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Hillnerd In reply to MathildasDoubel [2016-02-12 05:16:45 +0000 UTC]

I think of Harry as being a bit tall- like 5 11, Because his father is described as being tall, and Harry is just as tall as his father in 'Snape's Worst Memory'.

People seem to think of Harry as short- but he was only small when he was underfed and like 11 years old, imo. I think of him as shooting up a lot over fifth-seventh year and catching up with his dad's genetics.

Perhaps people just think of him as short because Daniel Radcliffe is a wee man? Or they just hold on to that 11 year old Harry description.

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MathildasDoubel In reply to Hillnerd [2016-02-14 15:09:32 +0000 UTC]

i thought of it more because of the description...pale eyes and skin and dark hair sounds a lot like the celtic type...and this type is often a bit smaller.
not really small... just not like 1,90 or close 2 m or something...more like 1,70-1,80m.
perhaps because "the tall one" was always Ron in my opinion.
I like the thought of Harry being more the person with a Seeker- bodytype... relatively small, light and agile, while the keepers (like Ron) are probably a bit on the taller side, which gives them more reach, but makes them slightly less fast when it comes to longer distances (more air resistance)...my thought was that's similiar to football...most goalkeepers are also not unusually small.
Kahn, Lehmann, Neuer and Zieler were/are all around 1,90m for example.

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Hillnerd In reply to MathildasDoubel [2016-02-15 07:14:18 +0000 UTC]

Ah, to me 1.70 is rather short- and didn't seem in line with his genetics or description in book 6. 

And to me Ron was plain super mega tall- as he was always described as taller than everyone except for Hagrid and a few otherexceptionally tall people. 
Perhaps it's just because I'm around a lot of tall men in my life, though! I know a few people over six foot three- and my husband is almost 6 2. 

Draco was a seeker, and Krum and Cedric- and none of them were known for being small. 

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MathildasDoubel In reply to Hillnerd [2016-02-15 09:59:35 +0000 UTC]

Per average the british per se are a bit smaller than the average Northern Central European...the average for men is 1,77m... which would mean he's average or slightly smaller.
And seekers are said to be generally the smallest and lightest in quidditch teams ( it was book one chapter 11, sadly I can't give you the page number though, because we very likely used different editions, since mine's not in English.)

...I agree with Ron being super mega tall...just because tall guys are awesome and Ron is said to be taller than his brothers.

genetic isn't that easy in my opinion.
my Grandmas and grandpas were all more on the smaller side (the smallest 1,50(female) the biggest 1,80 (male)) and my sisters and parents are also more small to average sized, my uncles and aunts generally are more on the smaller side (between 1,57 (male) and 1,70(female))...still me and one of my uncles are 1,90  and 1,80 (which is relatively tall for a woman). genetic isn't everything.
harry had at least one small person among his relatives though... the little old man that looked like he had the same knobbly knees like Harry, when he ses the Potter family in the Mirror of Erised/Nerhegeb in book one.
aunt Petunia and her sister seem also not decribed as especially tall, if I remember it right.
Dudley is decribed as a big boy, if I remember right, but he's also decribed as coming after his father, which fit because him and aunt Marge are both a bit big boned...but Dudley and Harry are still cousins, so it could be that the Evans family isn't very small and more avarage sized.
As i think he probably average or slightly smaller...but that's just my head canon, since Jo never stated the exact size of Harry. ^^"

these American measurement units are pretty confusing. XD

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Hillnerd In reply to MathildasDoubel [2018-01-13 04:57:53 +0000 UTC]

Ok, so I obsess over stuff like this way too much (why yes, I have a spreadsheet of all the heights of characters I care about… because I’m very sane… Yes…)

So I guess first let’s establish what are considered small and tall heights for average cis men & women, for these purposes:

• Average height for a woman is around 5’4”- Under 5’3” is small, over 5’7” is tall
  
• Average height for a man is around 5’9.5”- Over 5’11” is tall, under 5’7” is small
  
• Most women reach their full height by age 14-15.
  
• Men reach their full height by age 20, but are typically 92% close to their full height by age 17.

The main way I am concluding people’s heights is by using other character references that are specific to lock them in.

