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The Epilogue is the last chapter of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows. It shows an episode when Harry's children and Ron's children meet on a railway station to board the Hogwarts Express.

The very first sentence of the epilogue says the Epilogue happens on the 1st of September. But what year is it?

I know this should be easy to tell, because the book says “Nineteen years later” and we know all the dates, but I've computed it three times already and always got a different answer. So now I'm confused and think it's better to clear this up once and for ever, so that if other people are confused about the dates too, they can just find this answers here.

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    Judging by the movies, it occurs sometime before Kings Cross Station was remodeled. Wizarding families age very fast.
    – Gusdor
    Commented Aug 5, 2014 at 8:53
  • Did you looked on Wikipedia? On the right side under story timeline it says: 1 September 2017
    – idmean
    Commented Aug 5, 2014 at 12:17
  • @wumm: No. I did look at the timeline in the en.Wikibooks Muggle's Guide, at en.wikibooks.org/wiki/Muggles%27_Guide_to_Harry_Potter/Timeline , which gives 2017 September 15; and I did try to calculate from other dates multiple times.
    – b_jonas
    Commented Aug 5, 2014 at 14:13
  • You've "computed it three times", what were your calculations and results?
    – Möoz
    Commented Feb 11, 2016 at 22:56
  • See also scifi.stackexchange.com/q/7240/4918 "When did the Harry Potter books take place?" and scifi.stackexchange.com/q/18265/4918 " How could Dudley have wrecked his PlayStation if the PlayStation didn't exist yet?"
    – b_jonas
    Commented Feb 7, 2019 at 21:41

8 Answers 8

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It takes place on Friday, September 1, 2017.

The Battle of Hogwarts took place on May 2, 1998.

We get the year from Nearly Headless Nick’s Deathday Party in Chamber of Secrets: Halloween in their second year takes place in 1992, then the battle takes place sometime during what would have been their seventh year. Then the date comes from the documentary J.K. Rowling: A Year in the Life.1 (Clip on YouTube)

Nineteen years after 1998 takes us to 2017. We then get the date from the first line of the chapter:

The morning of the first of September was crisp and golden as an apple

As I’m sure any well-prepared person already has their calendar for 2017, it’s easy to look this up to see that it’s a Friday.

1 In the documentary, J.K. Rowling marks the Battle of Hogwarts/Fred’s death as 1997, but May 1997 is before the end of Half-Blood Prince, so I’m discounting this as J.K. Rowling’s dodgy maths.

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    Harry was born in 1980, so you could also do some maths from this if you mistrust JKR's maths.
    – ZenLogic
    Commented Aug 5, 2014 at 9:17
  • @ZenLogic: Yes, the old Wizards of the Month page web.archive.org/web/20110623023929/http://www.jkrowling.com/… says so, though that was published later than the book and that interviews.
    – b_jonas
    Commented Aug 5, 2014 at 10:12
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    Pretty sure it took place on Sunday, September 1, 2017, since the first of September always seems to be a Sunday in the Potterverse.
    – Anthony Grist
    Commented Aug 5, 2014 at 13:01
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Harry was born 31 July 1980. He started Hogwarts 1 September 1991.

Chronology
Philosopher's Stone = 1991-92
Chamber of Secrets = 1992-93
Prisoner of Azkaban = 1993-94
Goblet of Fire = 1994-95
Order of the Phoenix = 1995-96
Half-Blood Prince = 1996-97
Deathly Hallows = 1997-98

THEREFORE: 1998 + 19 years later = 2017

In 2015, James Sirius Potter starts at Hogwarts.
In 2017, Albus Severus Potter will start at Hogwarts.
In 2019, Lily Potter will start at Hogwarts.

Note: in the Potterverse, 1 September is ALWAYS a Sunday, with the first day of school a Monday. The Potter dates and the calendar catch-up at some point before Hallowe'en. References to the Muggle calendar (ie: Thurs 1 September) are thus inaccurate, although we would celebrate the day on the 1st, regardless of the Muggle calendar.

