Rating:
G
House:
HP InkPot
Genres:
Essay Fandom
Era:
Children of Characters in the HP novels
Spoilers:
Deadly Hallows (Through Ch. 36) Epilogue to Deathly Hallows
Stats:
Published: 12/07/2007
Updated: 12/07/2007
Words: 4,073
Chapters: 1
Hits: 1,775

The Ages of the Next Generation Characters

SwissMiss

Story Summary:
A very important treatise for writers of Next Generation fics. Discusses the ages of all the Next Gen characters, with implications for their interactions, including ships.

Chapter 01 - The Ages of the Next Gen Characters

Posted:
12/07/2007
Hits:
1,584

The Ages of the Next Generation Characters

After the publication of Deathly Hallows (DH), it was only a matter of days, perhaps hours, before the first 'Next Gen' fan fics were being posted, centered on the lives of the children whom we are introduced to in the Epilogue. With those fics, certain ideas regarding characterization and ships of the Next Gen characters have become entrenched in the fanon, even though the actual canon information we have on these children is sketchy at best; in some cases, we know little more than their names. It is the purpose of this essay to discuss the possible birth dates of each of the canon Next Gen characters, questioning some fanon interpretations, and give brief analyses of what the implications would be both for their own lives (including possible love interests), and for the lives of their parents.

First, we need to lay the groundwork for many of the calculations to be made.

Basic Assumptions

Timeline

For years, the events of the Harry Potter books were correlated to real-world years based on the fact that Nearly Headless Nick was killed in 1492 and celebrated his 500th Deathday party on Halloween in Chamber of Secrets, or 1992. In DH, this timeline was further confirmed by the death date engraved on James and Lily Potter's headstones: October 31, 1981. DH therefore was set in 1997-1998, and the Epilogue (nineteen years later) showed a scene taking place in 2017. The actual year is not important for figuring out the ages and birthdates of the characters, but it makes the calculations easier to plug in the numbers.

First Day of Term

It will be assumed that the first day of Hogwarts term is September 1, and further, that a child must be eleven years old on or before that date in order to attend the school, or, in other words, that their eleventh birthday falls between or on September 2 of the previous year and September 1 of the year on which they begin their first year at Hogwarts. It will also be assumed that there are no students who are held back a year, nor any who skip a year. That is, all second-year students will be twelve on September 1, all third-year students thirteen, and so on.

Gestational Period

It will be assumed that witches' pregnancies are similar to Muggles' in duration: 266 days from fertilization, on average (source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pregnancy). It is clear that this is only a rough estimate, and that a normal pregnancy may last up to two weeks shorter or longer. In addition, premature babies may be born up to ten weeks early and survive. However, for the sake of simplification, calculations made here will use the 266-day pregnancy as the rule.

In order to calculate the date of conception, which may be of interest to some fan fic writers, one would take the birthdate and go back 266 days, or, for ease of counting, count forward three months and one week, remembering to adjust the year accordingly. So, for example, if a child is born on July 31, he was conceived on November 7 of the previous year. There is a pregnancy calculator here (http://www.pregnancy.org/pregnancycalendar/) that can also be used for ease of reference.

Tip for Fic Writing

As mentioned, the actual pregnancy may last a bit shorter or longer, so it is nice to think that Harry, born on July 31, might have actually been conceived on October 31, Halloween. You might want to adjust dates of conception in similar ways for your own fics.

Parents' Ages

  • Harry Potter's birthdate is July 31, 1980. The date is given in PS/SS, chapter eight, when Harry reads about the Gringotts break-in which happened on July 31 and then says, "That Gringotts break-in happened on my birthday!" The year is deduced from the dates on his parents' headstones.

  • Ginny Weasley's birthdate is never mentioned in the books. All that is known from the books is that she is one year below Harry at Hogwarts, meaning that she was born between September 2, 1980 and September 1, 1981. J.K. Rowling's website (http://www.jkrowling.com/) gives Ginny's birthdate as August 11, 1981, and that's as good a guess as any.

  • Ron Weasley's birthdate is March 1, 1980. The date is given in HBP, ch. 18: "'Happy birthday, Ron,' said Harry, when they were woken on the first of March by Seamus and Dean leaving noisily for breakfast." The year is deduced as above.

  • Hermione Granger's birthdate is likewise never given in the books, although it must be 1979-1980 based on when she began Hogwarts. Rowling said in an interview that her birthday was on September 19. (http://www.mugglenet.com/aolchat1.shtml) The year is then deduced to be 1979.

  • Draco Malfoy's birthdate is also never given in the books. He must be born in 1979-1980 to be in the same year at Hogwarts as Harry. His birthday was announced on Rowling's website as June 5, and on the Black Family Tree document, Draco's birth year was pinpointed to 1980.