To get Hermione’s height I mainly rely on this scene from OOtP:

““You need more persuasion?” [Bellatrix] said, her chest rising and falling rapidly. “Very well - take the smallest one,” she ordered the Death Eaters beside her. “Let him watch while we torture the little girl. I’ll do it.

Harry felt the others close in around Ginny; he stepped sideways so that he was right in front of her, the prophecy held up to his chest.”

• Ginny is described as ‘the smallest one’ when they’re all together- and they all seem to immeciately know that’s Ginny- so I picture Gin being between 5′0″ - 5′3″ - and for that height to look significantly shorter than the other girls there would need to be a fair few inches difference. I think Hermione’s hair definitely makes her height look taller.
• Hermione’s never described as particularly tall or small- putting her height somewhere between 5’3” and 5’7”.
• She probably has 2 inches of hair height, so I’d say she’s either 5’4” or 5’5”
  

So for Ron’s height- we know he’s tall (over 5’11”)-

but to get more specific we need to use Harry, James, Runcorn, The Twins, Charlie and Percy to establish heights:

Harry is not Taller than 6 ft.

““We don’t know who he is,” Hermione said, passing Harry severalcurly black hairs, “but he’s gone home with a dreadful nosebleed! Here, he’s pretty tall, you’ll need bigger robes… .” She pulled out a set of the old robes Kreacher had laundered for them, and Harry retired to take the potion and change.

Once the painful transformation was complete he was more than six feet tall and, from what he could tell from his well-muscled arms, powerfully built. He also had a beard. Stowing the Invisibility Cloak and his glasses inside his new robes, he rejoined the other two.

“Blimey, that’s scary,” said Ron, looking up at Harry, who now towered over him.”  -Deathly Hallows

• When Harry polyjuices into Runcorn he goes up in height to over 6 ft tall, establishing that Harry is 6ft or shorter. This also establishes that Ron is used to being the one to tower over Harry. 
  

Harry is between 5’7” and 6 feet tall

“At once, their features began to bubble and distort like hot wax. Hermione and Mundungus were shooting upward; Ron, Fred, and George were shrinking, their hair was darkening, Hermione’s and Fleur’s appearing to shoot backward into their skulls.” -Deathly Hallows

• Harry is established as shorter than Ron Fred and George, but taller than Hermione and Mundungus (no mention of Fleur’s height difference.)
• To ‘shoot upward’ in height, I’m imagining there would be about 4 inches at minimum of height increase. Hermione is between 5’3” and 5’7”- so with a ‘shoot up in height” this establishes Harry is between 5’7” and 6 feet exactly tall.
  
• Ron Fred and George are taller, and most likely have more general girth than Harry. The shrinking they do could be in girth or tallness- it’s not clear. Harry being slight is mentioned in that scene as well:
  

““Well, none of us really fancy it, Harry,” said Fred earnestly.“Imagine if something went wrong and we were stuck as specky, scrawny gits forever.” —Deathly Hallows

Harry is the same height as James- and James is ‘tall.’

“[The Potters] had not drawn the curtains; [Voldemort] saw them quite clearly in their little sitting room, the tall black-haired man in his glasses, making puffs of colored smoke erupt from his wand for the amusement of the small black-haired boy in his blue pajamas.” -Deathly Hallows

“James was exactly the same height as Harry. He was wearing the clothes in which he had died, and his hair was untidy and ruffled, and his glasses were a little lopsided, like Mr. Weasley’s.” -Deathly Hallows

• Harry must be tall then, as James is described as tall by Harry (when it’s from his perspective) and Voldemort (when it’s from his perspective.)  James is referred to as tall throughout the series as well.
  

