[HPforGrownups] Digest Number 463

[Flourish]

No: HPFGUIDX 9869

>  there's about ... 30 from each house in
> one year.  But there 
> does only seem to be ten [5 girls, 5 boys]
> Gryffindors wheneer Harry has 
> classes!

Logistically, there probably is only 10 students per
house per year. First of all, there are only four
tables of students in the Great Hall. Is it just me or
would there have to be (a) more than four tables or
(b) really, really *big* tables to accomodate a total
of 600 students? Having been in public school all my
life, I can tell you that the lunch tables we use here
are pretty big. Two of them together would probably
accomodate 40 students comfortably, and that's not
even considering the fact that Hogwarts meals seem to
be several courses long (serving dishes take up a lot
of space, especially for so many people). This means
that if there were 200 students per house, you would
need a 200 foot long table with chairs on both sides -
and each student would still only get 2 feet of room!
Now, because of the description of the Great Hall this
seems highly unlikely to me.

Of course, there is the other option that there are 10
students per dorm, but that also isn't likely: we
would have at least heard of the other students if
this were the case, but we haven't seen any
Gryffindors beyond the ten that have already been
discussed.

> I've always thought that it would be Neville that
> would be killed. 

There is a rumor that Neville eventually becomes a
teacher, though. I vote that Professor Sprout gets
killed and Neville takes her place at the end of
seventh year.

> > Only if every single wizarding child goes to
> Hogwarts. I don't think we
> > should assume this.

Obviously, people without much magical talent at all
don't go - remember, Neville was afraid he wasn't
"magical enough" for Hogwarts. Perhaps there's another
wizarding school in England (remember, it says in book
4 that Beauxbatons, Durmstrang and Hogwarts are only
the three most *major* wizarding schools in Europe,
not the *only* wizarding schools) that's for less
talented people, and then the correspondence courses 
like what Filch uses are for Squibs who never give up
hope ~_^ 

>  I do take this
> as evidence that 
> either Harry's world is relatively small or his PoV
> "lens" is.

Well, although I'm sure that the "lens" is small, the
wizarding world isn't large at all: remember, Arthur
Weasley says that wizards would've died out at one
point had they not intermarried with Muggles. I woudl
assume that they're still a small community -
especially since Hogsmeade is still the only
all-wizard village in England.

> D/G is extremely unlikely in canon at this vantage
> point.  Alicia/Sue 
> is the first I know of to write it.  However, the
> more I think about 
> it, the more appealing it seems *if* Draco reforms.

Yes - I don't like D/G when it's just done off the
books, it takes a ton of character development to do
correctly. I do believe Alicia was the first to write
it, Way Back When... 

> "Burn Frozen" by Sarvihaara

Having read it, I love it! I need to find more
fanfictions by her.

>  "I will *not*
> submit to the 
> symptoms of R/H disorder!  I will be rational!  I
> will be a healthy 
> H/H shipper!"

HA! J.K. Rowling herself is much more R/H than I. I
mean, come on! You've got the hugs. You've got the
rows about Krum. Harry's off mooning after Cho... How
can you still hang on? ::weeps:: I am weak. I submit
to the greatness of J.K. without question. Hermione
and Ron belong together. 

> It seems as though another well-known literary work
> with a teen protagonist
> is coming under increasingly heavy "friendly fire".

Of course, Catcher in the Rye and Harry Potter are
very different - Catcher in the Rye is being opposed
by the left, whereas HP is being opposed by the right.
I personally think that Catcher in the Rye should
continue to be taught in high school - while the
multicultural books are good to read (having read both
"Things Fall Apart" and "The House On Mango Street" in
school), we also need to make sure that we don't start
into the trap of "reverse racism" and remove
everything with a white protagonist. The teens in the
article articulated my feelings about "Catcher" well,
so I'll leave it at that ~_^

> Getting back to reality.  If you were to look in the
> Mirror of Erised, what
> would you see?

Me meeting J.K. Rowling? Really, I'm not sure. I don't
think it's easy to know your heart's desire. It would
be awfully nice to be able to look in the Mirror of
Erised and genuinely know what your heart's desire is
- but that's not an option, unfortunately.

One thing I'd like to see is Harry looking in the
Mirror of Erised now, later in the books. It would be
interesting to see if his heart's desire has changed,
if he now is reconciled to the fact that his parents
are dead; I think coming to Hogwarts and being
accepted by the wizard community would go a long way
for that, because he's now got a "family."

=====
-Flourish/Maddy/Nyx

Keeper of the bells on Flourish and Blotts' door
Cho no Seishi and Slytherin no Miko
Hogwarts Code v1.0 S++++++ WHp.Co++ CHFl+++ CHCo++/- CHMi++++ Bpoa++++ L.ca.us++/--

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