Divination is an elective, right?

[grey_wolf_c]

No: HPFGUIDX 43712

Brian wrote:
> 2nd year students get to choose some classes to be added to their 
> 3rd year schedules, Divination being one of those options. After an 
> admittedly cursory search of the archives, I found no glaring 
> reference to what I'm about to bring up. So here it goes.
> 
> How is it that at least 80% of Gryffindors in Harry's year end up in 
> Divination? In PoA (US, hb, pp. 102-108) Harry, Ron, Dean, Neville, 
> Seamus, Hermione, Lavender, and Parvati are mentioned. If this 
> initial popularity is consistant throughout the other houses, I 
> think that Trelawny's workload is almost as bad as Snape's appears 
> to be.
> 
> 
> bkb042

I've been checking that first adivination class, and it seems that the 
only ones there are from Gryffindor, and that the two nameless girls 
aren't there (at least they don't say anything or aren't mentioned, 
although I admit that's not a real point in their favour, since they 
never talk and only one they participate). However, it does give weight 
to the possibility that they are in another class, making this an 
elective (besides, even if they were, it's still be an elective. In my 
first year of university, Everyone in my class was in English, since it 
was the *only* elective. So we all elected it. Go figure. I didn't have 
to study much, at least).

Now, why did (almost) all gryffindors choose this one? Ron and Harry we 
know: they selected them at random, and the same so at least they could 
be toghether. Neville, Dean and Seamus did the same, IIRC (although I'd 
think that some convinient rumour of the class being easier than, say, 
arithmancy, might have helped). Parvati and Lavender we see are 
predisposed. And Hermione, of course, chose ALL the electives, so that 
would include this one. So there you go, it isn't that strange. If they 
asked the twins, and they told them that the easiest was divination, it 
would've certainly helped. At least, it does in my university.

Oh, and don't worry about Trelwaney's workload: as far as we know, her 
divination classes are only one hour a week, and, even if it's to each 
house of the year separately, she only teaches it form second year 
upwards. That means:

6 years * 4 groups/year * 1 hour/group·week = 24 hours/week. 

Doesn't look stressing to me, to tell the truth.

Hope that helps,

Grey Wolf, who's really getting the hang of calculating hours spent on 
teaching in Hogwarts.