Children of Harry Potter and Ginny Weasley

  • Lily Potter

The first child we meet in the Epilogue is Lily Potter, and the first thing we learn about her after the fact that her hair is red and that Harry is her father, is that she has "two years" until she can go to Hogwarts. That means that she is nine years old. Her birthday must therefore fall between September 2, 2007 and September 1, 2008. She would have been conceived between December 10, 2006 and December 9, 2007.

Implications for Harry and Ginny

This would mean that Ginny was 26 or 27 when Lily was born, and Harry 27 or 28. Lily is the youngest child of Harry and Ginny, so once she is at Hogwarts, they will have an empty house for most of the year. This would give both parents more time to concentrate on their careers after that point.

  • Albus Severus Potter


The middle child of Harry and Ginny, Albus Severus is beginning his first year at Hogwarts in the Epilogue. This means that he is already (or will turn) eleven on September 1, and that he was born between September 2, 2005 and September 1, 2006. He would therefore have been conceived between December 10, 2004 and December 9, 2005. Ginny would have been 24 or 25 when Albus was born; Harry would have been 25 or 26.

Albus' known peers in his year at Hogwarts would be his cousin, Rose Weasley, and Draco Malfoy's son, Scorpius.

  • James Potter, II

In the Epilogue, James is returning to Hogwarts. This means that he is between twelve and seventeen years old (second to seventh year). To me, it seems that it is suggested that James is in second year, because Ginny says in the Epilogue that she wrote to James three times a week "last year", but does not mention any previous years at Hogwarts. However, this is pure speculation, and might have no bearing on James' year at school. In any event, James would be born between September 2, 1999 and September 1, 2005. That would make him conceived, at the earliest, December 10, 1998, and at the latest, December 9, 2004. That is a large range and may have some implications for his friendships with other Next Gen characters, as well as for his parents.

First Possibility: Old James

If James is going into seventh year in the Epilogue, Ginny would have been eighteen or nineteen when James was born, and James thus possibly conceived during her last year at Hogwarts. Harry would have been nineteen or twenty when James was born. I like this possibility, but there is one potentially problematic issue which needs to be addressed:

J.K. Rowling said in the Bloomsbury webchat on 30 July 2007, that "[a]fter a few years as a celebrated player for the Holyhead Harpies, Ginny retired to have her family and to become the Senior Quidditch correspondent at the Daily Prophet!" This seems to indicate that Ginny did not have any children until after she had played Quidditch for a few years, and would rule out the possibility of James being any older than about fourteen in the Epilogue. However, not everyone accepts everything in Rowling's interviews as canonical fact; several things which she has said in interviews turned out differently in the books (like Hermione's middle name, said in an interview to be Jane and later published in DH as Jean), and she has made contradictory statements from one interview to another (when speaking of who Luna married, for example). For this reason, Rowling's interview answers, when not supported by published information, are not reliable and may be taken as suggestions at best. It is also possible to interpret the above quote in such a way that Ginny could have had James at a young age, given him to her mother (for example) to take care of while she played professional Quidditch, and then decided to retire and dedicate herself to raising her son (and subsequent children).

Plot Bunny

This could make for an interesting exploration of Ginny completing her last year of education while pregnant, or perhaps even not completing her education because of the pregnancy. Did Harry and Ginny get married before James was born, or after? How did Harry feel about going right from defeating the Dark Lord to having a wife and family to provide for?

If James is that old, then he is not likely to spend much time with his brother, Albus, his cousin, Rose Weasley, nor Draco Malfoy's son, Scorpius, all of whom are definitely first years in the Epilogue. Depending on how old Victoire Weasley is, James might be a confidant of hers, or even a contender for her affection and rival of Teddy Lupin.

Another Possible Ship

I haven't seen any James II/Teddy Lupin fics yet, but as it is possible that James is just one year younger than Teddy, a James II/Teddy pairing is canonically just as plausible as James II/Scorpius, or any other ship pairing James II with one of the younger Next Gen characters.

Second Possibility: Young James

On the other, more likely in my opinion, end of the spectrum, Ginny would have been 23 or 24 when James was born, and Harry 24 or 25. Ginny and Harry would both have finished their educations and vocational training, and possibly have been married for a couple of years and been able to enjoy some time together before the babies came along. This scenario would fit in best with Rowling's suggestion that Ginny pursued a Quidditch career for "a few years" right after Hogwarts.

James as a second-year might easily spend time with his brother, Albus, and their cousin, Rose. He would also have more opportunities to interact with Scorpius Malfoy, even if they are not in the same year.

