Calendar of Birthdays

[Big Brother]

Lolua said:

Woohoo, happy birthday to OoCF's own Severus Snape! There's still time if anyone wishes to send him a birthday PM.

Severus said:

Do so at your own peril.

And those two posts were only 2 minutes apart.

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Why do I suddenly get the impression that Snape was anxiously sitting by his computer, wringing his hands with fear that yet another year would go by with no one noticing or acknowledging his birthday, sniffling into his sleeve with loneliness, and secretly hoping against hope that someone WOULD notice, just this once? That he, too, might be the subject of one of those drippy, fangirl-ish happy birthday threads where a couple dozen people who may or may not even recognize your username leave saccharine little messages like:

OMG Happy Birthday! *blows party horn* Blow out a candle for me! XOXOX! ;D ;D And Many Happy Returns!

And so forth. Then, once the magical moment finally arrived, after a whole minute and a half of literally dancing around the dungeon, twirling his button-bedecked robes around him like a tutu on one of those hippos in Fantasia, he suddenly realized that it was BOUND to happen...from Demonic Neko if no one else. Suddenly petrified by fear of the embarassment that this would cause him, he immediately posted his silly little threat.

That's our Sevvie, ain't it?

[Mlle Bienvenu]

: giggles : hehehe.... yeah, I can see that......... :snort :


Huh, never would have figured him for a January birthday... seems more of a fall/winter birthday kind of guy.... never would have thought him a Capricorn either....hehehe...

[Lolua]

Happy Birthday to Mr. Weasley! May he have many more years of Muggle-protecting and trinket-tinkering to look forward to.

And the function of a rubber duck is, of course, to be evil.

[Lolua]

Just because we've known it for 4 years is no reason to ignore it....

So Happy Birthday to Ron Weasley, illustrious Quidditch King, Granger Agitator, and gut-bustingly funny sidekick. Looks like he's made it through another year without his tea leaves spelling out "Die, Ron, Die".

As MuggleNet points out, Ron is turning 25 now, providing he survives the next two books. See, I knew there was a reason I didn't feel dirty for loving Ron....

[Lolua]

Woohoo, I'm getting this one in a little early, for a change...

Happy Birthday to everyone's favorite werewolf, Defense Against the Dark Arts professor, and Order member: Remus J. Lupin!

*does the baby wolf howl*

[Lolua]

And the birthday wishes keep on rolling... Happy Birthday this Sunday to Hogwarts Herbology professor Pomona Sprout, whose first name is now, as Flitwick's was, verified by a JKR.com birthday announcement. May she get what she wants for her birthday, even if it's a metric tonne of dragon-dung fertilizer. :-P

[Lolua]

Jo strikes again with the birthday greetings: Happy birthday (I suppose) to Draco Malfoy, everyone's (least) favorite Amazing Bouncing Ferret.

Alas, this means I have to rethink/rewrite part of The Third Side... but it's not as bad a revision as I'd have to make if we were told Sirius' birthday, so I think I'll survive.

[Lolua]

Happy birthday to Dobby, everyone's favorite house-elf, who according to JKR.com celebrates his big day on June 28th. Dobby has his freedom now, which is better than any birthday present I could give him -- except maybe chicken socks.

I'm sure the Malfoys probably made him celebrate his birthday by ironing his hands for some imagined slight..... grrr. *kicks Lucius*

[Oracle Of Odd]

Dobby?

That proves it.

She's thought this out way too much. I didn't even acknowledge that House-Elves acknowledged birthdays.

You learn something everyday, don't you?

[Lolua]

oracleofodd said:

I didn't even acknowledge that House-Elves acknowledged birthdays.

Shhh.... don't let Hermione hear you say that. She'd probably beat you to a pulp and say something like "house-elves are people, too".

Oh, well. I'll agree that it's a bit odd that everyone has a planned-out birthday... but I think, and this should probably just be considered speculation, during a large chunk of the time that Jo was first writing and getting to know her characters, she was probably quite unhappy with her own life (evil Portuguese husband, divorce, moving around, being on the dole, frustrations with teacher licensing and childcare, etc.) and so the more real Harry's fantasy world became to her, the more it helped her cope. For example, it's a lot cheaper and easier to sketch out a pair of socks and "hand them" to a fictional Dobby, imagining him ecstatically happy at the prospect, than to look around your own sad flat and pomder the inevitable question of how you're going to scrape rent together for the month.

Anyway, just my two Knuts on the subject.

[Oracle Of Odd]

Um ... the front page says it's Sirius's birthday? .... site glitch, or did he just not share his birthday with his author?

[Lolua]

oracleofodd said:

Um ... the front page says it's Sirius's birthday? .... site glitch, or did he just not share his birthday with his author?

It's not a site glitch, though it is a site modification I'd forgotten I'd made.

Yes, apparently Sirius has not shared his birthday with his author. Either that, or because he's officially gone behind the you-know-what, she considers it pointless for fans to send him birthday wishes. At any rate, she's not made a birthday announcement for Sirius on her site. Poor puppy.

When I was in the early planning stages for The Third Side and my hopelessly obsolete (not to mention bad) Sixth Year fic, I decided I would give Snape and the Marauders and assorted other characters birthdays. In a reference to the Knights of Walpurgis who became the Death Eaters, Snape's birthday was on the 24th of February; it's the eve of the proper feast of St. Walpurga (Feb. 25), as opposed to the eve (Walpurgis Night, April 30) of the feast celebrating the translation of her relics (May 1). Either Lucius or T.M. Riddle was going to be born on April 30, I can't remember.
Anyway, that birthday was also going to give Snape the birthday present of thinking Harry had drowned in the Second Task, which takes place on that date in GoF.

Naturally, I gave up on that when Jo sent warm birthday wishes to Snape last January. Perhaps there's hope for him yet.

Sirius' birthday I placed on the 6th of August. Not only is it during the proper "dog days" of summer, but it's also the day on which the Feast of the Transfiguration (*groan*) is celebrated in the liturgical calendar. Fairly fitting for a dog Animagus, eh?

Then Jo posted a new FAQ on her website, answering the question, "Do you like Sirius Black?" (www.jkrowling.com/textonly/faq_view.cfm?id=61). It threw a wrench in my timeline by saying "he was around twenty-two when he was sent off to Azkaban". Well. If I had him turning 21 three months before baby Harry vaporized Voldemort, he'd hardly be 22 at the time, would he? So, using the Hogwarts cut-off date of September 1st, I changed Sirius' birthday to sometime at the end of October (I've forgotten the date, I'll look it up once I find my Oxford Companion to the Year, from which I've gotten most of these dates).

So, in answer to your question... it's no more Sirius' birthday today than it will be at the end of October. :-P I am, however, considering giving this date to someone else... maybe James (who was in June) or Regulus (who had no birthday), I haven't decided yet.

EDIT: I have now consulted my notes. Following Jo's FAQ answer, I reassigned Sirius' birthday as October 18th. I'm about to go and edit that in his OoCF profile. I guess he's lucky enough to get two birthdays this year.

[Oracle Of Odd]

I understand your calendrical difficulties -- sort of. I don't understand much at this time of morning for me. And two birthdays for ol' Paddy? That lucky dog ...