What is canon? Options

[Vlad]

Ronsmyman asked this up in Ferret Wheel but it seems to me its a questions for all the areas. Canon is one of those thing "I know it when I see it". But I find it harder to define exactly when something stops being canon. Anything taking place before year 6 can be pretty well pinned down. but is anything from Year 6 onward always "Alternate Universe" (AU)?

If you write a very plausible year 6 story with Ron and Hermione dating is that canon because it's pretty likely from what we know that they might become a couple? How about Hermione and Draco? That one seems pretty uncanon to me (although I've read some very good stories that posit that very thing and back themselves up with canonlike logic). But what about Herione and Harry? Are all 'ship's AU? Is any story with Sirius alive (again) after year 5 AU? Or with Snape being nice to Harry?

Is it only canon if JKR wrote it or is it canon if you write it in such a way that it seamlessly and logically with what JKR has written?

What do you guys think? (other than that parodies are never canon so why is Ronsmyman even asking this question?)

[McGonagall's Cat]

OK folks... How many angels CAN dance on the head of a pin?


Please pick these apart and tell me what I missed. (and where's Kidas when needed?)


Question/thought #1

In GoF Molly Weasley says Whomping Willow wasn’t at Hogwarts when she and Arthur went to school. We know it was planted for Lupin, which makes Molly and Arthur older than James, Sirius, Lupin, etc. We know the Weasley’s have 7 children: Bill, Charley, Percy, Fred & George, Ron, and Ginny. We know Fred & George are 2 yrs older than Ron (and Harry) about once each book, for example they are 7th yrs in book 5 when Ron is a 5th year. Percy is a year or two older than the twins; He’s working in book 5, and is Head Boy in PoA. It is a reasonable assumption that the two older boys follow a similar pattern. Therefore, Bill is probably 7 to 8 years older than Ron. I haven’t caught any specific clues as to the time between Molly’s & Arthur’s Graduation and when Bill was born, however, Lucius is contemporary and always looking down on them as improper and such. Indications are that Draco is an only child, so there is a bit of an inference that Molly and Arthur started their family closer to Graduation than Lucius did or sees as acceptable. Possibly Arthur took the Ministry job straight out of school like Percy has, but didn’t get very far “ahead” before they started having kids (which also supports the economic condition of the Weasleys). So, just to be generous, let’s say add 3 years between Molly’s & Arthur’s Graduation and Bill’s birth.

James, et al could have been 1st years the very next year after Molly’s & Arthur’s Graduation, and probably were since all have some kids the same age. Using the Harry birth date that the folks online have come up with of July 31, 1980, the following falls into line:

Molly & Arthur Graduate approx 1969 plus or minus a year or so
Give the 3year margin between 1972
Bill born 1972 or 1973
Charlie born 1975-ish
Percy born 1977-ish
Fred & George born 1978-ish
Ron born 1980 this is our “given”
Ginny born 1981


Harry born 1980
Minus 7 years of school for parents 1973
Minus a couple years’ margin 1971
add 7 yrs of school for
Marauders & Lily’s Graduation 1976 to 1978

Therefore:
James and Lily had less than 5 years to amass the fortune that is Harry’s in Gringotts' vault. Where did the money come from? How did they get that much in that length of time? (Trick Voldy or other Dark Side folks, like the Blacks, out of it perhaps? Was James independantly wealthy?)




Question/thought #2

While I like Gary Oldman’s acting ability, he’s too old to be Sirius because:

If the above is even close to functional, in Harry’s 3rd year (1993) Sirius would be approx. 32 to 36.
Graduation in 1976 to 1978
Minus the 18 year old age of most 18 18
Born in 1958 1960

Age in PoA 1993 1993
-1958 -1960
35 33


Even Askaban-ed to the max, Oldman is a tad past the right age bracket.