Who were students at Hogwarts alongside the Marauders?
This is a question I used to see quite a lot, and it's an interesting problem to try to tackle, because the answer is that lots of people could have overlapped, some probably did, and some we know definitely did. Equally, there were lots of people that probably didn’t, but are treated as given characters in Marauders fics. Which is fine, of course, but this post will focus exclusively on canon*, and not fanon.
*I will include extended canon in terms of Pottermore and WOM (Wizard of the Month), but I won't include Hogwarts Mystery, or any other video games. I will also not be including the movies (ie no Emma Vanity nor the Talkalots and Laughalots). I hate the movies, so sorry, not sorry.
Currently, this is just a brain dump, and might be missing candidates and arguments. But this is what I’ve got so far.
The core crew and their birthdays
There’s really no need to go into who the Marauders, Lily and Severus were, but listing them here for reference:
Sirius Black—3 Nov 1959
Severus Snape—9 Jan 1960
Lily Evans—30 Jan 1960
Remus Lupin—10 Mar 1960
James Potter—27 Mar 1960
Peter Pettigrew—Unknown except year: 1959/1960
Students we know were at Hogwarts between 1971-1978
Either in the Marauders’ year, or might very well have been in the Marauders’ year:
Stebbins (b. 1 Sep 1959-31 Aug 1960)
Present in the same O.W.L. exam scene as the marauders, Lily and Snape.
“Quills down, please!” squeaked Professor Flitwick. “That means you too, Stebbins! Please remain seated while I collect your parchment! Accio!”
Likely a relation of Stebbins who attended the Yuleball in 1994:
“Ten points from Ravenclaw, Fawcett!” Snape snarled as a girl ran past him. “And ten points from Hufflepuff too, Stebbins!” as a boy went rushing after her.
Tilden Toots (b. 1959)
Tilden Toots was a wizard with “three green thumbs” who hosted a Wizarding Wireless radio show on Herbology. He was married to the author Daisy Hookum
Here is a transcript of the ‘wireless’ radio program [Rowling's original website JKR.com: Toots, Shoots and Roots]:
Hello and welcome back to “Toots, Shoots ‘n’ Roots” with me, Tilden Toots. Mrs. Georgina Smyth of Nettlebed in Oxfordshire has sent an owl with an all too common problem. Dear Tilden, I’ve not watered my Flitterbloom for several months and now when I need to use it in a potion I find it’s died. I’ve threatened it with a number of curses but it refuses to revive. What would you recommend? Well Georgina, a combination of my famous Rejuicing and Regerminating potions ought to do the trick. Six drops of the red Rejuicer followed by three drops of the green Regerminator will be the breath of life to a plant beyond the reach of blackmail. Unfortunately, that’s all we have time for today. But, be sure to tune in next time when we’ll be discussing the right way to skin a Gurdyroot and what to do if muggles hear your Honking Daffodils. Until next time, that’s Tootle-oo from Toots!
Gaspard Shingleton (b. 1959)
Gaspard Shingleton was the celebrated inventor of the Self-Stirring Cauldron.
Greta Catchlove (b. 1960)
Was a witch who wrote the original edition of Charm Your Own Cheese
Students we know weren’t in the Marauders year, but were at school with them
Regulus Black (b. 1961)
Sirius’s younger brother. Attended Hogwarts from 1972/73–1979/80. Was sorted into Slytherin. Turned Death Eater before he had a change of heart.
Sirius jabbed a finger at the very bottom of the tree, at the name REGULUS BLACK. A date of death (some fifteen years previously) followed the date of birth. (...) “Yeah,” said Sirius. “Stupid idiot ... he joined the Death Eaters.” (...) “and when he was sixteen years old, Master Regulus joined the Dark Lord. So proud, so proud, so happy to serve ..."
The change of heart was born from not being prepared for the realities of being a Death Eater, and the fact that Voldemort was prepared to kill Kreacher
Hayleyhaha: Why did Regulus have a change of heart? J. K. Rowling: He was not prepared for the reality of life as a Death Eater. It was Voldemort's attempted murder of Kreacher that really turned him..
