Tonks's age: A possible solution RE: [the_old_crowd] Re: Snape the Half-Blood Pr

[annemehr]

--- In the_old_crowd at yahoogroups.com, "potioncat" <willsonkmom at m...>
wrote:
>
> 
> > 
> >Anne: Snape was born in 1959 or 1960 (based on a chat question).
  
> > Eileen:
> > I'm beginning to wonder if this isn't the fact to throw out. Like 
> the
> > other infamous age given in a chat: the Weasley eldest two's ages, 
> it
> > doesn't play very well with the rest of the text and it isn't 
> primary
> > canon. 

> > 
> Kathy W:
> I think we've narrowed it down to the most likely explanation: a 
> mistake in math or at least, a mistake in birth order. I think the 
> order of Andromeda, Bella, Cissy works better, sort of like naming 
> storms.


Annemehr:
Having an idea, I looked up the chat in question; it's in the Red Nose
Day chat of March, 2001:

http://www.quick-quote-quill.org/articles/2001/0301-bbc-rednose.htm

>>How old is Prof. Dumbledore and Prof. Snape?
>>JKR: Dumbledore's about 150 years old... Wizards have a longer life
>>expectancy than us Muggles. Snape's 35 or 36

Going along with the maths/chat concerns, suppose in typing that
answer, JKR really is remembering the age she made Snape to be while
she was planning the *first book.*  I mean, does anyone really think,
with every book she writes, she carefully puts into her mind the new
ages of her adult characters?  Maybe, on the fly, she added a few
years to Snape's PS/SS age before typing, and maybe not.  Since the
chat was less than a year after GoF, if she actually gave a PS/SS age
for Snape there, it would make him more like 38 or 39 in GoF.  He'd be
only about a year behind Lucius if that's the case.

I believe that chat answer was the basis for the Lexicon setting the
ages for the Marauders, as well.

Annemehr

Er, my math is okay here, I hope...