[HPforGrownups] Re: Hogwarts Student Population

[Pen Robinson]

No: HPFGUIDX 45417


On Monday, October 14, 2002, at 07:57 , Jackie wrote:

>

> This may just be a difference between England and
> America, and I am fully open to corrections if I am
> wrong, but can you prove that there are only 5 boys in
> Harry's *dorm*?  I know that there dorm is pointed out
> as being on one side of the hall, but who says that
> that door doesn't lead to a hall full of doors to
> rooms?  We only know the 5 boys in Harry's room, but
> there could be other rooms attached to that hall.
> This is a less-stable arguement, however, because here
> in America, in colleges, a Dorm is a building as well
> as a room.  When I say 'I am going to my Dorm' I could
> mean my room, but I could just mean the building,
> which houses 800 other students.  Please, someone in
> England correct me if this is not the case there.
>

I'm pretty sure it is stated outright that Harry sees five four-poster 
beds when he goes into the dorm for the first time.

I'm afraid that 'dorm' and 'dormitory' in this country mean a room, not 
a building  (uh, except in the case of 'dormitory town', but that's 
different).  At university, students might live in a Hall of Residence, 
but they wouldn't live in a dorm.

It's a pity, really.  I like to believe that there actually *are* more 
students in Gryffindor in Harry's year than we are told about, and that 
we only learn about the five boys and three girls because these are the 
ones with whom Harry interacts.   But from the way canon goes, it is 
pretty hard to substantiate such a belief.

Pen