Bertha Jorkins (likely b. ca 1955-57)
Bertha Jorkins is described to be a few years above James and Sirius. Sirius doesn’t use the term “a couple of years”, so I think it’s safe to assume she’s about 3-4 years older than them.
“Listen, I knew Bertha Jorkins,” said Sirius grimly. “She was at Hogwarts when I was, a few years above your dad and me. And she was an idiot. Very nosy, but no brains, none at all. It’s not a good combination, Harry. I’d say she’d be very easy to lure into a trap. (…) Instantly, a figure rose out of it, a plump, scowling girl of about sixteen, who began to revolve slowly, with her feet still in the basin. She took no notice whatsoever of Harry or Professor Dumbledore. When she spoke, her voice echoed as Snape’s had done, as though it were coming from the depths of the stone basin. “He put a hex on me, Professor Dumbledore, and I was only teasing him, sir. I only said I’d seen him kissing Florence behind the greenhouses last Thursday. ...” “But why, Bertha,” said Dumbledore sadly, looking up at the now silently revolving girl, “why did you have to follow him in the first place?”
Sturgis Podmore (between Sep 1956 and Sep 1957)
Sturgis is the only Order of the Phoenix member we know went to school with the Marauders, Lily and Snape, and I will fight for his inclusion in more fics. He’s likely to be in the class of 1968–1975 (unless he’s born on September 2nd or something).
It was headlined: Sturgis Podmore, 38, of number two, Laburnum Gardens, Clapham, has appeared in front of the Wizengamot charged with trespass and attempted robbery at the Ministry of Magic on 31st August.
Lucius Malfoy (Between Sep 1953 and Sep 1954)
Father of Draco Malfoy and Death Eater in both the first and second war. He’s 41 in September 1995:
“‘I feel much easier in my mind now that I know that Dumbledore is being subjected to fair and objective evaluation,’ said Mr. Lucius Malfoy, 41, speaking from his Wiltshire mansion last night.
And we catch a glimpse of him when Snape and Lily start Hogwarts:
And Severus Snape moved off to the other side of the Hall, away from Lily, to where the Slytherins were cheering him, to where Lucius Malfoy, a prefect badge gleaming upon his chest, patted Snape on the back as he sat down beside him
Narcissa Black (1955)
Mother of Draco Malfoy; youngest sister of Bellatrix and Andromeda. We have her year of birth from the Black family tree, as drawn up by JKR. While often portrayed as a prefect in fanfiction, we do not know anything about her years at Hogwarts, other than her being a Slytherin:
“My whole family have been in Slytherin,” [Sirius] said.
Mulciber (likely around 1957-1962)
Mulciber is one of the many future Death Eaters Snape hangs around, and one of two Lily focuses on in their fifth year:
“We are, Sev, but I don’t like some of the people you’re hanging round with! I’m sorry, but I detest Avery and Mulciber! Mulciber, What do you see in him, Sev, he’s creepy! D’you know what he tried to do to Mary Macdonald the other day?”
Mulciber might be known for the use of the imperious curse, and for the murder of the McKinnons.
“Yes!” said Karkaroff. “There was Travers — he helped murder the McKinnons! Mulciber — he specialized in the Imperius Curse, forced countless people to do horrific things!
We don’t know if it’s him or his older relation who was at the Hogshead waiting for Voldemort to return from his meeting with Dumbledore.
“Then if I were to go to the Hog’s Head tonight, I would not find a group of them — Nott, Rosier, Mulciber, Dolohov — awaiting your return? Devoted friends indeed, to travel this far with you on a snowy night, merely to wish you luck as you attempted to secure a teaching post.”
