Prefects

[vheggie at yahoo.com]

No: HPFGUIDX 26482

[snip]
> I'm not sure why you assume a compartment can only hold 6 people. 
> Someone (Simon?) elaborated that a standard BritRail compartment 
would 
> hold a fair number of people as I recall.  I don't know why we 
would 
> assume the size of the compartments is small.  

Could there be a difference between 'carriages' and 'compartments'?
In older Britrail trains (and indeed - in some carriages of the new 
ones, by the guard's van, etc), some carriages are divided up 
into 'compartments' (like the first-class carriages in some trains, 
or on the Eurostar).  A corridor runs down the side of a carriage, 
from which lead the four, five, or even six sliding doors which lead 
into smaller 'compartments' which would hold 6 - 8 people.

This section from PoA really made me imagine compartmentalised 
carriages: (no page numbers, since I'm cut & pasting from an e-text - 
too lazy to look it up and type it in by hand, but it's near the 
beginning of chapter five)
"Harry, Ron, and Hermione set off down the corridor, looking for an 
empty compartment, but all were full except for the one at the very 
end of the train."