Dates in Harry Potter
Fans have created a
timeline of the
Harry Potter series from one shred of information in
Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets. At
Nearly Headless Nick's deathday party in that book, his death is stated on his cake to have been on
October 31,
1492 (though in chapter 7 of
Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone Nearly Headless Nick states that he has been dead for
Nearly 400 years, it is assumed that this is an error on the part of the author). Since the celebration was commemorating the five-hundredth anniversary of Nick's death, this seems to suggest that the scene takes place on
October 31,
1992. The timeline was confirmed when in February 2006
J. K. Rowling donated a hand-drawn copy of the
Black family tree to a charity auction for Book Aid. This included the birth year of
Draco Malfoy as 1980.
The family tree was similar to the one described in
Order of the Phoenix, with a number of characters burned off so that their details were obscured. Thus there was no confirmation of the birth year of
Sirius Black, which would also have dated all those who were at school with him. However, his cousin
Bellatrix Lestrange was shown as born in 1951, and it is reported by Sirius that at some point he and Bellatrix were both at school at the same time. This equates to a final school year for Bellatrix of 1969-1970, with Sirius and his classmates starting school at least by this date.
There are three other references commonly used to date the Hogwarts class which included Sirius,
James and Lily Potter,
Severus Snape,
Remus Lupin and
Peter Pettigrew. Dating is complicated by the fact that for each school year, the actual birthday may fall in one of two years, depending on the precise day and month; specifics of day and month are not known for many of the characters.
*J. K. Rowling stated in an interview after the publication of
Goblet of Fire that Snape was 35 or 36 [
1]. Depending on how this is interpreted, this gives a possible birth year of 1958-1960. (His day of birth 9th January was posted on Rowling's official website on his actual birthday.)
*J. K. Rowling has posted some biographical information about Sirius Black on her website in which she states he was 'around 22' when imprisoned in
Azkaban, following the deaths of a number of Muggles on 1 November 1981. [
2]. With 1 year leeway either way for 'around', this gives a birth year from 1958-1960.
*Harry saw a scene in
Dumbledore's Pensieve, related in
Order of the Phoenix where his father and Snape were sitting their
O.W.L. exams. The scene was described as occurring 'more than 20 years ago'. This meant the exams took place in the school year 1974-1975 or earlier, giving a birth year for Snape of 1959 or earlier.
There are numerous contradictions in the timeline, Rowling herself has admitted having difficulty with managing mathematics in
the FAQ section of her website, so perhaps perfect internal consistency is not to be expected.
Despite its problems, this timeline is extensively used by fans and
Warner Bros.'s timeline of the series (featured on the
DVDs for
Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets and
Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban) contains dates that were interpolated from this dating system (such as
Harry's birthday being on
July 31 1980 and his first defeat of
Lord Voldemort being on
October 31 1981.)
Days of the week
Often when dates are given, they are given with a day of the week that does not match with the date as it is in actual history. Just one such example occurs in
Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban when
Sybill Trelawney refers to
October 16 as Friday, despite
October 16,
1993 being a Saturday. This is usually explained on the grounds of it being simply poetic licence on the author's part.
There are also contradictions within the books themselves in this area. For example, in
Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, both
1 September and
2 September are given as Mondays, and in all the books, school begins on 1 September without taking into account the change of the day. However it could be possible that students are expected to be back at the school on September the 1st and then start school the next week day. In
Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban,
Buckbeak's trial is set on
20 April, but careful parsing of the text reveals that it could have happened no later than February. Also, since Hagrid was supposedly made gamekeeper after he was expelled 50 years ago from the time of Chamber of Secrets, that would make Mrs Weasley and Mr Weasley more than 50 years old (probably around 65 years old, adding in their ages before that, although given the relatively advanced ages of Dumbledore/McGonagall etc., it is possible that Wizards age slightly slower than Muggles), because Mrs Weasley mentioned Ogg, the gamekeeper before Hagrid (though it is not specifically stated that Hagrid became gamekeeper immediately upon his expulsion [at age 13], and he would have required training before taking the job, possibly just being an assistant for a while, as Harry thought he might be to Hagrid while thinking he was going to be expelled after flying in his first year).
Historical problems
In
Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince,
Cornelius Fudge uses a male pronoun to refer to the "predecessor" of the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom. According to the above timeline, this should occur in the summer of 1996, when the Prime Minister was
John Major, whose immediate predecessor was a female -
Margaret Thatcher. (See the
List of Prime Ministers of the United Kingdom for details).