Third Possibility: James in the Middle

If James II is somewhere in the middle, say fourth or fifth year, then he would probably have his own set of friends and not interact much with any of the other Next Gen characters (unless Victoire is also made younger than fanon usually claims, see below). In this scenario, Ginny could still have played Quidditch for two or three years before James was born.

Children of Ron Weasley and Hermione Granger

  • Rose Weasley

Rose, wearing "brand-new Hogwarts robes" and as yet unSorted, is a first-year in the Epilogue, just as her cousin, Albus Potter, is. For that reason, she has the same possible range of birthdates as he: between September 2, 2005 and September 1, 2006. She would also have been conceived between December 10, 2004 and December 9, 2005.

Rose's known age-group peers are her cousin, Albus Potter, and Draco Malfoy's son, Scorpius.

Implications for Ron and Hermione

Hermione and Ron would both have been 25-26 when Rose was born. Although Hermione is several months older than Ron, the fact that Rose's birthday falls between their birthdays in the year means that they would both have been 25 at the earliest possible birthdate for Rose, and 26 at the latest possible birthdate. If Rose was born between Hermione's birthday (September 19, 2005) and Ron's birthday (March 1, 2006), then Hermione would have been 26 and Ron 25.

As Rose is the oldest child of Ron and Hermione, the fact that she was born when they were in their mid-twenties means that they were able to complete their educations and vocational training and establish themselves in their chosen careers, if any, before Rose was born.

  • Hugo Weasley

Hugo is the youngest child of Ron and Hermione. It is not stated in the Epilogue how old he is, but he must be younger than eleven, as he is not yet old enough to attend Hogwarts. Further, he must be old enough to talk, and to carry on an "animated discussion" with his cousin Lily on the subject of Hogwarts houses. This would make him at least four years old, to pick a reasonable number on the low end. So he is between four and ten years old. This would put his birthdate between September 2, 2006 and September 1, 2013, and his date of conception between December 10, 2005 and December 9, 2012. Hermione and Ron would have been between 26 and 33 years old when he was born.

If Hugo is at the upper end of his possible age range, he will begin Hogwarts the following year, and thus be in a similar peer group to Rose, Albus, and Scorpius. He would also be close in age to Lily Potter. If he is at the lower end of his possible age range, he would probably not interact much, if at all, with those characters, and in fact, if he is four years old in the Epilogue, then he will not attend Hogwarts at the same time as any of them except for Lily, who would be five years older than him.

Child of Bill Weasley and Fleur Delacour

  • Victoire Weasley

Despite being called "the eldest daugher of Bill and Fleur Weasley" by Rowling in an interview (http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/19959323/%7C), there is not any mention of Victoire's age in the Epilogue. The HPWiki (http://harrypotter.wikia.com/wiki/Victoire_Weasley) and Wikipedia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Weasley_family#Victoire_Weasley) both state, without giving a source, that Victoire was in her sixth or seventh year of Hogwarts in the Epilogue, but this is completely without foundation, either in book canon or author interviews.

The formulation "eldest daughter", rather than "eldest child", also gives rise to the possibility, and in fact likelihood, that there was an older boy in the family, and that he was the "eldest child". Victoire might even have two or more older brothers.

All we know is that Victoire was going to Hogwarts for the 2017-2018 school year, and that she was on the receiving end of a very thorough kiss from Teddy Lupin. As the adults did not seem very bothered by this, it seems likely that Victoire was at least fourteen or fifteen years old, but it is also possible that she was younger, even as young as a first-year student. As a part-Veela, she might be an early bloomer, and this could be known to the adults. In fact, this might also explain nicely why James II is so excited about seeing Victoire and Teddy kissing, but the adults are not: He might assume that Victoire, as an eleven-year-old (or twelve, or thirteen), is too young to be kissing like that, not realizing that her Veela genes actually make her more mature than her years.

In the event, all we can say for certain is that Victoire Weasley was anywhere from eleven to seventeen years old in the Epilogue scene. This would put her birthdate anywhere in the range from September 2, 1999 to September 1, 2006.

The fact that Victoire's name means "victory" seems to indicate that she was born or at least conceived soon after the defeat of Voldemort. However, Victoire could not have been conceived any earlier than December 10, 1998, many months after the final battle scene in DH; her earliest possible birthdate, September 2, 1999, is over a year after Voldemort's death. Victoire's name could still refer to the victory over Voldemort, even if she was born two, three, or more, years later, or it could just be a name that her parents liked. She might also have been born on V-V Day (Victory over Voldemort, a potential annual holiday) in 2000, 2001, or any other year.

