Number of students issue

[Pengolodh at the boards]

No: HPFGUIDX 3758

Though I am rather new here, I'll dare to give some
quickly typed (it is nearing midnight here) input on
the subject 1000 Hogwarts students or not.  It is as
good a topic with which to make one's debut as any, I
guess.  I find that a number of students in the region
of 800-1000 students is quite believable.  

Harry was born ca. one year before the fall of
Voldemort, if memory serves me properly, and
consequently conceived 9 months before that again. 
Before Voldemort's demise at the forehead of a baby,
times must have been really bad for the magical
population in England, with death and suffering
looking more and more inevitable as Voldemorts power
grew.  It is a community under occupation or siege. 
That would not be a situation in which (most) people
wopuld choose to have have many children, and
birthrates might be lower than they otherwise would
have been.  

Then Voldemort falls.  The joy, that Rowling has
hinted on, must have been truly overwhelming. 
Suddenly, there is a sence of security, and hope for a
good future, a future that would be promising for
their children.  One might expect that there was a
babyboom starting about one year after the fall, of
which Dennis Creevey was a part.  This would be
similar to what happened in nroway, after the German
occupation ended.  The next few years saw a dramatic
increase in the rate of childbirths.

I therefore think it possible that the generations up
to and including that of Ginny Weasley where at an
artificially small size, and that those that followed
for a few years, were at an artificially large size. 
I recall mentions of empty classrooms at Hogwarts;
this may lend credibility to my theory - the number of
students has been smaller than that for which the
Castle was designed.  One might discuss if 1000
students is the current number or the "normal" number
they would have had without the interference of
Voldemort.  The fact that there are only 5 boys in
Harry's dorm may also be the result of Gryffindor not
getting the lion's share (no pun intended) of the
students that year.  I suspect that is the case every
year - Rawenclaw getting the largest part of the
studentbody each year would not surprise me at all. 
Slytherin strive for particular cunning and ambition,
Gryffindor for particular bravery and adventurous
spirit, Hufflepuff goes for hard work and loyalty,
while Rawevnclaw goes for academic study and the lore
of books.  

I will close with a few questions that probably
demonstrate graphically that I have only been here for
a short time, and that I have not had time to search
through all the messages. ;-)
Is there any mention that there are always 5 boys and
5 girls in each Gryffindor year?  Do we at all know
how many girls there are?  (And is Blaise a name for a
girl or a boy?  I see rather much fanficiton treating
Blaise as a boy's name, which does not agree with my
impression of the name)

With regards from North of the Arctic Circle (and
hopes that this message is not too muddled up in
spelling and structure :-))

Christian Stub

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