Wizard demographics?

[Elbereth]

No: HPFGUIDX 25423

frantyck at yahoo.com wrote:
>You know, the idea of a wizarding school in New York City sounds 
>great. Probably wouldn't surprise New Yorkers much. A great big 
>warehouse (tall enough for Quidditch) or a large, nondescript 
>building with no visible entrance...
>
>Or Canada. On some craggy coast. Arrr.

No reason why there couldn't be several in the States, and at least one
here in Canada -- I think I'd favour Newfoundland or Labrador, or hidden in
the Rockies, or in the middle of the Prairies, or up in the Territories, or
...  Come to think of it, any place fairly remote from the Muggles would
work fine!  I don't think the Hide In Plain Sight of banging it down in
Toronto or Vancouver (or by extension, New York City) would work -- too
much call for memory charms!  (Diagon Alley is certainly in downtown
London, but entails adults being less than blatant, as opposed to kids
being enthusiastically careless ...)

As for the number of Wizarding schools, I think perhaps there'd be fewer
than a half dozen in North Am.  Consider:  there are three such schools for
all of Europe (if I may be allowed, this once, the common fallacy of
calling Great Britain European <g>) -- we know this because only Hogwarts,
Beaux Batons and Durmstrang had contestants in the Tri-Wizard Tournament.
Such a regional event should include all schools in the region, ergo there
are only three.

If we can take Europe as typical, then we can expect approximately three
schools of witchcraft & wizardry per continent -- and I am more than
willing to entertain conjectures that there might be fewer in Australia and
more in North America, simply by virtue of population base.  Six habitable
continents, times three (on average) schools per continent, gives us
eighteen schools.  Call it twenty, round numbers are more attractive.  ;-]

Where would they be, I wonder?  Has anyone tried mapping out likely spots?
I'd be surprised, for instance, if Japan didn't have its own school ...
Where would be the best locations in Africa?  Would New Zealand have its
own school, I wonder?

I find it fascinating that I'm only beginning to ask questions about the
wider wizarding world as Harry himself does.  In the first two books, I was
quite happy thinking only in terms of Britain's witches & wizards.  In the
third, I started wondering "where *is* Azkaban?"  By the fourth, I've been
nudged into thinking in terms of Europe.  Will we eventually see the
magical community on a global scale in these books?  Just how far afield
was Voldemort's influence spreading, before it was cut short by his
encounter with the infant Harry?  Did the Wizarding community in Asia or
South America feel threatened by Voldemort at that time?

In my mind, an excellent story does two things: it entices you to re-read
it, the better the more; and it engenders thought, the kind of pondering
we're doing together.

On that note, another random thought, in reference to the child vs. adult
literature question:  IMHO it's both.  It all depends upon what the reader
brings to the story.

I had the collywobbles reading some parts of Goblet of Fire; a young friend
of mine did not.  I finally realized that, during the segments in which I
was hearing jackboots or seeing other nightmare images from history and my
own experience, she was just *reading the story.*  I daresay when she
re-reads the books in twenty years, she'll see different things than those
she sees now.  But adults come to a story with the mental and emotional
baggage of their whole lives colouring the words on the page.    A
restatement of the "many levels" point, perhaps.  ;-]

BlueEyedTigress
13" Applewood with a tail-hair from a werewolf
Gryffindor, Class of '75