In honor of the release of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part II, I am going to ramble on about something that has bothered me for a while: How old is Hermione? Here's what we know:
Hermione started at Hogwarts the same year as Harry (source: Sorcerer's Stone; Hermione is sorted by the Sorting Hat, making her a first-year student)
Hermione's birthday is in September (source: Prisoner of Azkaban; Hermione herself states this)
Hermione is older than Harry (sources: Half-Blood Prince; Hermione takes the Apparition exam with Ron, and one had to be 17 on or before the end of April to take it. Harry was still only 16 at that point. Deathly Hallows; Hermione is one of the decoy Harrys, and it is stated that all of the decoys are of age (that is to say, 17 or older) while Harry is still only 16 at that point of the story.)
The only way for all three of these things to be true is if Hermione turned 12 the first September she attended Hogwarts, which would mean either she started school a year late (and with her brains/magic skills, this is unlikely) or you have to already be 11 on your first day of school. But then there's Angelina Johnson. Angelina turns 17 in Goblet of Fire, as do Fred & George. All three are in their 6th year at this point (Fred & George leave the school halfway through their final year in Order of the Phoenix, and Angelina states in the same book that it is her last year as well). However--Angelina's birthday is in October, and the Weasley twins were born in April; both of these facts are stated in Goblet of Fire. So unless Angelina skipped a grade, she was only 10 when she started at Hogwarts, not 11.
Now, Ralph has argued that the re-lived hours via the Time Turner (see Prisoner of Azkaban) is the reason for the increased age, however I disagree for several reasons, not the least of which is she didn't re-live a whole year, only a few hours per school day in order to attend extra classes. Presuming 9 repeated hours per day x 20 days per month x 10 months gives you only 75 days added to your age (9 x 20 = 180, x 10 = 1800 hours, divided by 24 hours = 75). While that might make her older than Harry, it still wouldn't make her old enough to take the Apparition exam when Ron does.
And for those of you who have made it this far, today's photo is of my MIL's pear tree, taken over 4th of July weekend.
Cut-off dates for kindergarten can vary widely. Perhaps the cutoff is in September, and she just barely missed it. Our kindergarten cutoff is "5 before September 1st", so September birthdays end up being the oldest in their classes.
ReplyDeleteSo, perhaps you start Hogwarts when you normally would have started 6th grade.
Speaking of school, what do wizarding families do for school before Hogwarts? Is there wizard elementary school, or homeschool?
Now see, I thought of that, but then Angelina would have been a year older than the Weasley twins since she has an October birthday. Doesn't work. One of the books (can't recall which right now; I think it's Deathly Hallows) mentions that wizarding families have the choice of teaching their children at home rather than sending them to Hogwarts or other magic school, so I imagine that's what they do prior to them being 11.
ReplyDelete