Number of students - Stirring the Pot even more

Risti <pretty_feet51@yahoo.com> pretty_feet51 at yahoo.com
Sun Feb 9 05:27:33 UTC 2003


No: HPFGUIDX 51892

Maybe it's just me, but I really don't buy the multiple campus 
theory.  I went to a school that technically included all the way 
from Kindergarten to Grad School.  This entire family of schools was 
referred to as the Institute.  Myself, I attended the college.  If 
someone were to ask me how many people were in my school, I would 
tell them 500.  That is approx. how many students were enrolled full 
time in the college.  It does not include how many were in the 
elementary, Jr/Sr High, or Grad School.  All but the grad school were 
on one campus(seperate buildings spaced out), and the grad school was 
about an hour away in the nearest major city.  While technically our 
College President was actually the Institute President, and many 
other such things were linked, we were very much different schools.  
I somehow think that if Hogwarts were something like this, A)we would 
have heard about it, Dumbledore seems to be the type who would want 
interaction between the campuses, and B)JKR wouldn't refer to the 
corporate group when asked how big Hogwarts is, since she should know 
that the interviewer is referring to how large the school that Harry 
attends is.

Now my second example from personal experience.  My high school, 
which contained 3 years, had about 1300 people in it.  When I 
graduated, there were people who walked the stage that I could have 
sworn I'd never seen before in my life. I see a big reason for this 
as being that I took mainly advanced courses.  There was a smaller 
group of us(prob about 60) who took multiple advanced courses.  Of 
this group, I think I probably knew *most* of them by name.  Now, I 
should admit at this point that I am not the greatest with names.  
Still, by this reasoning, I find it highly likely that after four 
years of classes with the same general group of people, Harry would 
still not know enough to mention students in his year, but in a 
different house that he rarely has classes with.  

That said, I would like to present my own twist on a couple of the 
theories currently presented.

First, that Harry's year, and probably those around it, are smaller 
then usual because of the war going on.  To throw some numbers out, 
1000/7 is about 142, perhaps Harry's year is about 100-120.

Second, that the houses are disproportionate in size, with the 
R:H:S:G ratios being something like 35:35:15:15, or slight variances 
off of that.

I would like to propose that part of the reason that the proportions 
would need to be *so* different in and around Harry's year is because 
of the war.  HuH? You say?  Let me explain.

While we know that genetics has nothing to do with sorting(heir of 
slytherin aside), few would argue that character and values have 
everything to do with it.  Now what is it that forms someone's 
character and values.  A large part of it has to do with how they 
were raised, and what kind of an environment they grew up in.  
Obviously, the parents of a child play a large part in that.  The way 
an individual parents would be affected by their character, which is 
represented by their house.
In short,
Character(House) affects Parenting affects Environment affects 
Character affects House
Therefore, to an extent,
Parents House affects Childs House.

A couple quick examples of this.  Draco says that his entire family 
has been in Slytherin.  Can you really imagine Lucius Malfoy raising 
his son to have a character that would fit in any other house but 
Slytherin?  On the other end of the spectrum, can you imagine any 
child raised by Molly and Arthur ending up in Slytherin?  A family 
founded on hard work and loyalty usually produces children who are 
ingrained with those traits.  A family that is all about thought and 
reasoning is likely to instill those characteristics in their 
children.

Now before you jump all over me, I'm not saying that exceptions don't 
occur.  However, look at the canon evidence(which should lead me into 
my next point):

Harry-parents in Griffyndor-orphan
Ron-parents in Griffyndor
Neville-parents Auror's, a job definately calling upon those who are 
daring and brave, although house unknown, parents currently in St. 
Mungo's for Cruciatus.
Parvati-twin sister in Ravenclaw-one of them probably an 'exception'
Hermione-Muggleborn
Lavender-Muggleborn(she didn't know what a Grim was in divination in 
PoA)
Seamus-Mother's house unknown, Father a muggle
Dean-muggleborn or raised by muggles.
Two unknown girls.

Slytherin
Draco-Whole family in slytherin-Father a DE
Crabbe-Father a DE, probably Slytherin
Goyle-same as above
Pansy-unknown parentage
Millicent-unknown parentage
Blaize Zabini-unknown parentage
(I know the evidence is weaker for Slytherin, but from the way the 
last three act, I would be surprised if they were raised any other 
way.)

Now, to move onto the next point.  During the Voldemort War, I would 
imagine that Griffyndor's and Slytherins would be the ones in the 
most crucial roles, or at least the most visible.  While former 
Hufflepuffs and Ravenclaws were probably also involved, I see them as 
having more of the roles in the war that would allow them to continue 
to have a family.  Remember that the difference between the Volde-
wars and WWI and WWII is that I doubt their were thousands of wizards 
conscripted as soldiers.  A good reason why there was a decline in 
births during these times was because the young men were physically 
away from the young women.  This probably wasn't the case for the 
average(most Hufflepuff+Ravenclaw alum) witch and wizard.  Therefore, 
while they probably weren't popping babies out one after another, 
they were able to have a family.

Griffyndors and Slytherins, however, were probably in less of a 
position to do so.  The canon?  Look again at the list I made above.  
Out of the 8 known Griffyndors, there is 1 orphan, 1 almost orphan, 
both from the war, one half-n-half who probably was living in the 
muggle world at the time since Seamus hinted that his dad didn't know 
his mum was a witch until after they were married, and one girl who 
could very likely come from a more Ravenclaw or mixed house family.  
The other half are muggle borns(or living with muggles, as the debate 
is for Dean, which could indicate another orphan).  Now, I don't know 
what the usual mix of muggleborns to magicbloods is, but I doubt that 
it is usually almost 50:50.  Of the magic born, only Ron seems to 
come from a 'normal' magic family.

Now look at the Slytherin list.  Again, half of the known Slytherin's 
are children of death eaters.  Only one other DE(Nott) is known to 
have a child, and personally, I would be surprised if that child was 
in any house but Slytherin.  Also, their are only six known 
Slytherin's in Harry's year(with a possible 10 if the 20 numbers are 
literal).

So what is all of my rambling trying to say?  I believe that when JKR 
stated that their are 1000 students in Hogwarts, she meant that there 
are *about* 1000 students(900-1100) in Hogwarts School of Witchcraft 
and Wizardry in the campus that Harry attends.  I believe that the 
houses probably are not proportionate, and that their are more 
Hufflepuffs and Ravenclaws then Griffyndors and Slytherin.  I believe 
that the Voldemort wars did affect the numbers for children around 
Harry's age, particularily in Griffyndor and Slytherin.

One more thing quickly, to the person who said a bigger house would 
automatically earn more house points.  I disagree, with this canon 
evidence.  In the first book, yes, Harry, Ron, Hermione, and Neville 
earned Griffyndor 160 points at the end.  However, Harry, Ron, 
Hermione, and Neville also lost Griffyndor that many points.  Harry, 
Ron, and Neville lost 150 the night they let Norbert go.  Hermione 
lost 10 for taking on a fully grown mountain troll, equally 160.  I 
think that most students end up losing and winning around the same 
amount of points, and that exceptional students like Hermione are 
always taken down by students like Neville.  It really is all about 
balance, and the whole house does have to work together to win the 
cup.  That, of course, is exactly how it should be.

~Risti, who has spent the last 24 hours figuring this jumble out, and 
knows that there are still holes, and can't wait to try and patch 
them when others point them out.





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