It is possible that Fudge could be referring to a more distant predecessor, but it's unlikely as Thatcher took office before Fudge supposedly became Minister of Magic. (Although one could imagine a scenario in which Fudge, while in an inferior office, was delegated by the Minister of Magic to meet with the Prime Minister). Additionally, the personality and history of the Prime Minister portrayed appears to more closely match that of
Tony Blair than of John Major. An article in the Daily Mail notes that Rowling is close to the
Chancellor of the Exchequer Gordon Brown (often viewed as a rival to Blair's leadership of the Labour Party), and that she might have been attempting to show Blair's worst side. The rebuttal for this is that the books are fictional and the Prime Ministers themselves are fictional characters, and are not to be interpreted as the actual Prime ministers. Another related problem is that Major is described as having been
elected, although technically he could be said to have been elected
Conservative Party leader on
November 27,
1990. Rowling has stated on her website that she considered using a similar scene to this in three of her previous books, including as possible introduction to
Philosopher's Stone [
3].
A similar problem involves
Nicolas Flamel. Flamel was mentioned as being 665 at the time of the first book, but
Nicolas Flamel was a real historical figure and wouldn't have reached that age until 1996. The rebuttal for this is that the date the "real" Nicolas Flamel was born does not correspond with the Nicolas Flamel of
Harry Potter. Also, it may simply mark a shift in Rowling's chronology; 1996 was the year in which Rowling was drafting the first book, and it may be that she initially intended the stories to take place in the present time. More problematic is the fact that Flamel's age is read by Hermione in a 'very old book', which means that unless magical books update such figures, it is years out of date, with Flamel's age likewise affected (i.e. if he was 665 when a 'very old book' was published, he could, by 1992, have been years older).
There is at least one slight
anachronism in the books. This occurs in a letter Harry that writes in
Goblet of Fire, containing a reference to
Dudley Dursley owning and destroying a
Sony PlayStation. According to the standard timeline, this would have happened in the
summer of 1994, but the PlayStation was not released until December 1994 in
Japan, or September 1995 in
Europe.
Events
*382 BC:
Ollivander's goes into business making
magic wands.
*c. 962 AD:Primitive
broomsticks are first used for
transport.
*c. 1000:
Hogwarts is founded by
Godric Gryffindor,
Helga Hufflepuff,
Rowena Ravenclaw and
Salazar Slytherin. Slytherin petitions to only enrol
pure-bloods and, in disgust, leaves the school, but not before building the
Chamber of Secrets.
*c. 1294:The
Triwizard Tournament is established. It will later be discontinued (date unknown) when the death toll mounts too high.
*1473:
Quidditch World Cup is played, during which all 700 Quidditch fouls are committed.
*c. 1845:
Albus Dumbledore is born.
*c. 1891:
Albus Dumbledore begins his first year of teaching at Hogwarts.
*1918:
Newt Scamander is asked to write a compendium of
magical beasts by Obscurus Books.
*c. Late August/Early September 1925:
Morfin Gaunt attacks
Tom Riddle Sr..
Bob Ogden, the head of the Magical Law Enforcement Department, travels to the Gaunt cottage to summon Morfin to a hearing. Morfin's father,
Marvolo, attacks his daughter
Merope for being attracted to Riddle. Ogden summons reinforcements and arrests Morfin and Marvolo.
*c. 1926:Shortly before his birth,
Tom Riddle's
Muggle father (Tom Riddle Sr.) leaves his wife, Merope Gaunt, and she dies an hour after giving birth to her son. Riddle is raised in an
orphanage.
*1927
Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them is published in its first edition.
*c. 1938:Tom Riddle starts at Hogwarts.
*c. 1940:
Rubeus Hagrid starts at Hogwarts.
*1942:Riddle opens the Chamber of Secrets, killing a girl who will later become
Moaning Myrtle, and frames
Rubeus Hagrid and his
Acromantula for the attacks.
*1943:Riddle murders his father and paternal grandparents and frames his uncle
Morfin Gaunt for the murders.
*1945:Dumbledore defeats the dark wizard
Grindelwald who is presumed to die from this battle.:Riddle graduates from Hogwarts. He subsequently asks
Armando Dippet to hire him as a teacher and is refused. Riddle is instead employed by
Borgin and Burkes.
*1946:Riddle steals an artefact of the Hogwarts founder
Salazar Slytherin and possibly an artefact of the Hogwarts founder
Helga Hufflepuff and disappears.
*1954:
Lucius Malfoy is born.
*c. 1956:In December
Minerva McGonagall begins at Hogwarts.:Riddle asks
Dumbledore, now headmaster, for the
Defence Against the Dark Arts teaching position.:Riddle is already calling himself Lord Voldemort.
