Eileen Pince

[potioncat]

No: HPFGUIDX 155836

>
> Tinktonks:
> 
> > I'm not sure if this topic has been discussed before but 
> > I was just re-reading HBP and it jumped out at me that Snape's 
> > mum attended Hogwarts at around the same time as Tom Riddle.
> > This makes me wonder whether there is a link between the two.

Potioncat:
Well, Tinktonks, I'm very interested in Eileen, but not many others 
are. Here's what I worked out for her. Keep in mind I'm using JKR's 
clues and we know how precise she is <g> and, I'm no better!

I make Eileen younger than Riddle. Here's my logic: HBP is set in 
school year 1996-1997. Fifty years ago is 1946-1947. Eileen looks 15 
in her picture, so would have been born in 1931-1932. She was between 
27--29 when Severus was born depending on whether he was born in 1959 
or 1960. According to other sources, McGonagall was born in 1925 and 
Riddle was born in 1926 or 1927. So, yes there would have been some 
overlap with those 2. The other DE names from that period could be 
closer to Eileen's age.

I was very comfortable with this information and was ready to post 
until I saw the next post on the thread:
 
> houyhnhnm:
> 
> I am highly suspicious about the assumption that Eileen 
> Prince attended Hogwarts in the 1940s.  In fact I am highly 
> suspicious about everything relating to the Half Blood 
> Prince even though the mystery appears to have been cleared 
> up at the end of book 6.  It's not that I have an alternative 
> theory.  It's just that bearing in mind the current discussion 
> about the unreliable narrator device, I can't help thinking 
> about the extent to which the reader has been manipulated 
> with respect to the HBP.
> snip

> OR there's the possibility that we have been set up for 
> a really big shocker.  I, for one, am keeping my fingers 
> crossed.  The fact that I can't imagine, at this point, 
> how Rowling will pull it off, will make it all the tastier 
> when the time comes.

Potioncat:

Oh, my. You could be right. Now I have to go give that some thought---
and after all that math too!

(I really wish I could say something stronger than "Oh, my", but I 
have a reputation to uphold.)

Here's a link to an essay about Eileen for those who are interested:

http://www.fictionalley.org/authors/jotwo/COE01.html