Crookshanks, B&N chat and student numebrs

[Simon J. Branford]

No: HPFGUIDX 3858

I have had to read far too much stuff on Crookshanks to be interested but
will reply anyway.

Amanda wrote: "As to Crookshanks, I don't think he's really a cat. Or not
just a cat. But I don't think he's an Animagus, either. But when Sirius said
he was the most intelligent of his kind that he'd come across, he didn't
really specify what that kind was, did he?"

The quotes are  (both by Sirius in PoA): "This cat isn't mad," said Black
hoarsely. He reached out a bony hand and stroked Crookshanks's fluffy head.
"He's the most intelligent of his kind I've ever met. He recognized Peter
for what he was right away. And when he met me, he knew I was no dog. It was
a while before he trusted me.... Finally, I managed to communicate to him
what I was after, and he's been helping me. .. "What do you mean?" breathed
Hermione.
And: ""This cat -- Crookshanks, did you call him? -- told me Peter had left
blood on the sheets.... I supposed he bit himself... Well, faking his own
death had worked once.""

Both quite clearly refer to Crookshanks being a cat.


Penny wrote: "I will take on the task of creating a Word document with all
our questions submitted over the next 36 hrs or so."
And:  "Now -- question:  what is the best strategy?  Do we *all* type in as
many of the questions as we can in the hopes that the questions are randomly
selected and that we'll get several answered by increasing the odds OR do we
divide them up in case the moderator is picking & choosing (in which case,
he/she will be very infavorably disposed towards our group if we snow them
under with 20 people X 30 questions for example)?"

Thanks Penny - I almost certainly can't make the Friday chat (It is at 7pm
UK time I believe and I am busy then - or at least 10 minutes from my
computer - so may arrive later).
The questions cannot be totally randomly picked. They must have someone
vetting them for language and so on (surprising as it may sound - some do
not like JKR and Harry Potter). Maybe it would be best if some people put
the group name on and others did not, but did mention they were adults. Also
if the group name is mentioned then do we also want to mention that it is on
E-groups?


Amanda wrote: "Well, I forgot who did that nice discussion, but I agree that
the wizarding world was apparently a bit, um, depleted by Voldemort, which
is one reason. Another is that I always got the impression that Hogwarts
took the magically gifted, however many there were that filled the bill. The
number of gifted Muggles and the number of wizard kids born in any given
year will vary. Why should class size be regular? Harry's year might be a
small one, other years might be larger, the total's around 1000."

Intriguingly the only family we have to base any information on, the
Weasleys, had most of their children during the Voldemort years. The numbers
will vary from year to year, but not by much. We seem to have met about
30-40 people in Harry's year and most of the information suggests that this
is all of them. If year, and class, sizes are not regular then more teachers
are needed. I would think that you would need 75-100 teachers for 1000
students (Harry's lessons are in groups of 10 or 20). Where are the rest of
the teachers? Why have we met only 10 (Teachers in 4th year - McGonagall,
Snape, Sprout, Vector, Trelawney, Moody, Hagrid, Flitwick, someone to teach
muggle studies and someone to teach Ancient Runes - I may have forgotten
some but have most of the ones we have met)? Are we to believe that they all
use time turners to give all the lessons?

Simon (Classes in a group of 6 with one tutor and one teaching assistant are
much better!)