So Harry is around 5’11” +/- to be considered ‘tall’- and to be under six feet

———————-

So establishing Harry as around 5’11” by the end of Deathly Hallows- we can infer the heights of the Weasleys. Fred George and Ron are all established as taller than Harry at the beginning of Deathly Hallows when they polyjuice and have to shrink to be his size. Fred George and Charlie are described as stockier Weasleys who are all shorter than Ron and Percy:

“Charlie was built like the twins, shorter and stockier than Percy and Ron, who were both long and lanky. He had a broad, good-natured face, which was weather-beaten and so freckly that he looked almost tanned; his arms were muscular, and one of them had a large, shiny burn on it.” ‘Goblet of Fire

“Charlie approached, running his hand slightly ruefully over his new, brutally short haircut. He was shorter than Ron, thickset, with a number of burns and scratches up his muscley arms.” -Deathly Hallows

The twins are over 5′11″

The twins are wider than Harry, and it can be assumed somewhat taller than Harry - so they are over 5’11” at least- for their heights to diminish noticeably with polyjuice, they probably are a few inches taller- so they’re around 6’0” to 6′1″- they are built stockier and shorter than Ron and Percy- so I think that means that Ron and Percy probably have a good 2-3 inches on the twins.

Putting Ron and Percy between 6’2” and 6’5”.

So! I think Ron is definitely taller than Percy, so he’s between 6’3” & 6’5”.

Then I have my personal reasons for choosing these heights:

So for the twins to be tall, but also ‘shorter and stockier Weasleys’- that means they must be pretty in proportion. I picture the Weasley boys as all being very in proportion so they don’t read as all that tall until you get up near them- Ron took the longest to fill out as he was the tallest- so he read as a string bean for a long time. (Very 7 Brides for 7 Brothers inspired for me, as I remember them all being Gingers and the girls going ‘They’re all as tall as church steeples!’)

My husband’s large (both in number and height) family is like that- everyone are between 5′10″ and 6′7″ except a few of the gals- I’m 5′1′ so I look like a child next to them all, and my husband is 6′2″.  

I have a soft spot for big height differences- So I choose a big one between Ron and Hermione:

Examples:

Eliza Dushku and Rick Fox

hozier and saoirse ronan

Armie Hammer and Alicia Vikander in Man from UNCLE (6′5″ and 5’5”.)

(and that movie also shows Henry Cavill as looking short and stocky compared to the tall Armie Hammer (much like I picture the twins/Charlie to be by comparison.)

I did a lineup of them a while back- note hermione is in heels with her hair up, so it adds some height:

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MathildasDoubel In reply to Hillnerd [2018-01-13 12:53:07 +0000 UTC]

this is difficult, because i don'T have any idea what kind of heights you're talking about. lol.
American measurements are so difficult. 
I always figured Ron being around 1,90-2,00 and all his brother being smaller than him since in most families (except my own) the younger siblings seem to grow up to be slightly taller than the older ones... especially if there's as bigger age difference like between Bill and Ron. especially if you consider that Bill grew up his early years hiding during war time with a family that wasn't too rich, so we can assume he didn't get the highest quality food in his first decade while Ron grew up the first years in a period of relative peace.  

I thought Charlie and the twins as smaller but stockier than Bill and Percy, so perhaps slightly above average height (between 1,80- 1,90). Charlie I though as smaller and less heavy-build than the twins because he was a seeker, which are often more of lighter build. 

I reread the books since then and I agree that book-harry is probably at least on the tall average side, but i guess I'm still heavily influenced by the film and the way he decribed as scrawny and small as a kid (we do have to remember that he also sees himself in comparison to Dudley. who probably on the taller side. so no wonder he thinks of himself as small). I also remember Ron affectionately calling him "midged" or something similar ( I read the German books) in the fantastic beasts school book from 2001. I'd put him around 1,80. I'd guess there at least 10-15 cm difference between Ron and Harry. I'd rather see him significantly taller though...around one head /20cm.
Hermione I'd put average (i.e. somewhere between 1.60 and 1,75), but her hair definitively helps to make her seem taller than she is  (in my head she always head afro-like curly hair).

Ginny I've always seen as a mix of her mother's smaller size and the her father's  slighter build. means even if she'd be kind of average in size she'd seem smaller and less robust than other girls. 
I don't think with Ginny being the Weasley brothers's sister she'd be unusually small. 

i can understand that you like the tall-small contrast...i suppose that's why i like to keep such a big difference between Harry and Ron. It kinda fits those clichée duos of big guy and small guy in movies and comics. Like the blues brothers, timon&Pumba, Astérix&Obelix...
I just like the the way it'd look if there was a comic of Harry and Ron's solving crime cases as Aurors. like in some kind of comedy crime show. 

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