Death Eaters already recruited include
Rosier, Nott, Mulciber, and Dolohov.
*c. 1969:
Arthur Weasley and
Molly Prewett elope and marry.:Autumn:
James Potter, Lily Evans,
Sirius Black,
Remus Lupin,
Peter Pettigrew and
Severus Snape begin attending Hogwarts.
*c. 1970:Lord Voldemort is becoming more powerful and begins his quest for power and immortality.
*c. 1979:
Sybill Trelawney predicts Voldemort's downfall and is hired as the
Divination teacher at Hogwarts.
*1979:
Hermione Granger is born on
September 19.:
Regulus Black is killed.
*1980:
Ron Weasley is born on
March 1.:
Draco Malfoy is born on
June 5.:
Neville Longbottom is born on
July 30.:
Harry Potter is born on
July 31.
*1981:
Ginny Weasley is born on
11 August.:
Severus Snape is hired as
Potions teacher at Hogwarts.:Voldemort kills James and Lily Potter on
October 31 but is defeated by
Harry. Harry is left with a lightning-shaped scar and is sent to live with the
Dursleys.:On
November 1, Sirius Black is arrested for the murder of Peter Pettigrew, who then goes into hiding.
*1991:Harry Potter, Ron Weasley and Hermione Granger start at Hogwarts on
September 1.
*1992:Harry foils Voldemort's plans to steal the
Philosopher's Stone. Ginny Weasley opens the Chamber of Secrets under the influence of
Tom Riddle's diary.
*1993:Harry saves Ginny and defeats the memory of Tom Riddle, unwittingly destroying Voldemort's first
Horcrux in the process.:Sirius Black escapes from
Azkaban.
*1994:Professor Trelawney makes her second prediction.:
June 6 - Harry learns of Sirius' true colours. Peter Pettigrew, guilt now established, flees and escapes capture.:Voldemort murders
Frank Bryce.:
Ireland wins the 422nd Quidditch World Cup.:
Hogwarts hosts the
Triwizard Tournament for the first time in over a century:
November 24 - The first task of the
Triwizard Tournament -
Viktor Krum and
Harry Potter tie for the lead with 40 points each.
*1995
February 24 - The second task of the
Triwizard Tournament is held - Harry and
Cedric Diggory end up tied for the lead.:
June 24 - The third task of the
Triwizard Tournament is held.:
June 24 -
Peter Pettigrew murders
Cedric Diggory in Harry's presence, on
Lord Voldemort's orders, and using the Dark Lord's wand. Voldemort is restored to full power.:Summer - The
Order of the Phoenix is re-established by Albus Dumbledore.
*1996:Voldemort fails to recover the Prophecy from the
Department of Mysteries, due to the efforts of Harry and company. Harry learns of Professor Trelawney's first prediction and the
wizarding world is finally alerted to Voldemort's return. Sirius Black is killed in The Death Chamber of the Department of Mysteries.:Harry, Ron, and Hermione start their sixth year at Hogwarts. Draco Malfoy sneaks off to
Knockturn Alley to go to Borgin and Burkes to reserve a vanishing cabinet to get the Death Eaters into Hogwarts.:Albus Dumbledore destroys another of Voldemort's Horcruxes, formerly encased in Marvolo Gaunt's ring.
*1997:Albus Dumbledore is killed by
Severus Snape. Harry Potter decides upon his quest to destroy the remaining four
Horcruxes in which
Lord Voldemort has sealed fragments of his soul.
Births
*1325:
Nicolas Flamel*c. 1845:
Albus Dumbledore*1847:
Phineas Nigellus Black*c. 1908:
Merope Gaunt to
Marvolo Gaunt and an unknown witch.
*1925:Lucretia Black to Arcturus Black and Melania Macmillan:
Walburga Black to Pollux Black and Irma Crabbe:c.
