(trailer) question on the Great Hall

[Steve Vander Ark]

No: HPFGUIDX 13362

The Great Hall is wonderful. The candles in midair, the impressive 
size and grandeur of it, it's just fantastic. Too bad we couldn't see 
the ceiling, but that will come, I'm sure. 

I did do a count as best I could, and I count about 120 kids at each 
table, which would give us a student count of about 500. And 
that "looks" right to me, that size crowd. It looks like there really 
are only about 12-15 teachers for all that. As a fellow educator, my 
heart goes out to them. I thought I had it bad...

One little question: they changed the orientation of the hall for the 
film, didn't they? I think it works great and I don't exactly mind, 
but in the books, the Slytherin table is mentioned as being closest 
to the door and the Gryffindor table is farthest. That seems to me to 
suggest that you don't enter from the back and walk up the center but 
that you enter from one side and walk across the front of the tables. 
In GF, for example, in chapter 12, it says:

     Harry, Ron, and Hermione walked past the Slytherins, the 
     Ravenclaws, and the Hufflepuffs, and sat down with the rest
     of the Gryffindors at the far side of the Hall...

If they came in at the back, this wouldn't make much sense. You could 
say it that way, I suppose, but you probably wouldn't. And I believe 
there are other examples, although my notes are at home so I can't 
check it out right now. Anyone else have any notion on this?

Steve Vander Ark
The Harry Potter Lexicon
where I was about to post a map of the main floor, but now...
http://www.i2k.com/~svderark/lexicon