HOW many classmates?

[dorapye]

No: HPFGUIDX 91390

--- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, "manawydan" <manawydan at n...> > 
> I get the impression from the books that once JKR had said 
publicly that
> there are around 1000 students at Hogwarts, all the references to 
numbers
> (not only this one, which I hadn't noticed before, but also the 
Yule Ball,
> the exam scene, etc) are all written with that in mind.
> 
> But I agree that we know the names of far fewer students than we 
first
> thought
> 
> gwyn eich byd
> 
> Ffred

dorapye:
Yes, this is what she has said, but people have always found it so 
hard to marry the numbers up, largely as we only have 8 Gryffindors 
in Harry's year in canon.  

I have read several ESSAYS on this quandary, the best known subject 
being the "two missing Gryffindor girls" (see The Lexicon) where 
people have argued that there must be two extra classmates in 
Harry's third year DADA class, when you extrapolate from the number 
of changes the Boggart (in the wardrobe) makes during the lesson (it 
makes 8 changes and Harry and Hermione didn't get a turn to face it, 
hence 10 students).

However, if we take it that there are *thirty* Gryffindors in the 
class, Harry and Hermione not getting their turn with the Boggart 
doesn't seem quite so....significant...or unfair... (except that 
Lupin dives in front of Harry to prevent him from tackling it).

Truly, I always kinda thought there were more than 8 Gryffindors in 
Harry's year.  Classes like Transfiguration, DADA, History of Magic, 
(the compulsory subjects Harry takes from 1st year) would be absurd 
with only 8 pupils...

Little things, like Harry and Ron's fake wand fight at the back of 
their Tranfiguration class (never any canon for them sharing the 
class with other houses) and Lavender and Parvati's giggling during 
McGonagall's announcement about the Yule Ball during the same 
lesson....how could this behaviour go unnnoticed in a class of 8 
students? 

My feeling (no canon, obviously) was that we had only been 
introduced to the boys who shared Harry's dorm and the girls that 
shared Hermione's; the fact that many of these students also chose 
the same "option" subjects at the end of the second year (CMC, 
Divination) is just, perhaps, coincidental.

However, with this number of "eagerly listening" DADA classmates 
during OotP, a subject for which we have *never* had any indication 
of Harry having to share lessons with students from other houses, I 
now have some support for believing there are many more Gryffindors  
in Harry's year whom we have not met.

By implication, this will also mean there are more Hufflepuffs, 
Ravenclaws and Slytherins. And perhaps an explanation for why Harry 
does not know the name of Theo Nott - he actually *hadn't* shared 
Potions lessons for the last 5 years with Theo Nott.

For the lessons that are shared with other houses, I suggest that 
the house groups are split into "sets" (not ability sets, but 
probably, as would seem logical from the books, based around the 
dorms the students are placed in).  So, in some lessons, different 
sets from different houses are put together (Flying - 20 brooms). 
This might be important to encourage inter-house friendliness or for 
some lessons it may be necessary to have fewer pupils for safety 
reasons e.g. Herbology and Potions.

So, Andrew Kirke and Jack Sloper could indeed be Gryffindors in 
Harry's year (I forget who pointed out to another poster that the 
two Gryffindor Beaters could not be fifth years as this would make 
them the same year as Harry and there are only 4 boys besides Harry 
in his year group).

Let's say the Sorting Hat does literally "quarter" the students each 
year, and take Harry's estimate of 30 DADA classmates as his full 
house complement, times by 4, then by 7 and we get 840 students at 
Hogwarts. Of course, each year group may very in numbers, so this 
could still be way off, but this is still a lot closer to JKR's 1000 
or so, and just makes better sense.

Any thoughts?
dorapye