OOP: Hogwarts student size new data

[Sabrina]

No: HPFGUIDX 63709

~<(Laurasia)>~:

But what about this??

"[Harry] had hardly spoken to anyone about this, least of all thirty
eagerly listening classmates."
(From Chapter 12 "Professor Umbridge" pg 221 Aus.)

Why this is important is firstly- there are 30 people in this class.
Secondly, it's DADA, which, acording to all other previous books is a
*Gryffindor only* class. So, according to this new information, there
are at least 30 Griffindors in Harry's year. According to the small
Hogwarts rule there would be 8 students in each house- therefore only
32 students *in total* in Harry's year. With 30 people in each house
(and assuming that all houses are equal) there'd be 120 people in
each year, and therefore 840 people in Hogwarts in total.

I think it's much harder to explain this away than your calculations
based on the number of carriages, as, after all, stagecoaches could
expand to account for the number of students, there were no first
years in the coaches, maybe luggage is taken separately- after all,
aren't they always instructed to leave their luggage on the train??
(I recall them all taking their pets, but never their trunks...) And,
in OoP they manage to fit 5 people in one carriage (Luna, Ron,
Hermione, Ginny, Harry).

Is it only me, or had anybody else the thought that JKR suddenly wants to
show that her statement of there being 1000 students at Hogwarts is right?
After all, we have heart about the 20 students per class -> 10 students per
year and house statistics.
Perhaps just a way of her to show that it isn't that way?

Btw. if that's the reason than I don't like it at all, because if you have
inconsistencies between your books and your interviews you should have
thought it out better and stick to the books!

Sabrina (who is pleased with herself becaue she finally noticed the number
20 as a reference to a lot, does that mean that it's now 30?)