[HPforGrownups] Re: Hogwarts population

[Sara Metz]

No: HPFGUIDX 9607



On Thu, 18 Jan 2001 20:12:55 -0000 "milz " <absinthe at mad.scientist.com>
writes:
> 
> > 
> > Disclaimer: the following individual is new to the group and new 
> to 
> > the HP obsession, so please forgive her naivete....
> > 
> > It seems to me that there is come conflict in the way the JKR 
> refers 
> > to the number of students. At times, she makes it seem as though 
> > there are dozens of Gryffindors (I cannot think of exact example, 
> and 
> > I'm not obsessed to the point of bringing my books to work with 
> > me:)), other times (such as when referring to the dormitories), it 
> 
> is 
> > a small number.  I am reminded of when Harry gets back to school 
> at 
> > the beginning of CoS and he goes up to his dormitory, which houses 
> 
> > the 2nd year boys (he notices that the sign has been changed to 
> > read "2nd years"). There are only the 5 four-posters in the room. 
> Is 
> > there ever any other mention of a boy in Harry's class other than 
> > these 5?
> > 
> > Becky
> 
> I don't think there is ever any mention of other Gryffindor boys, 
> other than the ones that share Harry's dormitory. 
> 
> On the other hand, we could get really nit-picky about the 
> definition 
> of a "dormitory". A dormitory is defined alternately as 1. a room 
> for 
> sleeping or 2. a residence hall providing sleeping rooms. So, 
> perhaps 
> Harry's dormitory (definition #1) is located in a dormitory 
> (definition #2) <wink>. Maybe the dormitory (definition #2) of 
> Harry's 
> dormitory (definition #1) had the sign "2nd Years", but Harry shares 
> 
> his dormitory (dormitory #1) with Ron, Dean, Neville, and Ron and 
> that didn't have a sign on it. <evil grin>

	That could be a possibility, but JKR probably would have mentioned the
other people in Harry's year. I computed this up (I was bored): if there
are 5 boys in Harry's year, than we can assume there would be 5 girls.
That's ten per year which would be 70 per house, and 280 students in the
whole school. If we say that all the classes below Harry's (in book 4)
have twenty students, that would be 100 students per house and 400
students in the school, which would probably be the best number of
students in the school simply because it would be hard to feed, house,
and teach a whole lot more students than that. I think that the number
would be limited in a boarding school as opposed to a regular school
where the kids go home at the end of the day. Just my humble opinion, of
course. Feel free to pick at it, I won't mind. =)

Sara
Proud of my 104% Harry Potter Obsession Rating

________________________________________________________________
GET INTERNET ACCESS FROM JUNO!
Juno offers FREE or PREMIUM Internet access for less!
Join Juno today!  For your FREE software, visit:
http://dl.www.juno.com/get/tagj.