You've GOT to be kidding me

[lls_mutant]

So, like a good little fanfic writer I checked the dates of the full moons in July of 1980.

One of them is July 2. The other?

July 31.

Did Rowling know this????????????

Comments

[shaggydogstail.livejournal.com]

Doubtful.

I suspect that in JKR's writing full moons, like days of the week, occur whenever she damn well pleases.

...You could certainly use it to your advantage though.

[lls-mutant.livejournal.com]

Totally agree, but damn. It does make me giggle a bit about the fics where Remus was there when Harry was born (although as long as the moon isn't up yet, Remus is safe). But I was really hoping for the sake of my fic the full moon was, like, any other day. Not the night of Harry's birth! I wanted to do the Remus part THEN the Sirius part. Poop.

Of course, I do have Harry being born at 2 AM on the 31. So I could get away with doing it if I make the full moon on the second be the moon I use. But then there's a freaking month, and I think the second is too early.

Stupid moon. :P

[a-t-rain.livejournal.com]

Unlikely. The only time she's ever gotten the timing of a full moon more or less right is in the St. Mungo's scene at Christmas in OotP (when it is, in fact, about two weeks to the next full moon), but to make up for this, she gets things really spectacularly wrong in HBP (Lupin really shouldn't be there at all for Christmas, and even Harry's birthday is a stretch).

[krisomniac.livejournal.com]

I really don't think she did. But who knows...

[a-t-rain.livejournal.com]

I think you should feel free to make the moon full whenever it suits you. That's what Rowling does, and why should we feel obliged to be more careful about these things than the canon itself is?

(That said, I do have a slight hangup about making sure the full moons are actually four weeks apart, which is more than Rowling bothers to do in PoA, but I'm not about to knock myself out being any more precise than that.)

[topaz7.livejournal.com]

It's her birthday, so maybe. But unlikely. I mean, who would have every detail of a seven-novel series worked out from book one? My mind boggles. She also probably didn't anticipate a legion of fans picking apart her novels for minor arcana, when she first began.

I also agree with a_t_rain; she can make the full moon whenever she darn well pleases. :P

[lls-mutant.livejournal.com]

I'm very tempted to do just that. From the number of stories where Remus IS around that night, very few people have bothered to look it up. But as I looked at AIL, the last chapter was very Remus-heavy, so I may leave it on the 31 and allow Sirius to dominate this chapter, just for storytelling reasons.

::sigh::

[lls-mutant.livejournal.com]

Heh. Never checked either of those. That's kind of cool!

[lls-mutant.livejournal.com]

I don't think she did either. But it does make it entertaining... :)

[lls-mutant.livejournal.com]

Oh, I agree, too. It never, ever phased me that she never bothered to check. It just drives me nuts because of fanfic- fan authors are frequently expected to check. And since Remus just got a letter with a date, I suppose the date ought to be right.

:P~~~~~~~ ::sigh:: Fandom drives me nuts, sometimes.

[snorkackcatcher]

I'd put large amounts of money on the answer being "no". Partly because she clearly doesn't check details like that (which is fair enough -- I didn't notice anything odd about the PoA dates till I saw it mentioned on some fansite) and partly because the day Harry is born isn't important apart from that in plot terms, so what the rest of the Marauders were doing that day probably doesn't really concern her much.

[lady-nimua.livejournal.com]

*mouth drops*


...*still can't close my mouth*