Okay, I thought I had this figured out, but some issues have arisen on some other board/group, so I thought I'd bring it up, here.
When, exactly, do the HP books take place? In Book 2, Nearly Headless Nick celebrates his 500th Deathday, and his tombstone-cake says that he was killed on Halloween, 1492 - WHICH would indicate that Book 1 begins in 1991, Book 2 in '92, and so forth. I really like this, because it makes calculating ages easier, and I've used this as my reference for figuring character ages. But recently, someone pointed out that JKR has started matching up days & dates in Book 4 (I'd have to go back and look to see where) that indicate Book 4 is "contemporary" (starts in 1999). My guess is this is a simple inconsistency going back to when she actually started writing the series, vs. the current publication schedule. And it's a trivial thing, but it matters to me, because even though I haven't written any HP fanfic, I've still got a timeline in mind for my characters built around the "91-92-93..." theory. Well, it's 4 am and I'm just rambling now, but I wondered if anyone else has noticed the date thingy...