Age of Majority

[Geoff Bannister]

No: HPFGUIDX 155249

--- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, Kemper <iam.kemper at ...> wrote:

Carol:
> > > So, yes, it's all arbitrary, in RL or the WW. But why did JKR choose
> > > 17 instead of 18 as the age of majority in the WW? I think it's
> > > because she gave Harry her own birthday (conveniently making him a
> > > single age throughout each school year, 11 in year 1, 12 in year 2 and
> > > so on). Even though there's apparently not going to be a year 7 at
> > > Hogwarts (unless JKR is messing with our expectations, which I
> > > wouldn't put past her), Harry will still be 17 for most of Book 7.

Geoff:
> > If I might be infuriatingly, nastily and pedantically pedantic, the cut-off
> > date for admission to a specific school year in the UK is 31st August, so
> > he isn't a single age throughout each school year, so there.
> > :-)

> Kemper:
> Geoff, you weren't nasty or pedantic, but you were infuriatingly unclear.
> 
> Are you saying that Harry wasn't the same whole-number age from the
> ever-Monday September 1 to June 30 of each year he's attended
> Hogwarts?
> 
> I don't get it.  American it down for me.  Please.
> :-D
> 
> Kemper, agreeing with Carol that Harry is 11 throughout the SCHOOL
> year of PS and that he'll be 17 throughout the SCHOOL year in the
> upcoming book whether he's actually in school or not.

Geoff:
I am about to go off on holiday for 12 days and will have no access to 
the group during that time so I felt a wicked need to stir things 
a bit. :-)

The UK position is that the school year in administrative and legal terms 
runs from 1st September in obne year to 31st August the next.

So, technically, Harry was 11 for most of his First Year at Hogwarts but 
that year ran until 31/08/92 so he became 12 while still in his First Year, 
though of course 31st July fell within the school holidays. And that pattern 
can be extrapolated into his remaining years in the school except for years 
where a pupil might leave - after the Fifth Year (if not continuing into the 
Sixth) or Upper Sixth - when they leave at the end of their last examinations 
and cease to be on the school roll.

Putting it in slightly more modern terms, Harry would be at Hogwarts from 
Year 7 to Year 11 (OWLs year) and then in the Sixth Form. Hogwarts was a 
little behind the times in 1991 in still referring to First Year etc. England 
and Wales generally went over to all-through year numbering in the late 
1980s/early 1990s.