Black family tree

[runespoor7]

Did JKR ever get around to reconciling the ages given by the Black family tapestry and Sirius' claim that Snape was part of 'a gang of Slytherins that all became Death Eaters' in OotP, including Bellatrix ('The Lestranges, a married couple', he says

Comments

[coendou]

Honestly, JKR has never been a big stickler for these kinds of details (see also: How many students are in Hogwarts?), so I'm guessing it's just her mistake. If you really want to cover for it, though, I would chalk it up to Sirius's faulty memory. Bellatrix and Snape may have been in the same larger crowd, he may have seen them together in Hogsmeade or over the summer for instance. And then he could have just mentally extrapolated that they must have hung out at school.

[runespoor7]

I really like your explanation. Unfortunately, the fic I'm writing is more oushing me in the other direction - the let's-ignore-the-birthdates one - but I really like it. It makes things make sense.

[tabular_rasa]

I've always kind of hated the family tree, because the woman simply cannot do math (Bellatrix's dad had her at age 13??) and it really screws up a lot of how I pictured the Marauder/pre-Death Eater era-- included things, like Bellatrix having been at Hogwarts the same time as Sirius-- that were stated contradictorily in canon.

Before she published the family tree, I used logic to determine a range of appropriate birth years for the Black family cousins based on what JKR had given us in the books up to that point (and some natural laws of human reproduction). So, I'll be honest; when writing fanfic I tend to simply follow these ranges and disregard JKR's-- though, mostly, I've just stopped explicitly stating any age differences in my works so as to avoid the issue altogether. (And I think most fic readers are more interested in reading about the dynamics between the cousins, which are better displayed the closer in age they are, than doing the math to prove us wrong. So even if you feel like a cheater, it's unlikely most readers are

[rosefyre]

Just read your post, and wanted to point one thing out: the Black sisters could be twins or even triplets. I think you might also be off on Tonks's age: I calculated the latest date she could be born to be summer 1973, which would have her start Hogwarts in 1984, and therefore end in 1991 - right before Harry starts. Assume Andromeda got pregnant nine months earlier, she was pregnant in late 1972. I generally assume that she graduated, ran away, got married, and got pregnant (which would mean her last year at Hogwarts was Sirius's first), but she could conceivably have left school early

[runespoor7]

About Andromeda, I have a deep affection for fics where she passes her NEWTs while she's pregnant, so it'll be easier to marry Ted if the Black family doesn't try to break their marriage. And they likely wouldn't if she started showing around the same time or even a couple of months after the end of her last year.

Well, to be fair to JKR's maths, Ginny may have been saying that as a phrase, sort of like she'd have said 'I've always wanted to go to Hogwarts'. It's possible she's wanted to go to Hogwarts for as long as she can remember, anyway.

There's no excuse for Charlie.

[magdalaena]

Could You link any good fic with pregnant Andromeda ? I really like this person, but in most fanfics, authors portray her as an little angel (contrary to Bella little devil ). I personally believe that merrying a muggle would be much more rebelios than becoming a DE.