A few bits and pieces, here and there...
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On Fred
Debbie, forgiving George for his role in all the pranks, wrote:
So I'd like to revise the challenge to find positive Fred moments that might rehabilitate the reputation Fred has created in my mind.
I'm still amazed that you noticed all those differences between George and Fred! I must say that it never really occurred to me that there was much distinction between the two. My bad, apparently.
But if you want a redemptive Fred moment, how about Chapter Ten of Chamber of Secrets? The Gryffindor Quidditch team is preparing to go out and play the newly Nimbus'd-up Slyths, and Wood is really laying the pressure on poor Harry—"Get to that Snitch before Malfoy or die trying"—all that sort of thing. Enough to give anyone a bleeding ulcer, it is.
Fred's the one who says, "So no pressure, Harry," and winks at him.
That was pretty nice of him, I thought.
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On the Neville Timeline
In response to my compromise with the Big Bang Cindy, which suggested a late winter 1980 birthday for Neville, Ali wrote:
I love the theory, but I have a slight problem with your dating of Neville's birthday. . . .The school year at Hogwarts runs from September to August - the same as the English school year. This means that all the kids in Harry's year should have their birthdays between September 1979 and August 1980. . . .So, his birthday would have had to have been no later than August 31 1980.
Hmmm. Maybe I'm a little confused. I get horribly muddled with dates, I'm afraid, especially when trying to wrap my brain around the ways that school years and calendar years intersect.
But if we declare Neville's birthday to have been in the late winter of 1980, then doesn't that still place it within the acceptable time-frame? Maybe I wasn't entirely clear on what I meant by "late winter." I meant late in the winter of 1980, not late in the year of 1980. In other words, we'd be talking either late February or early March, 1980, which I think would still make Neville the appropriate age to be in Harry's year, wouldn't it?
If we then declared the attack on the Longbottoms to have happened precisely two years later, in February or March of 1982, then this would satisfy Featherboas (which insists on seeing gaily-wrapped parcels trampled underfoot), and it would suit the Big Bang (which insists on things happening quickly), and it would make Faith happy (as Faith has consulted canon and declared her opinion that Neville was "at least two" when the attack on the Longbottoms took place), and it would gratify me as well, because oh, I just hate that rotten year 1981!
So is it settled then?
Good! I'm sure that JKR is ever so relieved that we're working out all of these pesky little details for her. ;-)
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On Ron's Birthday
Catlady wrote:
Ron seems like an Taurus to me, but JKR stated that his birthday is March 1, which is Pisces. If it were March *31*, he would be an Aries, which I could believe: he has a temper.
Oh, dear. Right you are, Catlady! I did say that I was easily muddled by dates, didn't I?
Somehow I'd misremembered that as May 1, which would have made Ron not only a Taurus, but a Beltane baby as well -- which would have been very cool. But alas, no, you're quite right, JKR did say March 1st. And she's the one writing the books, right?
::grumpy noise::
We hope.
So...um...never mind that part, then. Sorry. My mistake.
—Elkins
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