Can we trust Sirius? WAS RE: Tonks's age: A possible solution RE: [the_old_crowd]

[Eileen Rebstock]

Amanda:
> Can we trust anything that comes form Sirius though?  He spent 15
> years in Azkaban and in my experience men don't generally remember
> date details that specifically anyway. (No offence boys.)  Why would
> he remember how old he was when he last saw a cousin he despised?

You've hit on one of the *other* questions that plagues me. 

Sirius's account of recent history compared to the OotP canon. It makes
so little sense. 

I can accept that he's a bit vague on details, like the date you
mention. In fact, that was my initial reaction to that particular date.
But the narrative demands that we take the essence of what Sirius says
seriously, right? I mean, we can't just start deciding he's making up
his ever having a cousin named Andromeda, and is under the delusion
Tonks is his cousin's daughter, and that burn on the tapestry is
actually just an accident. 

But oh dear. The downfall of Barty Crouch.

The downfall of Barty Crouch which apparently took eight years to happen
after the incident that Sirius said immediately triggered it. 

I think Elkins threw her hands up at that point and said it made no
sense anymore. I've been more resilient. 

Eileen