Year six would start in September 1976, yes, right in the middle of that frightful heatwave that so surprised Britain that year. According to my mum it began to get very hot in May and stayed blisteringly hot and beautiful all through until October with a fine and mild Indian summer.
There were official drought conditions, hosepipe bans and England was plagued by lots of insect swarms, especially ladybirds.
There might of course have been a wizarding world reason for the freak weather?
1976 was also the summer of punk, punk music being born in England this year with the Jam, Sex Pistols, Stranglers and The Clash all starting up. It was a confusing rebellious time for muggle youth. Perhaps wizard music bands were a little influenced by this post-drug era musical face-spitting?
I'm tempted to play Lily if I may, though I need to read up on the Marauders period again as I'm a little rusty. Is there a good online resource for the Marauders do you know?
EDIT: I also wanted to add that I love the character photos you have selected, they all work extremely well. Some of the guys are terribly sexy.