 
Dumbledore must have recruited them right out of school.


Oh, and not really related to the above, but I did find something 
else of note in the first chapter of SS/PS:

[chpt 1, pg 12; us hb edi]
"Dumbledore gave a great sniff as he took a golden watch from his 
pocket and examined it. It was a very odd watch. It had twelve hands 
but no numbers; instead little planets were moving around the edge."

Okay, what the heck is that thing? Am I right in saying it hasn't 
been mentioned since? Perhaps (and just throwing this out) its the 
way the Order members communicate? He did look at it and comment that 
Hagrid was late. 

-HunterGreen (Rebecca, who apologizes if that was all a bunch of 
rambles, its very late and I haven't posted in a looong time).