[HPforGrownups] Re: How many students at Hogwarts? (yes, again) (was: How do they know?)

[Sasha Special]

No: HPFGUIDX 48264

Greetings!

> Steve wrote:

Sbyc> BBOY_MN: We only know OF five boys who were sorted
Sbyc> into Gryffindor.

Sbyc> BBOY_MN: We know the were a total of 10 Gryffindor
Sbyc> students accounted for in the Boggart lesson. We don't
Sbyc> know how many were unaccounted for.

Sbyc> BBOY_MN: We know there were 20 brooms for Gryffindor
Sbyc> and Slytherin, but 20 brooms doesn't not necessarily
Sbyc> equal 20 students.

Sbyc> BBOY_MN: We know OF 12 to 13 teachers at Hogwarts. We
Sbyc> do not know that there are ONLY 13 teachers.

Sbyc> BBOY_MN: We know that there were ABOUT 20 earmuffs
Sbyc> which only indicates that about 20 student were in the
Sbyc> room, not that absolutely (or even about) 20 students
Sbyc> were in the class.

  Well, let me just state that we don't know there is ONLY
one Harry and ONLY one Dumbledore. Of course, Hermione said
"Who is the one wizard You-Know-Who was always afraid of?",
but maybe she ONLY knew ONE Dumbledore and didn't know
others?

  Any fact can be "refuted" in such a way. Even your own
existence. :)

  Let's return to the facts, good, solid facts:

  General theories are as follows:

1) 280 students. Based on Harry's class size. There are
*many* canon evidences that support this point of view, in
many different situations and from many points of view.
Let's not forget this "many" word.

2) 800 students. Based on number of people who watch
Quidditch games in Hogwarts. Also for some reason this seems
to be the number that many people "intuitively" stick to.
Probably because it's "between the extremes"? There are only
a few canon evidences supporting this theory, *all* of those
evidences are from Quidditch games - thus, a single
explanation is enough to refute them all.

3) 1000 students. Based on JKR's interview. For me, this
seems to be the weakest evidence of all (we all know how
familiar she is with numbers - to the point of open
hostility, so to say ;). There are no canon evidences to
support this theory.

  So far the "280" theory seems to have the most number of
documentary evidence. Any historian will tell you what it
means: "This theory must be assumed true until proven
otherwise or until other theories collect comparable amount
of evidence". Classic Occam's Razor.

Sbyc> The size of the wizarding world is another number that
Sbyc> can't be resolved. People have tried to calculate the
Sbyc> size of the wizard's population and, like the student
Sbyc> population, the calculations don't add up. But the
Sbyc> real question in this regard is not what do the
Sbyc> calculations say, but what is the impression you get
Sbyc> from reading the story? The story itself and not the
Sbyc> data is the truest indicator.

Sbyc> At least, that's MY story and I'm sticking to it.

  Beauty of the world created by author does not make it
illegal to explore and investigate and research this world.
"Forget the numbers and stick to your impressions" is nice
for regular reader, but absolutely not enough for someone
who is interested not only in storyline. This includes
nearly all fanfic writers, BTW - they *must* know the world
to write their stories, and frankly speaking, WW is not the
friendliest world to a researcher.

Sincerely yours,
Alexander Lomski,
Gryffindor/Slytherin crossbreed,
always happy to throw weird ideas into community.

-----
  "Nice toffees", said Dudley and swung his tongue over the
  shoulder.