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    This is confirmed by J K Rowling's Sept 1st 2015 tweet saying "James S Potter [is] starting at Hogwarts today" twitter.com/jk_rowling/status/638641255094853632
    – Kate Gregory
    Commented Sep 2, 2015 at 10:17
  • @KateGregory - Not unless you can provide evidence that James is two years older than Albus (contrary to what was heavily implied in the epilogue.)
    – ibid
    Commented Jan 20, 2017 at 0:15
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2017

Seeing as book seven took place in 1997-1998, nineteen years later will either be 2016 or 2017.

On September 1st, 2016 J.K. Rowling tweeted

If you're at King's Cross, the Potter, Granger-Weasley and Malfoy families are there too. Albus Severus starts school today. # 19YearsLater
Picture of tweet

A few hours later, she deleted the tweet and said

I got the year wrong: blame #CursedChild! In my head it's already 19 years later! #BackToHogwarts
tweet

If it isn't 2016, it must be 2017.

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    Funny, because she did get the year right in 2015.
    – b_jonas
    Commented Dec 1, 2016 at 9:13
  • @b_jonas - Not necessarily. (One can even argue that DH implied James was only in his second year.)
    – ibid
    Commented Dec 1, 2016 at 12:14
  • twitter.com/jk_rowling/status/903511124288688128 She got the date right today I think
    – b_jonas
    Commented Sep 1, 2017 at 7:16
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Thursday, September 1, 2017

Nearly Headless Nick died in 1492, and in the second book they celebrate his 500th death day. This makes the books happen in 1991-1998 as school years are taken over two years from September to June. The epilogue takes place 19 years later at the beginning of the school year, so you can add 19 to 1998 (end of The Deathly Hallows).

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  • Not bad but a quote or something like it wouldve been great ;)
    – Rocket
    Commented Dec 25, 2014 at 2:44
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    Yes but its nineteen years after the end of the school year when the battle of Hogwarts takes place, plus the summer then to the fall of that year.... Your answer only would make sense if nineteen years was counting from the start of the seventh year where wouldn't make sense to add from, because you'd have to subtract the whole year first... But hey, maths. So maybe you're onto something.
    – pinkfloydx33
    Commented Dec 25, 2014 at 3:30
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I see everyone here says the date Sep 1, 2017 but the ages of everyone during the epilogue

Harry = 37 Years Old

Ginny = 36 Years Old

and his kids are obviously 11

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    Only one of his kids is 11 at the time.
    – ibid
    Commented Apr 10, 2016 at 2:27
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Harry was born 31 July 1980. He started Hogwarts 1 September 1991.

Chronology Philosopher's Stone = 1991-92 Chamber of Secrets = 1992-93 Prisoner of Azkaban = 1993-94 Goblet of Fire = 1994-95 Order of the Phoenix = 1995-96 Half-Blood Prince = 1996-97 Deathly Hallows = 1997-98

Therefore: 1997 + 19 years later = 2016

In 2014, James Sirius Potter starts at Hogwarts. In 2016, Albus Severus Potter will start at Hogwarts. In 2018, Lily Potter will start at Hogwarts.

Why add 19 years onto 1997 and not 1998?

Yes you could argue that the 19 years gets added onto 1998 because thats the year the books ended. If this is the case then it would be set in 2017. However, it should be taken from the start of that year of school, in my opinion, why? Because it makes more sense. It all depends if you read the 19 years later from the year of the book as in 1st september 1997 - August 1998 or as the year the last chapter was set in. I believe that years mean 1st september 1997 - August 1998 as that is how all of the books have portrayed a year as being.

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    Hi, and welcome to the SciFi & Fantasy StackExchange! To improve readability on your answer, I have edited your answer using Markdown formatting. Follow the link for some information that will help you improve readability on future answers: stackoverflow.com/editing-help
    – DBPriGuy
    Commented Nov 30, 2016 at 22:20
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19 years after the Battle of Hogwarts. The Battle of Hogwarts took place May 2nd 1998. 1998+19=2017. The epilogue takes place in 2017 or in about 2 years.

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    This has already been said in previous answers.
    – Janus Bahs Jacquet
    Commented Aug 21, 2015 at 2:37
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The epilogue of THE DEATHLY HALLOWS PART 2 is mentioned the time when Harry and Ginny get married, have children, and take two of them to Hogwarts. In 2017

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