Harry and the Phoenix

[doffy99]

No: HPFGUIDX 43536


I wrote:
> > Why is this unlikely? Has there ever been mention, I don't 
remember 
> > it if there was, of how many wizards were killed during 
Voldemorts 
> > last reign of terror? Could he not been purposely going AFTER the 
> > Heir of Gryffindor? Maybe James and Harry Potter were the last 
ones? 
> > Maybe he had killed all the others.
> > 
> > -Jeff


Grey Wolf Wrote:
> It's unlikely because "descendent" is a very generic term. To put 
it 
> mathematically: if Godric had two sons, and they had two sons each, 
> etc., there would be in our days 2^40 descendants of Godric 
Gryffindor 
> (that's 1 million million, a thousand billion (trillion?), for 
> Americans). It's not such a stretch of the mind that they had two 
sons 
> each; in fact, the average number of sons is probably bigger. 
> Obviously, there aren't that many people in the WW (or the world, 
for 
> that matter), but that is because some die childless, others leave 
the 
> country, and others simply don't make it. However, the fact is that 
> "descendency" is a very general concept, and after 40 generations, 
> almost everyone in the country could be a theorical descendant of 
> Gryffindor.
> 
> If Voldemort was going for descendents, he would've had to 
eliminate 
> everyone. Besides, after 40 generations it's normally very 
difficult to 
> know exactly who is a dscendant and who isn't.
> 
> Hope that helps,
> 
> Grey Wolf

There's a flaw in this theory somewhere. I'm not a good enough 
mathematician to see it, but there is. My quess is, that it's in the 
assumptions we have to make to get to this point:

1) That JKR will stand by her statement that there are only 1000 
students at Hogwarts. It's never said in the books.
2) That this "1000" Statmement is enough information to base a guess 
on the population of the wizarding world in Great Britan.
3) That Hogwarts is the ONLY school, teaching magic of any kind, 
anywhere in England. We know it's the only "School of Witchcraft and 
Wizardry" in England, but is it the only school you can go to to 
learn magic? Are there Vocational Schools? Junior Colleges? Whatever.
(Random thought: Is there a difference, in the WW of HP, between 
knowing magic and being a wizard or a witch? Where does a hag come 
in? Is it possible that there are different classifications depending 
on how gifted someone is in the magical arts?)
4) That Wizards reproduce at the same rate, or near the same rate, as 
muggles in the real world.

We don't know for a fact any of these. 

Although we do have canon. With few exceptions, the Patil's, the 
Weasley's and the Creevy's, we know that very few Hogwart's students 
have brothers or sisters. We know bloodlines are important to some 
families. Perhaps, in order to keep the bloodlines as pure as 
possible, it has become a tradition of some sort to have only one 
child. This could go back generations. Also, the larger the 
population, the harder it is to hide! Another good reason to keep 
families small. A tradition that goes back 100's of years. It would 
limit the number of hiers to Slytherin and to Gryffindor. 

More support for this last idea: The only hier to Slytherin that we 
know of, the only one who has successfully opened the CoS, is Riddle. 
If there are so many, why isn't a student opening the chamber every 
school year? 

I'm new here and I'm not as eloquent as some here. I apologize for 
this. I do so love to debate though. :) 

-Jeff