[HPforGrownups] Prefects

[Shaun Hately]

No: HPFGUIDX 156885

On 12 Aug 2006 at 14:17, carodave92 wrote:

> It doesn't really effect the plot...but could someone (English 
> reader?) explain to me the prefect system?  I'm not sure that we use 
> it in the US, at least, we don't use it in the public school system I 
> attended.  When Percy was in 5th year, he was named a prefect.  When 
> Ron and Hermione were in 5th year, they were named prefects.  I 
> thought it was a one-year post.  When the trio entered 6th year, I 
> assumed that other 5th years would take over...but R/H remained 
> prefects.  Are there three years worth of prefects (5th years, 6th 
> years and 7th years)?  That seems like alot of chiefs for not alot of 
> Indians.

The thing is, there's no single 'prefect system'. A lot of British schools (and for that matter, 
schools throughout the Commonwealth) have prefects, but there's no single set way that the 
system will necessarily work.

>From what I can work out (as somebody who does understand such systems quite well) it 
seems that at Hogwarts, prefects are appointed at Fifth Year and remain prefects through 
fifth, sixth, and seventh year. At seventh year, a Head Boy and Head Girl are appointed, and 
these may or may not have been prefects previously.

This would give six prefects in each House for a total of 24 prefects across the school at any 
one time - either including or in addition to the Head Boy and Girl.

In terms of numbers of chiefs to numbers of Indians, it really depends on how big the school 
is. Estimates of the school size tend to range from just under 300 to somewhere around 
1000, depending on which evidence people decide to give credence to.

>From my perspective, 24 prefects out of 280 students would seem on the high side - but not 
ridiculously so - I am aware of schools that have had ratios at that level. 24 out of 1000 would 
be entirely reasonable.

So the numbers don't seem that odd.

We also have indications that some other positions - such as Quidditch Captain - are 
considered equivalent to a prefects position in at least some ways - but it's hard to say 
exactly how equivalent they are from the canon.

It's also important to realise that depending on the school, a prefects position can be either 
purely symbolic, right up to being a position of very real power - especially when you look at 
history, at some schools in the past, prefects have been very important and powerful. 
Hogwarts in many ways seems to be an old fashioned school in its operations, and prefects 
are reasonably powerful and important. In such an environment, where prefects actually do 
real and important work, you may need more of them than in an environment, where it's just 
a privilege without real utility.

Yours Without Wax, Dreadnought
Shaun Hately | www.alphalink.com.au/~drednort/thelab.html
(ISTJ)       | drednort at alphalink.com.au | ICQ: 6898200 
"You know the very powerful and the very stupid have one
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facts. They alter the facts to fit the views. Which can be 
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