So I came up with a theory about why Hermione appears to be so much smarter than the rest of the characters that we know and also how she's not as intelligence as she appears to be

Hogwarts Starts 1st September 1991 for Harry and Hermione and 1992 for Ginny

Harry Potter was born on the 31st July 1980
Hermione Granger was born on the 19th September 1979
Ginny Weasley was born on the 11th August 1981

Harry Potter and Hermione Granger are in the same Hogwarts year

If years were divided as to how it actually happens in the UK (the June/July mark) they would be in different years (Hermione a year above) but they're not

Conclusion: the date that splits them into different years is different. Based on the fact that Hermione's birthday is shortly after the start of the year above her and Ginny's birthday is just before the start date of her year we can then conclude that the split date is between the 11th of August and the 19th September.

Therefore the exact date is probably the 1st of September


Harry was 11 on the 31st of July 1991
Harry received his Hogwarts letter on the 24th of July 1991 or a week before he's 11.

Conclusion: Hogwarts student get their letter a week before their birthday. This further supports the split date as 1st September. This is because someone whose birthday was on the 31st August wouldn't have enough times to confirm admission and get supplies etc. so they receive their letters a week in advance to do all of this

If Hogwarts Students get their letters a week before their birthday Hermione would of got hers on the 12th September 1990 which means she had 354 days from when she received her letter to when school started

Harry should have had 39 days from his 11th birthday to the 1st of September however due to complications he only got it on his birthday and instead had 32

Out of all of the students in Hogwarts that we get to actually know Luna is the next oldest in relation to proximity to their start date (Luna's birthday is the 13th February 1981) which would mean that she had 201 days until the start of school for her.

This means that Hermione has at least 153 days more to learn before starting school than any of the characters that we would compare her academic mind with.

Even with a slightly above average intelligence and doing some studying each day she would be quite ahead of her year mates when starting school. Then it's not too far a leap to say she gets bored of the current material at Hogwarts and studies ahead giving her the genius reputation that she has.

Thoughts?

 

You are assuming that wizards children do not do any learning on their own.

 

I always find it funny with how much elaborate nonsense some people come up with to explain, justify or make sense of the story.

Do you really think JK thought of any of this while writing the story?

Besides Hermione was never a genius in the first place, she certainly is very smart but not even comparable to many other characters.

She is more like the intelligent grade A student we all know in class, instead of a magical genius which comes up with innovative concepts/improvements on magic who was corresponding with scholars of magic as a mere student.

 

Or, y'know, she works hard and is dedicated to her studies in addition to being clever.

But your theory could be true in which case HERMIONE IS A FUCKING CHEAT, SCRAP THE BOOKS.






(Protip: It dun matter.)

 

tbh, the real question isn't when Hermione got her letter; it's why does Hogwarts even admit mudbludz in the first place.

 

But they aren't.

The cut off date is September 1st.

There was a big fuss a year or so back about summer born kids, and how they tend to be less mature than their classmates (because they're younger), which can cause issues with discipline and learning.

I don't have all the historical data, because I haven't bothered looking. But this shows back to 2000, which is the same.

Admittedly, Scotland does it differently, with a March-February year.

 

Hermione is just a nerd and that's all the explanation you need.

 

broke: Hermione had advanced time to study

joke: Hermione is naturally quite smart + strong work ethic

woke: Hermione spoke with Rowling's voice intending to relay a reliable narrative of wizarding world to the reader but it became increasingly heavy-handed over time, to the point that Hermione knows more about pureblood behavior than Ron, Quidditch than Harry, and can accio books on forbidden magic.

plot twist: when she was called brightest witch of her age it was a cruel joke, and everyone who said it literally meant out of the subset of all witches who were the same age, to the day, as Hermione.

 

Genius? Not even close. Though, I would say how in a lot of situations the plot hinges upon her knowledge is quite irksome. But, that is another discussion altogether. I call her the Sakura of Potter universe: decently bright, but nothing spectacular beyond being a bookworm.

 

Why you assume everyone get their letter 1 week before their birthday ? Maybe everyone got their on 24th July - as we see in other books everyone gets their letters together, we aren't specifically told but I assume when Ginny put her elbow in butter she also got letter that day as Mrs Weasley was talking about taking everyone shopping - including buying second hand stuff for Ginny. Also Hermione is smart and the best student in their year as many times told but she isn't some super genius who had advantage - if you go with your theory every pureblood should be genius because they had more time to prepare for Hogwarts - they know for years they are going in not just something 350 days.

 

Rowling said so in an interview.

Source

 

Well that's one explanation. Rowling's quote above could be another. The simpler solution to me would be that the Hogwarts letters are owled a couple weeks or months before the school year starts, and the fact that Harry's birthday falls around that time is mere coincidence. Or that Muggleborn witches and wizards are discovered later, and get their letter later than someone like Harry who's name was put in the books of Hogwarts the day he was born.

This feels like another case of taking a single piece of evidence and basing an entire theory off of it, like the theory that Hogwart's population is around 280 students merely by going off of the fact that Harry's year has five Gryffindor male students. Charting a graph based on one or two points out of many is rarely accurate--that will give you a straight line when it might be an exponential slope.

 

This idea that Hermione know everything (even things not learned in classes) there is to know and that her friends are dumb as trolls is a delusion and myth perpetuated by fanfiction. There is no doubt she is very knowledgable and can come up with clever solutions to problems over time but it does not mean she know everything and there were quite a few times she missed something very important. [FONT=&quot]For example, just in GoF she didn’t know about the Conjunctivitis Curse (which Sirius and Viktor did), the Gillyweed and the Bubble Head Charm (Cedric and Fleur did at the very least).[/FONT]

 

No I don't think she is. Going from above (Hermione receiving her letter a long time before most) it's common sense to think that she simply studied the material. If you think about it, someone who has had the knowledge and material available to them for almost a year is of course going to be more versed in said material (first year spell books and the like) than some one who has had the material for roughly a month. She appears to have more common sense rather than anything else.

I apologize if this sounds similar to the comments above.

 

No. Writing geniuses is difficult for those who aren't one. Even Dumbledore and Voldemort, probably the closest approximations to geniuses in the world of HP, don't come across as such. Rowling even fails in making Hermione an exceptionally bright witch; instead she comes across as mainly an avid reader and someone who has the technique for answering essay questions down pat, but mainly as an insufferable know-it-all, which is not, pace the writer of HPMoR, the same thing as a genius.

 

Don't really think so. Genius has to be more than just your grades right? It's not as if Hermione was skipping ahead in material compared to everyone else -- she just had an incredible work ethic and was skilled at being a good student. I feel like even compared to people like the Marauders or Fred/George (not even comparing to Dumbledore / Voldemort) she lacked the originality and creativity that's described.

 

^Actually, she was skipping ahead - maybe not formally, but she was capable of casting the Protean charm in OotP, which is identified as NEWT level magic.

 

Yes but only one spell she did was above the official level, even Harry managed to do the Patronus in 3rd year and iirc was even beyond Hogwarts curriculum.

It's honestly not that special, many people could learn a few skills above there level if they applied themselves.