Random ideas

[piskmiffo <piskmiffo@hotmail.com>]

No: HPFGUIDX 51695

--- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, "Tom Wall <thomasmwall at y...>" 
<thomasmwall at y...> wrote:
> mysmacek writes:
> - it seems to me, that during POA, there has to be about 10 first
> years in each house - certainly less than 20. The canon for that is
> that for R&H to miss the sorting ceremony, it would have to be a
> really short one, since their calling off by McGonnagall does not 
seem
> like a long one - and don't forget that the ceremony did not start
> when they left.
> 
> Me:
> Scholastic's website has several JKR Q&A sessions online.  
> 
> Here's the URL for the following canon:
> http://www.scholastic.com/harrypotter/author/transcript2.htm
> 
> -----
> Q: How many students attend Hogwarts, and how many 
>    students per year per house? 
> A: There are about a thousand students at Hogwarts.
> -----
> 
> If we do the math, we get:
> 
> 1000/4 = 250 
> 250 /7 = ~35
> 
> So, about 35 students per year per house.
> 
> Of course, that's assuming that each year, 
> roughly the same number of students come
> to the school, and that out of that total,
> each house gets roughly the same number of 
> students.
>  
> So, apparently, we haven't even met half
> of 'em in Harry's year alone.
> 
> -Tom

My theory is that there are different number of children born with 
the magic ability each year.
Some years might have been baby booms, and when these children start 
school the number of pupils will increase. 
That is, of course, if all the wizard children living in a specific 
area are allowed to go to Hogwarts, and there's no specific number of 
positions that has to be filled.
And, before the students reach hogwarts, no one knows how many of the 
students will end up in each of the houses, right?
I don't believe that the sorting hat would for example put a student 
with the makings of a hufflepuff in the slytherin house, just because 
it was getting crowded in hufflepuff.
If there is a fixed number of magic children that end up in each 
house born every year, then the ministry of magic would probably have 
to control all births, including those in the muggle world, and that 
seems impossible, since the sorting hat bases it's decisions on the 
minds of the children as 11-year-olds. 

If Hogwarts does indeed have a fixed number of allowed students each 
year, how do they decide which people that are allowed in, and who 
that has to find somewhere else to study magic?

Sorry if there's any grammatical errors, I'm a Swedish 17-year-old 
that just couldn't resist to reply ;)


Piskmiffo