[HPforGrownups] Number of students

[Beth]

No: HPFGUIDX 51738

silveroak_us:
 > 1. In PS/SS, (Chapter Nine, "The Midnight Duel"), when Harry and his
 > class go out to the grounds for their first broom lesson, along with
 > Slytherin (a double class), there are "twenty broomsticks lying in
 > neat lines on the ground." That would be ten for the Gryffs and ten
 > for the Slyths. There is no mention that this was only *part* of the
 > Gryff/Slyth first years, the clear implication is that this was the
 > *whole* Gryff/Slyth firsties.
 >
Annechan:
 >That's an easy point to explain. they simply split first year into
three groups.

It's even easier to explain. There are only 8 (or 10) Gryffindor first years.

PS/SS p130, US PB
Percy directed the girls through one door to their dormitory and the boys 
through another. At the top of a spiral staircase -- they were obviously in 
one of the towers -- they found their beds at last: five four-posters hung 
with deep red, velvet curtains.

It makes the most sense to me to assume that "Percy directed the ... boys 
through another." means that Percy directed ALL of the Gryffindor 
first-year boys through the door. The boys (all of them) go through the 
door and "they" (all of the Gryffindor first-year boys) find their beds -- 
FIVE four-posters. I just don't see any way to read this as SOME of the 
boys finding the five beds. "the boys" and "they" seem inextricably linked, 
and the same "they" find only five beds.

JMHO,
bel