Hogwarts population - I have proof!

[Penny & Bryce Linsenmayer]

No: HPFGUIDX 12478

Hi there --

rlpenar at yahoo.com wrote:

> I know, I know, it's been brought up a million times....but I was
> reading my snazzy new adult-cover UK edition of PoA (thank you to my
> sweetie for the V-day gift!) and during the Gryffindor/Slytherin
> match, it states that 3/4 of the students were wearing crimson
> (Hufflepuffs & Ravenclaws rooted for Gryffindor) and then when Harry
> is flying, he looks down and sees 200 Slytherins wearing green (Snape
> was in the front row wearing green robes). I'm going to go out on a
> limb here and say that all of the Slytherins were rooting for their
> own team, which means that we can just do some elementery algebra
> (1/4 of the students is 200 students, therefore there are 800
> students total), and......YEE HAW! We have a number of Hogwarts
> students: 800.

Well, Simon answered this very eloquently indeed.  Wanna do the Hogwarts
FAQ instead of me Simon??!  <g>  Seriously, this topic has been debated
quite a bit in the past, and there's plenty of inconsistent evidence all
the way around.  Being one of those in the 300 students camp, I would
say that the above incident can be discounted if one considers that
there are likely alumni, Hogsmeade residents, parents and others who
donned green to support Slytherin in the match.

Simon said:

> Various people have suggested reasons involving disproportionate year
> sizes, but I have yet to see any reason that is convincing. If the Harry's year is
> small because of the Voldemort effect then so also should be the years
> above him and also Ginny's year as these are the children born while Voldemort
> carried out his reign of terror. Year groups could vary but why not by more
> than a factor of 2. To get the population up to 1000, from having 50 in
> Harry's year, requires year sizes of over 150. Which is a totally massive
> leap from the suggested size of Harry's year.
>
That's exactly what I think Simon.  I remain completely unconvinced that
Harry's year is *that* disproportionately small.  It just doesn't make
sense to me.

> Yet, as Dai said earlier, Hogwarts will seem empty unless it has 1000
> people in it and may even seem quite empty with this number in it. It is described
> as being massive and, as pointed out, it takes ages to get from one part of
> the castle to another. The corridors are described as being busy and this
> could only happen with a large number of people in a small space.
>
What if the castle (built by the founders during a completely different
age) is too large for the current wizarding population?  I guess what I
mean is: couldn't the wizarding population level have shrunk in the 1000
years since the school was founded?

If there are 250 Gryffindors, how on earth does Hermione always have
several tables to spread out her books & homework in the Common Room?
How would the Trio *ever* find it deserted if there were that many
students?

> But I pity the poor people having to sit through the sorting. Taking
> an average of one minute per student, which seems reasonable, and a
> year size of 150 (about equal to 1000/7) gives a sorting of 2 and a
> half hours. To get the sorting in at under 30 minutes would requires
> each student to go from being lined up to having been sorted in 12
> seconds, which would be one incredible feat.

Thanks to our resident statistician!  I agree that this also makes no
sense in the context of a larger student body.  Along with a number of
other things I might add!

> Now for another argument I have not seen before. At the end of first year
> each house had around 400 points. This seems to be a very low total.
>
I haven't seen this one either!  Something else to add to the FAQ.  Must
get on that one -- it's my last one.

Penny
(who is firmly convinced that JKR spouted off "about 1000 students"
without giving it *any* thought!)


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