Having said that, there is no reason for Victoire not to be seventeen and entering her seventh year at Hogwarts in the Epilogue scene, and if so, she would be in the same general age category as Teddy Lupin (which would make sense if he is kissing her passionately).

On the other hand, Victoire could also be a first-year, and thus be younger than James Potter, II, and in the same classes as Albus Potter, Rose Weasley, and Scorpius Malfoy.

Child of Draco Malfoy

  • Scorpius Malfoy

Scorpius Malfoy, the son of Draco and an unknown witch, was also eleven years old in the Epilogue scene. He therefore has the same possible range of birth- and conception dates as Albus Potter and Rose Weasley: born between September 2, 2005 and September 1, 2006 and conceived between December 10, 2004 and December 9, 2005.

Siblings?

It appears in the Epilogue that Harry, Ron, and their wives haven't seen Draco in the intervening years since Voldemort's defeat, since they take note of his receding hairline and have clearly never laid eyes on Scorpius before. This would seem to indicate that Draco does not have any older children attending Hogwarts, otherwise Harry and Ginny would have seen him in previous years when they brought James II to the train. Likewise, since there are no other children at the station with Draco and his family, it seems likely that Scorpius is an only child. However, it could also be that there are other, younger children and that they simply did not come along to see Scorpius off.

Implications for Draco

Draco would have been 25 or 26 when Scorpius was born. If Scorpius is his first-born, that means that Draco had time to complete his education and vocational training before becoming a father.

Child of Remus Lupin and Nymphadora Tonks

  • Teddy Lupin

Teddy Lupin is the only Next Gen character mentioned in the main part of DH, and the only one for whom we have a fairly accurate birthdate. In DH, chapter 25, it is on "one blustery April evening", when Harry is at Shell Cottage, that Lupin comes for a visit to announce Teddy's birth. That means that Teddy was born between April 1 and 30, 1998, and conceived sometime between July 8 and August 8, 1997.

Remus and Tonks' Relationship

One fanon interpretation is that Remus only married Tonks because she was pregnant. We know that they were already married on the day that the Order came to move Harry from the Dursleys', because Tonks told Harry and showed him her ring (DH, chapter 4). But was she already pregnant?

The move must have happened on July 27th (which was a Saturday, according to DH, chapter 1), because the day after, at the Burrow, Harry said, "The Trace'll break on the thirty-first.... That means I only need to stay here four days." (DH, chapter 6) Counting the day he is speaking and his birthday, he is therefore speaking on the 28th. That means that Tonks and Remus were married prior to the 27th of July. Could Tonks have gotten pregnant, found out, told Remus, and gotten married in that time? It is possible, but it would have been close.

Assuming that Tonks had a normal and Muggle-average menstrual period of twenty-eight days, she would have first suspected she could be pregnant at the earliest two weeks following the event which led to conception, when she missed her period. Assuming that she either did a home pregnancy test herself, or had one done by a medical professional, she could have known whether she was pregnant that day, or more likely the next day, since that early in a pregnancy it is recommended to use the first urine of the morning. She could have told Remus immediately, possibly even had him accompany her to the doctor (or Healer, Medi-Witch, Mid-Witch, or whatever medical personnel seems appropriate). They could have gotten married the next day. If she got pregnant on July 8th, there would have been just over two weeks until the Order assembled at Harry's house, so just barely enough time for her to find out she was pregnant and get married quickly.

However, the time line is very tight, and it is more likely in my opinion that they got married first, in the first couple of weeks of July, and that she then got pregnant during that first month of marriage, before August 8.

Teddy at Hogwarts

Teddy would have attended Hogwarts from September, 2009, to June, 2016. This means that in the Epilogue, he has already been out of school for a year and three months. He did not just complete his schooling the previous June, so he must have been at least two years ahead of Victoire, not just one.

Conclusion

We only know for certain the ages of Teddy Lupin (nineteen), Albus Potter (eleven), Rose Weasley (eleven), Scorpius Malfoy (eleven), and Lily Potter (nine). James Potter, II could be anywhere from twelve to seventeen years old, although it is more likely that he is on the younger end. Hugo Weasley could be anywhere from four to ten years old. Victoire Weasley could be anywhere from eleven to seventeen, although it is more likely that she is on the older end.

Some fanon interpretations and concepts, such as the reason for Remus and Tonks' marriage, can be supported by the ages of the Next Gen characters, while others, such as the one-year age difference between Teddy and Victoire, cannot. By being open to new interpretations, new possibilities can be opened up to those who are interested in exploring them.

Author's Note: Thank you to mjc for reminding me about the headstones. Thank you to currer for pointing out Rowling's comment on Ginny's Quidditch career.