October 4 -
Minerva McGonagall*1926:
December 31 -
Tom Marvolo Riddle (
Lord Voldemort) to Muggle Tom Riddle, Sr. and witch
Merope Gaunt*c. 1928:
December 6 -
Rubeus Hagrid to the giantess Fridwulfa and an unknown Wizard
*1929:
Orion Black to Arcturus Black and Melania Macmillan
*1938:Cygnus Black to Pollux Black and Irma Crabbe
*1951 :
Bellatrix Black to Cygnus Black and Druella Rosier:
Rita Skeeter*c. 1953:
Andromeda Black to Cygnus Black and Druella Rosier
*c. 1954:
Lucius Malfoy to Abraxas Malfoy and an unknown witch
*1955:
Narcissa Black to Cygnus Black and Druella Rosier
*c.1955-59 :
Bertha Jorkins*c. 1958:
January 9 -
Severus Snape to Tobias Snape and Eileen Prince:
March 10 -
Remus Lupin:
Lily Evans:
Sirius Black to second cousins
Orion Black and
Walburga Black:
Peter Pettigrew:
James Potter*1961:
Regulus Black to second cousins
Orion Black and
Walburga Black*1962:
Bartemius Crouch Jr. to
Bartemius Crouch Sr. and his wife
*1970:
November 29 -
Bill Weasley to
Arthur Weasley and
Molly Prewett*1972:
December 12 -
Charlie Weasley to
Arthur Weasley and
Molly Prewett*c. 1973:
Nymphadora Tonks to
Ted Tonks and
Andromeda Black *c. 1975:
Stan Shunpike*1976:
August 22 -
Percy Weasley to
Arthur Weasley and
Molly Prewett*1977:
Cedric Diggory to
Amos Diggory and his wife:c. -
Viktor Krum:c. -
Fleur Delacour to an unknown wizard and a half-
Veela*1978:
April 1 -
Fred and George Weasley to
Arthur Weasley and
Molly Prewett*1979:
September 19 -
Hermione Jane Granger to Mr and Mrs Granger,
Muggle dentists:c. -
Cho Chang*1980:
March 1 -
Ronald Bilius Weasley to
Arthur Weasley and
Molly Prewett:
June 5 -
Draco Malfoy to
Lucius Malfoy and
Narcissa Black:
June 22 -
Dudley Dursley to Vernon Dursley and Petunia Evans:
July 30 -
Neville Longbottom to
Frank and Alice Longbottom:
July 31 -
Harry James Potter to
James Potter and
Lily Evans*1981:
August 11 -
Ginevra Molly Weasley to
Arthur Weasley and
Molly Prewett:c. -
Colin Creevey:c. -
Luna Lovegood to the editor of
The Quibbler and his wife
*c. 1982:
Romilda Vane*c. 1983:
Dennis Creevey*c. 1986:
Gabrielle Delacour to an unknown wizard and a half-
VeelaDeaths
*1492:
October 31 -
Nearly Headless Nick, by being partially beheaded
*1926:
December 31 - Merope Gaunt:
Phineas Nigellus Black*1943:
June 13 - Myrtle (surname unknown), a female Hogwarts student, who will become known as
Moaning Myrtle, by the
basilisk from the
Chamber of Secrets under the influence of
Tom Riddle*1979:
Regulus Black, according to his brother
Sirius he was murdered by Death Eaters because he wanted to leave them. (Never confirmed, so this is, at present, pure speculation on the part of Sirius.):
Orion Black*1981:
October 31 -
James and Lily Potter, from an attack by Lord Voldemort
*1985:
Walburga Black*c. 1990:
Luna Lovegood's mother, in an accident
*1992:June -
Professor Quirrell, died (as a result of Lord Voldemort abandoning him).:
Nicolas Flamel and wife Perenelle die afer the
Philosopher's Stone is destroyed.:Lucretia Black:Cygnus Black
*1994:
Summer -
Bertha Jorkins, murdered by Voldemort after he extracted information on the approaching Triwizard Tournament from her.:August -
Frank Bryce, murdered by Voldemort for overhearing Voldemort and Pettigrew's plot to kill Harry Potter.
*1995:May -
Barty Crouch, by his son posing as
Mad-Eye Moody after his attempt to inform Dumbledore of his son's escape. :
June 24 -
Cedric Diggory, murdered by
Peter Pettigrew on Voldemort's orders
*1996:June -
Sirius Black, from falling through the veil in the Death Chamber in the
Department of Mysteries.:
Summer -
Amelia Bones, murdered in the first days of the Second War, probably by Lord Voldemort himself.:Summer -
Emmeline Vance, murdered by Death Eaters in the first days of the war, on information from Snape, in the vicinity of
10 Downing Street.:Summer -
Igor Karkaroff murdered by Death Eaters because he betrayed them:
Hannah Abbott's mother
*1997:
Spring -
Aragog, passes on due to old age after Hagrid makes a valiant attempt to preserve his life.:June -
Gibbon, a Death Eater, hit accidentally with an
Avada Kedavra curse by one of his own allies, in the corridor leading up to the astronomy tower.:June -
Dumbledore, killed by Snape's
Avada Kedavra curse on top of the astronomy tower after being previously weakened.
*Harry Potter Lexicon timeline
www.hp-lexicon.org/timeline.html
