Student numbers issue, blasie and ages of characters

[Simon J. Branford]

No: HPFGUIDX 3762

We spend ages coming to some sort of agreement and then the author messes
everything up. You would have thought they were her books or something. j/k

Christian wrote: "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."

But it seems totally unfair, in dealing with House and Quidditch cups, for
the houses to have vast different numbers of students. Also we have met too
few teachers - where are the rest? You would not expect the youngest
students to have met to have the senior staff for lessons if there are many
other members of staff. They would teach the older students.

Sorting 150 students would take hours and yet we are given the impression of
it being fairly quick. Also most students go to Hogwarts on the train (this
seems logical). 1000 on a train seems far too many. Using British Rail as a
guide, this would be a train with 20 carriages just for the students and
this is before they have to have room for their stuff.


Christian wrote: "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"

Blaise Pascal famous French mathematician of the 17th century and male.


Kelley wrote: "The Marauders, Lily, Snape, Molly, Arthur, Charlie,
Bill---heck every wizard adult, could be aged differently than we thought.
Vold and Hagrid seem to be the only ones we can be fairly sure of; plus, McG
is not much older than Vold, would she maybe have known him in school?  And,
does a longer lifespan mean longer fertility periods for withches?  Lily
might've been 50 when she had Harry."

Hagrid refers to Sirius as being young at some stage (I believe when he is
taking Harry to the Dursley's at the beginning of PS - at this stage he is
about 50). This would suggest that the Marauders are about 25 at this stage
(so 35-40 by GoF). I believe, from what I understand the Weasley's to say,
that Molly and Arthur are younger than Hagrid but older than the Marauders
(the Whomping Willow was planted after Molly was at Hogwarts but before Bill
gets there). I put them in their early 50's.

My suggestion put Hagrid about 15 years older than Molly and Arthur who in
turn are about 15 years older than the Marauders.

Simon