Tom Riddle and history - 1937 to 1944 - The Hogwarts Years

[Geoff]

No: HPFGUIDX 191072



--- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, "Steve" <bboyminn at ...> wrote:

Steve:
> > > Here is probably the most authoritative resource on all things Harry Potter -

> > > The HP Lexicon -

> > > According to this -

> > > " Tom Marvolo Riddle, Jr./Lord Voldemort:  Born of a witch mother (Merope Gaunt) and a Muggle father (Tom Riddle, Sr.) on December 31, 1926 [year is approximate]. ..." 

> > > Kids typically start school at age 11, to 1926 + 11 = 1937, and they go to school for 7 years, so 1937 + 7 = 1944. 
 
Geoff:
> > Hmm. I shall have to contact the Lexicon on that one.
> > 
> > At that point in time, all children in the UK went to ***senior*** 
> > school at 11 and many stayed only 4-5 years. ...

Steve:
> With all due respect Geoff, we are not talking about 'any' school, we are specifically talking about Hogwarts, and we know specifically how Hogwarts works. 

Geoff:
With all due respect, Steve, the quote was "kids typically start school at age 
11..." Perhaps it should say "senior school" because even if the Lexicon is 
referring to Hogwarts alone - and the quote doesn't imply that, then the 
pupils have to have been at school somewhere else. 

The Lexicon figure is still wrong because to enter the First Year, a child 
has to have reached the age of 11 in the preceding year. Tom Riddle was 
born on 31st December so, using the date of 1926, he would be 11 on 
31/12/37 and so would not enter Hogwarts until September 1938 so, 
assuming that he stayed right through to Second Year Sixth and NEWTS (if 
they were the relevant exam at the time) he would have left in 1945 which 
is, of course, the year in which Grindelwald was defeated and I wonder 
whether JKR, tongue in cheek, tied the two together deliberately?

We can work on probabilities.

In 191065, I stated:
The opening of the Chamber of Secrets took place in Harry's Second Year
which places it in the 1992/93 academic year; if this was exactly 50 years
after the previous opening - which it might have been symbolically, then
that was in 1942/43, certainly during World War II.

Tom Riddle was a prefect so was either a Fifth Year or in the Sixth Form 
which puts him in one of three school years(!).

However, if we work on the data above, it looks as if he was a Fifth Year 
prefect and this thread should be re-titled "1938-1945 - The Hogwarts 
Years".