When would Filius have first started teaching ?

[sylvadragon]

I'm working on a story set when Minerva is at school, and I'm trying to work out who would have been teaching then. I'm very torn about whether or not to have Filius Flitwick as professor of charms during Minerva's schooldays, I just don't know if it feels right or not.

I can't find any definitive info online about when he would have started teaching, only that he's meant to be very old and I may have got that wrong.

So, I thought I'd ask the opinons of the people on here, uhm what do you all think ? And how old do you tend to see Filius as ?

*Is drowning under weight of indecisiveness.*

Thanks for any help.

[dmf1984]

Hiya!

As a happy resident of the "RaM-verse" (that's Resolving a Misunderstanding, and related MMADfan tales), I like Filius starting at Hogwarts in 1957. This makes him approximately Minerva's age, give or take 10 years or so. For some reason, I've always seen him teaching at a Wizarding school in Switzerland for a short time before that!

Good luck with your story; can't wait to read it here,
Di

[SakiJune]

In my fics he was born in 1895 - he could have attended Hogwarts at the same time of Slughorn - and began teaching in mid-50s, after a long career as a dueler.

I once wrote about him being Augusta's teacher, but not Minerva's (though, between the lines of the 6th book, one can think the two women were at school together). It's just what I wrote, anyway...

Happy writing

[MMADfan]

In my stories, I always like to go with the idea that, other than Binns (and Slughorn, later), no one on the current teaching staff during the HP years (1991-98) ever taught under a different headmaster than Albus (i.e., they didn't teach w/ Albus under Dippet). But because the ages for most of the teachers is indeterminate (I can think only of Minerva and Snape -- and Lupin, if you count him) where you can judge how old they are & when they started teaching (except, of course, for the succession of DADA teachers!), so I think you can go with whatever feels right for your fic.

In RaMverse, I actually have Filius born in 1880 (and because RaM!Albus was born in 1840 -- since JKR hadn't changed/clarified his age at the time when I started the story -- that means that he is NOT a contemporary of Albus's in RaMverse), and I have Pomona a few years older than Minerva (though I could also see her being the same age or a bit younger). Filius starts teaching in the autumn of 1957, however, and wasn't Minerva's teacher.

I think that if 1895 works for your story, Saki, you should go with it!

[OSUSprinks]

lol. Oh I love fanfiction. We work so hard on getting the details right, and then JKR changes them for us! I have always pictured Filius to be older than Minerva by 20 or so years, though he wouldn't have taught her in school. Pomona I think of as about Min's age, within 10. I have never read anything with either of their ages pinned down, so I think you are safe to go with what you feel, as long as he isn't 20.

[MMADfan]

Jun 3, 2009 11:19:32 GMT -5 OSUSprinks said:

lol. Oh I love fanfiction. We work so hard on getting the details right, and then JKR changes them for us! I have always pictured Filius to be older than Minerva by 20 or so years, though he wouldn't have taught her in school. Pomona I think of as about Min's age, within 10. I have never read anything with either of their ages pinned down, so I think you are safe to go with what you feel, as long as he isn't 20.

Oh, yes, I know what you mean! LOL! I was astounded to hear that she'd changed Albus' age by about 40 years -- and that was after all the books had already been published! I basically warn everyone that I try to be canon-compliant through OotP, but that I ignore everything written or said after July 2007 -- from DH on. Haha! I'll borrow it and use it if it works for my fics, but otherwise . . . (I'm just glad I started writing fanfic after we found out when Minerva started teaching -- at least that gave me a nice rock-solid date, more-or-less, to hang my stories around! )

I've always seen Filius as older than Minerva but younger than Albus, for some reason.

So, yep, I agree with your advice! Go and write what works, sylvadragon! ;D

[sylvadragon]

Thanks for the help everyone, it's been really helpfull and cured my indecisiveness. Now I just need to find or invent a charms teacher lol.

I've always thought of Filius as older than Minerva but oddly couldn't imagine him teaching her, which is why I asked on here. Though I have altered the time lines in other ways so that Rolanda and Poppy are both at school with Minerva, simply because I was desperate to have them in the story.

MMADfan, I tend to ignore everything after book five too, since I hate that Albus died and all the stuff about him in DH, though I must thank DH for introducing me to the very wonderful world of fanfiction.

So far the only professors I have is Slughorn for potions, Albus of course, and Galatea Merrythought for DADA, I'm stuck on all the rest. If anyone has any ideas who else might have taught when Minerva was a student, I'd be eternally grateful.

[MMADfan]

Jun 3, 2009 20:33:59 GMT -5 sylvadragon said:

Thanks for the help everyone, it's been really helpfull and cured my indecisiveness. Now I just need to find or invent a charms teacher lol.
<snip!>
So far the only professors I have is Slughorn for potions, Albus of course, and Galatea Merrythought for DADA, I'm stuck on all the rest. If anyone has any ideas who else might have taught when Minerva was a student, I'd be eternally grateful.

You're welcome.

Hmm, he's not a teacher, but I think that Ogg may have been groundskeeper when Minerva was a student. I have him as groundskeeper when MM was a student in Resolving a misunderstanding, but I can't remember whether the dates came from canon or not. He was a canon character, though.

Then there was Pringle. I don't know when he started and whether he was caretaker as early as the 30s and 40s, but he was caretaker back when Arthur Weasley was in school (a nasty character he sounded, too), and so it's possible that he was also caretaker when Minerva was a student.

You can make up your own teachers for that period, since so little is known from canon about them. Maybe borrow a few "current" Ministry people -- it's conceivable that some of them taught at Hogwarts before going to the Ministry.

Yeah, a lot of us feel that way about DH . . .

Have fun with your writing! And with working out the details!

*ETA* Don't forget Binns for History of Magic! I think we can safely use him as a ghost teacher for most of the 20th century, at least! haha!

[SakiJune]

And don't forget Silvanus Kettleburn (Care of Magical Creatures) and Herbert Beery (Herbology) as it is written in The Tales of Beedle the Bard!

[OSUSprinks]

I love this board. You guys are all such a great resource!

[sylvadragon]

Oooo of course Binns, I forgot him completely despite having scrawled some rough notes about him a few days previously. I used to have a history teacher just like him once, his lessons were the most boring I've ever experienced.

Thanks so much for all the ideas everyone. For some reason I find the name Beery hillarious, I think I'm just in one of those wonderful moods where everything makes me laugh.