[HPforGrownups] Re: Hogwarts population

[Aberforth's Goat]

No: HPFGUIDX 9622

Sarah wrote,

> 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. =)

That's about the same calculation that a lot of us made, ending up with a
about 400 students. However, there is some conflicting evidence. One of the
most obvious is in PoA, where Harry sees 200 slithery green Slytherins at
the match. Assuming all four houses are of the same size, that makes 800
students.

We were still puzzling over that one (some people suggesting a bunch of
alumni had flown in for the match), when Jo gave an interview (or answered a
chat question--can't remember which) saying there are *1000* students at
Hogwarts.

My current pet theory is that HWMNBN pulled a king Herod on Harry's
generation of baby wizards. Presumably, he'd heard that someone was about to
be born who would damage his power, but didn't know who. So he slaughtered
all the wizard babies he could get--and politically correct guy that he was,
he slaughtered roughly as many boys as girls. (And as many Slytherins as
Gryffindors, too ... ) Hence, Harry's year is less than half he size of all
the others. (One would expect it to have a higher percentage of
muggle-borns, too.)

Of course, it might just be a Flint.*

Baaaaaa!

Aberforth's Goat (a.k.a. Mike Gray)

* A Flint is an inconsistency on Jo's part, requiring daring feats of
creative explanation. Named in honor of Marcus Flint, the thick-sculled
Slytherin who turned up at Hogwarts a year after everyone else had
graduated.
_______________________

"My own brother, Aberforth, was prosecuted for practising
inappropriate charms on a goat. It was all over the papers,
but did Aberforth hide? No he did not! He held his head high."