[HPforGrownups] Number of teachers

[Neil Ward]

No: HPFGUIDX 2887

At 03:19 10/06/2000 -0000, Paul wrote:

>In GOF Ch. 30 (The Pensieve) on pg. 584US, or pg. 507UK +/-1 (is this 
>right?) Harry sees "rows and rows of witches and wizards" in a 
>mysterious room and concludes that the room is not in Hogwarts 
>because he knew "there were not nearly that many teachers at 
>Hogarts."  Now I have no idea how many rows and rows comes out to 
>be.  But what seems clear to me is that even Harry doesn't know the 
>exact number of Hogwarts teachers.

***
Your converter works really well, Paul!  The passage you mentioned is runs
from the bottom of p507 to the top of p508 in the UK version of GoF.

My interpretation is that Harry was just confirming to himself that the room
wasn't wasn't in Hogwarts. "It surely wasn't Hogwarts..." suggests that he
was fairly sure of this in his mind, rather than questioning it (which might
read "Surely it wasn't Hogwarts?").  

The comment on the teachers - "Harry knew there were not nearly that many
teachers..." - indicates that he "knows" the number of teachers and "knows"
there are nowhere near that number; not even close to it.  In other words,
it couldn't be the teachers plus a few school officials, for example - there
were too many people there for that.  Besides, if he'd had a fleeting
thought that it was present day Hogwarts and that these might be his
teachers, he would have noticed that none of them seemed familiar before
pondering on the overall numbers.

I think there may be one or two teachers we haven't seen, but not many.  For
example, there may be a couple of subjects studied only by the senior
students and we may see a teacher appear out of the mists, like Trelawney did. 

I'd like to hear more about some of the minor teachers and their subjects.
Like the Ravenclaws, Professors Sinistra and Vector have been pushed to the
sidelines for too long.  

Neil




            Flying-Ford-Anglia

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   "Then, dented, scratched and steaming, 
   the car rumbled off into the darkness, 
   its rear lights blazing angrily"

 [Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets]

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