Though we don't know how old he is, he is unlikely to be in his earliest years when he attacks Mary Macdonald. Most likely, he’s around Severus’ age. However, it is interesting that Lily and Severus are arguing about Mulciber and Avery in their fifth year, in a way that makes it sound like it's not something that's come up a lot before. It is possible that Mulciber and Avery are a year older or younger than him, and it's someone he's recently started hanging out with. Or, in fact, that they're in the same year but still only recently started to hang out with them.
The earliest he can be born, given he’s at school in 1975-76 is 1957.
Avery (likely around 1957-1962)
I’m going to put Avery around the same age bracket as Mulciber, for the same reason.
Barty Crouch (likely b. ca 1963-1965)
Barty Crouch Jr was brought to Azkaban at the age of about 18-19 (no more than nineteen)
“That’s right,” said Sirius, and he didn’t look remotely amused now. “I saw the dementors bringing him in, watched them through the bars in my cell door. He can’t have been more than nineteen. They took him into a cell near mine.”
As elaborated on in this meta, the arrest and trial took place some time between 1982-1984, meaning Barty Crouch Jr was likely born between 1963 and 1965.
Florence (likely b. ca 1955-1957)
Assuming Bertha is three to four years older than the Marauders, Snape and Lily, and she’s sixteen in that memory, we can assume Florence was caught kissing someone between 1971-1973. She might have been the Marauders’ age but it seems very unlikely given the kissing (and especially considering the boy was able to hex Bertha, who—though stupid—is 16 at this point.) It’s far more probable she was a few years above the boys, just like Bertha. It’s also noticeable Bertha uses Florence’s first name, suggesting they know each other, which again supports they’re about the same age.
“He put a hex on me, Professor Dumbledore, and I was only teasing him, sir. I only said I’d seen him kissing Florence behind the greenhouses last Thursday. ...”
Gilderoy Lockhart (26 January 1964)
We know quite a bit about this most charming (or not) DADA teacher from Pottermore (including this archived web version).
Born to a witch mother and a Muggle father, with two older sisters, Gilderoy Lockhart was the only one of his parents’ three children to show magical ability.
There’s a lot of background on Gilderoy and his time at school, which I suggest you read on the website, including these highlights:
He lobbied the Headmaster to start a school newsletter, because he liked nothing better than to see his name and photograph in print. Never very popular, he nevertheless achieved his primary goal of school-wide recognition through repeated, attention-getting exploits. He received a week’s worth of detentions for magically carving his signature in twenty-foot-long letters into the Quidditch pitch. He managed to create a massive, illuminated projection of his own face, which he would send skywards in imitation of the Dark Mark. He sent himself eight hundred Valentine’s cards one year, which caused such a pile-up of owls in the Great Hall that breakfast had to be abandoned (far too many feathers and droppings in the porridge).
Dirk Cresswell (between Sep 1960- Aug1961)
Dirk was a muggleborn student in the year below Lily who became head of the Goblin Liaison Office.
Slughorn looked down at him in surprise. “You mustn’t think I’m prejudiced!” he said. “No, no, no! Haven’t I just said your mother was one of my all-time favorite students? And there was Dirk Cresswell in the year after her too — now Head of the Goblin Liaison Office, of course — another Muggle-born, a very gifted student, and still gives me excellent inside information on the goings-on at Gringotts!”
Daisy Hookum (1962)
Daisy Hookum wrote bestseller My Life as a Muggle after giving up magic for a year. She was married to celebrity gardener Tilden Toots.
Tarquin McTavish (1955)
Tarquin McTavish was a wizard who imprisoned his Muggle neighbour inside a tea kettle. He was sent to prison for this act.
If you want an older Slytherin antagonist, he’s definitely one to consider.
Lorcan d'Eath (1964)
Lorcan d’Eath is a very popular part-vampire singer whose song “Necks to You” spent nineteen weeks in the Number 1 slot.
Glenda Chittock (1964)
Glenda Chittock is a popular presenter of the W.W.N. (Wizarding Wireless Network) program Witching Hour.
Students we don’t know (even the approximate) the age of, but we know were at school with them
Davey Gudgeon
Davey Gudgeon was a student at Hogwarts at some point from or after 1971, who overlapped with the Marauders, Lily and Severus.
