House Size

[Eric Oppen]

No: HPFGUIDX 26106

I've always thought that the reason we only see a few Gryffindors, a few
Slytherins, and so on is because the houses are divided further than just by
year.  It's possible that students of roughly the same talent-level are
grouped together, or they just have quite a few rooms for each year's intake
of students, and you go to classes not just by houses but by your room.  JKR
just didn't see fit to mention it, or it could have been cut from PS/SS...at
that time, she _wasn't_ a mega-star of writing and if the editor said "This
book's a bit too long, we've got to cut a few details," she'd probably have
agreed.  (To get a book published, I'd agree to more...as to just _what_ I'd
agree to, let's just say that I'm open to quite a few suggestions)

So, if this is the case, you could have HP and his male roommates as one
"room" of Gryffindor House, along with Hermione and her gal-pals in _their_
room (and no suggestions of combining the rooms, you low, dirty-minded
people!) who attend their classes together as a unit from Gryffindor...and
Draco Malfoy with his buds in _their_ room at Slytherin House (Draco looks
at his door, and turns beet red, screaming "Who put 'Home of the Thickie
Twins, Crabbe and Goyle?' on MY DOOR?")  When Gryffindor attends classes
with Slytherin, Draco and the Thickies are always put in with HP and Co.  As
to why this is so...hey, this is a British public school, and a very old
one---they don't _need_ reasons if It's Always Been This Way.

As to why most of the Ravenclaws we've seen being girls...my GF (who lives
in DC and is quite safe, as well as her brother who lives in Manhattan not
too far from the former WTC---I was quite worried until I got through to
her) tells me that "of _course_ Ravenclaw's mostly girls, Eric...it's for
the _intelligent_ ones."  At my indignant glare, she pats me gently on the
head and says "There, now...you can't help having a 'little head' that does
most of your thinking for you.  I'm sure you'd be a real ornament to
Hufflepuff."  As you can imagine, she does not have a high opinion of (most)
males' general intelligence.  She admits that there are a lot of women who
aren't any better, but refuses to concede that the proportions are about
equal.  I should ask her if being in love with her is one of the signs of my
innate male stupidity sometime...or maybe I shouldn't.

Apologies if anybody finds my levity above disturbing at this time, but I
agree strongly with HP at the end of GoF..."I could do with a few laughs.
We could all do with a few laughs.  I have a feeling we're going to need
them more than usual before long."

I'm quite sure that had HP and his pals been at the site of the WTC attack,
they'd have been pulling people out of the windows the firemen couldn't
reach and getting them to the ground via broomstick...and the devil take the
risk of Azkaban.  For somebody as nice as they are, the knowledge that they
could have done something, but didn't because of some fiddling wizard law,
would have been worse torment than anything a dementor could ever have done.
Watching, I wished bitterly for a broomstick and the know-how to fly it...