[HPforGrownups] Number of students - Stirring the Pot

[The Sparrow]

No: HPFGUIDX 51948

New girl here! Trying my best to keep my feet and head
in check as I plunge into the middle of your
disscussions......... 
--- "Steve <bboy_mn at yahoo.com>" <bboy_mn at yahoo.com>
wrote:
 
> Hogwarts unique in that it is the only school to
> offer both secondary
> school and college. It is the Howarts School &
> College of Witchcraft
> and Wizardry which is the primier campus, while the
> lesser schools
> (Hogwarts School of Magic or London School of Magic,
> ...) are located
> in other places. That makes it possible for
> Hogwart's castle to be the
> only school of it's kind in the UK (as JKR said)
> while still allowing
> for the possiblity of other magic schools. 
 I assumed Hogarts being the only school 'of its kind'
meant compared to other wizard
schools-Beaubatons,Durmstrang etc.
> I don't accept the 280 count for students in
> Hogwart's castle. That's
> just too few; that's a tiny school. But I could
> speculate that in the
> beginning ALL student went to Hogwart's castle
> (that's why it's big),

Could be why there's so many unused class rooms-
perhaps there aren't as many students as there used to
be- not everyones a fan of Dumbledore's- they could
have the same notions as Vernon Dursely ('I will
not....have some crack-pot old fool
teach...magic..'-PS,end of chapter 4)  
There are more teachers than we hear of. Every subject
has a teacher who specialises in it- Arithmancy,Muggle
studies,Astronomy, Ancient runes etc would all have
different teachers. These teachers are not mentioned 
in the story until they become of consequence.   
Remember, we didn't know of Professor Trelawny until
book 3.

About the numbers:
When Harry first arrives, the sorting ceremony is
described in detail. I noted every student JKR wrote
in, and came up with 22 students. Since that number is
5.5 when divided by four, there's either an uneven
division between the houses(and how can you be sure
that new students will be of equal house lots?),or JKR
didn't mention all the students. She was very thorough
with it though,interupting Harry's thought train and
observation monologue a few times. There must be more
than 22 eleven year old kids born in the wizard
world.(especially if Mr. and Mrs. Weasley are any
example!)We also learn later on that when Ron and
Harry are shown their rooms they see five curtained
beds in the room.  One each for them, one for Dean
Thomas, one for Neville Longbottom, and one for Semus.
Assuming the girls have the same, thats eight first
years in Gryffindor alone. As I said before, no-one
can be sure how even the dividing of first-years will
be.

I assume that all the children of the wizarding world
go to magic school, but could there be wizard kids who
turn out to be muggle-like Filch has no magic powers
at all, and since he attended Hogwarts in the first
place he must have been born to a magic family, to be
in the wizarding world in the first place.
  Perhaps *all* the wizard kids go to primary school
in the Muggle world,like Harry did (he'd had his name
down since he was born), so they can learn reading
writing maths etc. Then, those that show promise in
the eyes of Dumbledore are chosen for Hogwarts. That's
why you see wizards in the muggle world(especially at
the start of PS/SS when the celebrations of V's death
are abundant)-they're picking up their kids from
school! We've all seen freaks and wierdos -which I am
proud to be one of:)- in the street, why ould seeing
them at the school gate be any different? Maybe that's
where kid's *invisible friends*,dragon's atc tales
come from-Wizard kids who can't keep their mouth shut!

I guess it's possible that there is more than one
school of magic in the U.K.  However, the lexicon map
of wizarding Britain puts Hogwarts over the border
into Scotland.  We don't hear of where it is in the
book exactly, but we know it took all of daylight to
get there (Hogarts express might travel faster than
Muggle transport or use a portkey, but then if it did,
how could the FordAnglia get that far/keep up?) 
  


>......additional people at the
> Quidditch match
> and Yule Ball. 

 Take into account the extra subject teachers, all
students, students from Beaubatons and Durmstrang, and
some people who are there to run the tornament,
etc..you get numbers for the yule ball. As for
Quidditch matches, there's nothing to say Hogsmeade
people don't come to school games, especially to cheer
on their kids or root for their old house team.    

> Not perfect, but it's the best I've got.
  
Mine's not perfect either! I fully expect People to
point out all the lovely big holes!!:)

 Sparrow (Slytherin house)

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