“They planted the Whomping Willow the same year that I arrived at Hogwarts. People used to play a game, trying to get near enough to touch the trunk. In the end, a boy called Davey Gudgeon nearly lost an eye, and we were forbidden to go near it. No broomstick would have a chance.
Mary MacDonald
Mary MacDonald was a Gryffindor student at Hogwarts in 1975-1976, but she could have been anything from a first year to a seventh year. Because she was targeted by a future Death Eater, it’s assumed she’s muggleborn (it’s also a fairly common last-name that don’t otherwise appear in canon), but this is never confirmed.
“We are, Sev, but I don’t like some of the people you’re hanging round with! I’m sorry, but I detest Avery and Mulciber! Mulciber, What do you see in him, Sev, he’s creepy! D’you know what he tried to do to Mary Macdonald the other day?”
Bertram Aubrey
Bertram Aubery overlapped with the Marauders, Lily and Snape at school, and James Potter and Sirius Black landed in detention for having used an illegal hex upon him. While I think it’s safe to assume James and Sirius might not have been in their earliest years of their magical education, we’ve got no further information about how old Aubrey was, or how old the boys were. Or anything else, really.
He pulled out a card from one of the topmost boxes with a flourish and read, “ ‘James Potter and Sirius Black. Apprehended using an illegal hex upon Bertram Aubrey. Aubrey’s head twice normal size. Double detention.’ ” Snape sneered.
Wilkes & Rosier Jr
Wilkes and Rosier Jr* are part of the group we’re told hung out with Severus at school, meaning it’s very likely** they went to school with the Marauders.
“Rosier and Wilkes — they were both killed by Aurors the year before Voldemort fell. The Lestranges — they’re a married couple — they’re in Azkaban. Avery — from what I’ve heard he wormed his way out of trouble by saying he’d been acting under the Imperius Curse — he’s still at large. But as far as I know, Snape was never even accused of being a Death Eater — not that that means much. Plenty of them were never caught. And Snape’s certainly clever and cunning enough to keep himself out of trouble.
*Rosier Jr should not be confused with Evan Rosier, who was killed after July 1981 (likely after Voldemort’s fall as part of the round up of capturing the Death Eaters), who we learn about in The Pensieve chapter in GOF.
**I’ve got to caveat that it’s possible they didn’t go to school together, because Sirius also highlights Bellatrix and Rodolphus Lestrange. Bellatrix, at least, had graduated by the time Snape started school. However, without any other information, it’s fairly safe to assume Snape went to school with Avery and Wilkes.
Students that might have been at Hogwarts between 1971-1978
There needs to be some canon evidence for them to be considered here. Otherwise we’d end up with a very long list indeed.
Andromeda Black (b. between 1952-1954)
As the middle child, she’s born between Bellatrix (1951) and Narcissa (1955), and might have overlapped with the Marauders, but only if she was born late enough (September 1953 or later). Her daughter was born between 1 September 1972 and 31 August 1973, which is worth factoring in when considering how old Andromeda is for any given fic.
Rabastan Lestrange & Rodolphus Lestrange
We don’t actually know (I don’t think) when Rabastan and Rodolphus Lestrange were born. It’s noticeable that Sirius didn’t bring up Rabastan when listing the DEs Snape hung out with. Maybe Rabastan never attended Hogwarts? Maybe he’s even older than Rodolphus? Maybe Rodolphus is younger than Bellatrix and overlapped with the Marauders at school? Maybe Sirius confused Rabastan and Rodolphus when talking to the trio? Or any other guess, really.
Kingsley Shacklebolt
Kingsley Shacklebolt may have overlapped with the Marauders. He was not part of the first order, but he recognised a lot of James in Harry, suggesting he knew James. Considering James had very little time between school and Order and going into hiding with Harry and Lily, many take this to believe he went to school with the boys.
