HWGA -- Number of students

[jferer]

Original Yahoo! HPFG Header:
No: HPFGUIDX C6882
From: jferer
Subject: Re: HWGA -- Number of students
Reply To: [Yahoo! #6858] Re: HWGA -- Number of students
Date: 8/15/00 7:45 am  (ET)

I don't agree we know that there are only eight Gryffindors in Harry's
year. There are five boys, and we have only heard of three girls, but
we haven't been told that's all there are.

A lot of this comes from the editing of the books to resolve what seem
to be conflicting signals. JKR may not have built her society before
writing the books in the same way Tolkien did with LOTR.

My number is based on more than the carriages/boats thing or the Quidditch
attendance of the number of tables at the Yule Ball. Without having gone
farther into the numbers, a student body as small as 300 argues a society
so small with a birthrate so low it isn't sustainable. There wouldn't be
enough wizarding people to support Diagon Alley and the Leaky Cauldron
and Quality Quidditch Supplies and Bertie Bott's and so on if there were
only 300 some odd new members a year. The idea wizards live longer is
some answer to that, but a society has to renew itself.
 If Hogwarts is more exclusive than we've been led to believe, what
 happens to the others? An exclusive Hogwarts conflicts with what JKR
 said in an interview about the selection process.

We may not persuade each other here, but think about the kind of society
the magical world has and what kind of population it takes to support
it. A magician *has* to be trained -- it would be downright dangerous
not to -- and they have to be trained somewhere.