Wizard society/magical ability/Arthur's house/Widow

[Steve Vander Ark]

No: HPFGUIDX 12995

--- In HPforGrownups at y..., "Jim Ferer" <jferer at y...> wrote:
> We may not be that far apart on number of students. I'm at 450-500, 
> which is half JKR's number, but I think 300 is way too low.
> 
> The notion that many wizard kids aren't trained at Hogwarts seems 
> intuitive, but it contradicts JKR.

I don't think it necessarily does. There's a big difference between 
Hogwarts and the other kinds of "schools" that we'd be describing. 
What exactly did JKR say? I don't have that written down anywhere.

  She said in an interview that a 
> magical quill writes down the names of magical children as they're 
> born. Once a year Professor McGonagall takes the names of those 
> turning eleven and sends the letters out.  There doesn't seem to be 
> room for another system. OTOH, I have a hard time picturing Stan 
> Shunpike as a Hogwarts student.  

See, and I can easily take this to mean those who have strong enough 
magical ability to qualify. I think a lot of the folks in the 
Wizarding World aren't anywhere near as magically capable and 
powerful as the students at Hogwarts. They're the regular people, who 
can do some magic but don't rely on it for more than day to day 
stuff. I imagine a continuum of inherent magical-ness, where the 
bottom of the list is the squibs, who rate a zero on the scale, and 
who still do have some small amount of magic (otherwise they'd be 
Muggles, not Squibs, and therefore Kwik-Spell does work for them), 
all the way up to the Dumbledores etc. who rate a ten. Normal folks 
on the street in Diagon Alley range anywhere in between, with 
probably more of them at the lower end of the scale. Maybe if you 
rate, say, a six or higher, your name is registered with the magical 
quill and then you go to school, meaning Hogwarts. If not, you might 
have any number of other training options, but not the official 
school.

> 
> BTW, has anyone ever tried to come up with a list/links page of all 
> the JKR interviews available on the Net?

I am working on this for the Lexicon. Doreen Rich is my invaluable 
assistant and she's going to try to track things down for me. I 
already have the Scholastic interviews linked. If anyone has a link 
to contribute, I'd love to hear it. Email either me or Doreen off 
list.

To Jennifer:

You are right, the Malfoys do belong in Slytherin. I'll add them 
today. And I suppose we don't know for absolutely sure that Arthur 
Weasley was Gryffindor. We know that after he and Molly got caught 
walking late at night she went back to Gryffindor tower, but we don't 
know exactly where Arthur ended up after Pringle was finished with 
him ("he still has the marks!"). Or do we? Anyone know of direct 
proof of Arthur's house?

re: Mrs. Rowley

I didn't catch the answer to the Widow of Kent question, apparently. 
(I tend to skim messages sometimes, when I get busy). Yes, I'd really 
like to put it in the Lexicon. Which message gives the answer? Who is 
Mrs. Rowley?

While we're on the subject of additions to the Lexicon, are there any 
artists out there who'd be interested in contributing small drawings 
for the Lexicon pages? I'd like things similar to the Mary Grandpre 
chapter illustrations. If so, email me off list.

Steve Vander Ark
The Harry Potter Lexicon
always editing, always adding, always an interesting browse
http://www.i2k.com/~svderark/lexicon