“Yeah, I see what you mean, Remus,” said a bald black wizard standing farthest back; he had a deep, slow voice and wore a single gold hoop in his ear. “He looks exactly like James.”
Quirinus Quirrell
While it is possible to take Quirrell statement as an argument that he wasn’t at school with James and Snape (“He was at Hogwarts with your father”, not “we”), there’s no reason for Quirrell to put himself into that dialogue. The point is that Snape and James were at Hogwarts together, and hated one another. How did Quirrell know this? Possibly Hogwarts gossip. But possibly he observed it for himself.
“Oh, he does,” said Quirrell casually, “heavens, yes. He was at Hogwarts with your father, didn’t you know? They loathed each other. But he never wanted you dead.”
Furthermore, we know he used to work at Hogwarts, then he took a year off to gain practical experience (suggesting he went straight from being a student to becoming a professor), before coming back as a DADA teacher.
At this stage it turns into speculation, but it seems unlikely he would have worked less than three years at Hogwarts before taking a year off, and it feels equally unlikely he would have waited more than ten years. If he worked for six years or more before taking a year off, he would have overlapped with the marauders. (If we worked for six years before taking the sabbatical, he would have graduated in 1984, meaning he would have started in 1977, and would have overlapped by a year with the Marauders)
Fabian and Gideon Prewett
Molly Weasley is born in October 1949. If her brothers were younger than her, they could have overlapped with the Marauders, Snape and Lily.
For either or both of them to overlap with the Marauders, they would have to graduate from Hogwarts at the earliest in 1972, which would put either or both of their birthdays between Sep 1953 - Aug 1954, or later.
In other words, if either of her brothers, or both, were roughly four years younger, or more, they would have overlapped with the Marauders, Snape and Lily.
Note: Nowhere in canon is it suggested that Fabian and Gideon are twins. They might have been. But it's just a theory.
Alice and Frank Longbottom
Frank and Alice have a son Harry’s age, but unlike Lily and James, they worked as Aurors and were well respected:
“They were Aurors, you know, and very well respected within the Wizarding community,” Mrs. Longbottom went on. “Highly gifted, the pair of them. I — yes, Alice dear, what is it?”
Now, it’s possible that some of this respect came about after Voldemort’s fall, as per my meta that explains why they were likely attacked between 1982-early 1984, but likely they were active as Aurors for some years before they decided to have a baby. For the sake of the argument, let’s put two years as qualified Aurors as the minimum number of years before Alice gets pregnant, late 1979. That puts her and Frank at graduating Auror training in 1977 at the latest (and of course it’s possible either or both did it much earlier than this). Assuming the standard three years of Auror training, that means the latest they could have graduated Hogwarts is 1974.
“Well, you’ll need to demonstrate the ability to react well to pressure and so forth,” said Professor McGonagall, “perseverance and dedication, because Auror training takes a further three years, not to mention very high skills in practical defense. It will mean a lot more study even after you’ve left school, so unless you’re prepared to — ”
Which puts them in the window of possibly overlapping with the Marauders.
It's also worth noting that it is possible that the Auror training was cut either entirely or at least partially because of the war, which could put them closer in age with the Marauders. But then again, it's also absolutely possible (if not probable) that they were a fair deal older than the boys and Lily.
Gwenog Jones
I am going to ignore the Hogwarts Mystery stuff, but we know she was a favourite of Slughorn, and we know she is still active as the Captain of the Holyhead Harpies in 1996, suggesting she overlapped with Slughorn's final few years, which possibly puts her in the window together with the Marauders.
“All ex-students, all signed. You’ll notice Barnabas Cuffe, editor of the Daily Prophet, he’s always interested to hear my take on the day’s news. And Ambrosius Flume, of Honeydukes — a hamper every birthday, and all because I was able to give him an introduction to Ciceron Harkiss, who gave him his first job! And at the back — you’ll see her if you just crane your neck — that’s Gwenog Jones, who of course captains the Holyhead Harpies. … People are always astonished to hear I’m on first-name terms with the Harpies, and free tickets whenever I want them!”