Prefects...n'stuff

[flying_ford_anglia]

Original Yahoo! HPFG Header:
No: HPFGUIDX C4698
From: flying_ford_anglia
Subject: Prefects...n'stuff
Date: 7/20/00 5:30 pm  (ET)

I've been meaning to reply to many things that have been posted recently,
but either fell asleep at my keyboard, leaving a nice imprint on my face,
or discovered that someone else said what I was thinking, but put it
much more concisely (not difficult).

Anyway, to prefects. Every British school is different, so I don't
think there's a rule that can applied to calculate the numbers at
Hogwarts. There's no reason to assume that every House would have the
same number of prefects - in one year, Slytherin might have one prefect
to Gryffindor's five, for example. Prefects ought to be selected on merit,
but it's possible that Hogwarts may require at least two per House.

Although it seems to be the case in HP, prefects aren't necessarily
appointed just to keep control of students from their own House; they
are appointed to assist the teachers in enforcing discipline in the
school as a whole.

I was a prefect in my sixth and seventh years at my school and I was
also the Library Prefect for my sins. I rarely had a clue which Houses
the first and second years were in, but I knew who the troublemakers were!

Simon's point about the train carriages is interesting, but assumes
that all the students travel to Hogwarts on the same train. Perhaps
some older students travel up earlier, use other modes of transport,
or apparate right into their dorm beds.

I get the impression that the Great Hall is really huge and could hold a
thousand people or more. It accomodates another 20 or so students in book
4 and that would be a tight fit if it was only a 300 or so capacity venue.

And now, I'd like to show you some graphs... (only kidding)

Neil