James's age

[Geoff Bannister]

No: HPFGUIDX 173270

--- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, Vincent Maston <vincent.maston.ml at ...> 
wrote:
>
> > mac_tire:
> > Can I make a very silly point related to your thoughtful post?
> > What is the deal with the middle-aged man in the Mirror of Erised
> > in the film of SS/PS? This has always driven me nuts. Harry's
> > father died at a very young age; when Harry was a baby, his
> > parents were very young adults. And while fictional characters
> > are often younger in the afterlife than they were at the time
> > of their death (Remus and Sirius are a good example), they are
> > never older -- they do not age in the afterlife to parallel
> > what their ages would've been had they lived.
> 
> Vincent :
> 
> No, but the miror of erised does not reflect facts, but desires.
> Harry is 11 when he sees the mirror, and he sees himself and his
> parents as they would be at that moment, had they not be killed.
> He therefore sees himself as a 11 year old boy surrounded by his
> 31 y.o. parents. I think.

Geoff:
Just to be picky, his parents were 21 when they were killed.

However, at that point, he didn't know how old they were and hadn't 
got any photos - until Hagrid got some for him at the end of PS so 
either his imagination or the Mirror supplied a suitable image.