Scary Teachers - Good Teachers (was: Re: Hagrid and Snape...

[potioncat]

No: HPFGUIDX 152970


> Clare:
>  
> Actually JKR said that she only created 40 "with backgrounds"!  
She  never 
> stated that 40 was the limit of the intake.  >  

> Potioncat:

No, nor did I. Erm, let me try again. Yes, JKR has indicated some 
vague number of students in Harry's year. My point was, according to 
JKR, she then created 40 characters to represent those students. So 
she pulls from that pool of 40 when she writes about the students in 
the classes. 

She put 10 specific students in Potions then added Harry and Ron. So 
10/40 made marks high enough to get a place in Potions before Ron and 
Harry showed up. If you want to say there are really 80 students, 
then you have to encrease the 10 to 20 in order to keep the 
proportion correct. or perhaps you have to change the 12 to 24.
  
The posts I'm referring to were discussing what percent of students 
made certain marks. It wouldn't be accurate to count only the 10 (or 
12) known students if you were adding the unknown students to the 
overall total.

I've also read Shaun's post and I agree with what he said. But I know 
there are several places in the books where there appears to be more 
than the "Known Characters" in the classes. So I understand your 
point as well.