Factual error: Harry says to Sirius in one of his letters that Dudley chucked his Playstation out the window. However, Book 4 takes place in 1994, and the PlayStation wasn't launched in Britain until 1995.
Factual error: In Hogsmeade, Sirius implies that at a certain point, Snape's attendance at Hogwarts overlapped with Bellatrix Lestrange's. But given their dates of birth, Bellatrix would have left school two years before Snape started.
Answer: Molly should have known it wasn't true, but her over-protectiveness regarding Harry may have affected her logic. She may also have been affected by Ron and Hermione's ongoing rift (over Viktor Krum) and knows that girls that age can be fickle and illogical when it comes to romance. Although her emotions got the better of her, Molly eventually realises that Rita Skeeter's stories were fake.
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