CHAP DISC: HBP 22, After the Burial

[potioncat]

No: HPFGUIDX 159489

 
> Guguyni:
> <<Finally plucking up the courage to chime in after lurking for 
> awhile...>> 

Potioncat:
Welcome, glad you worked up the courage. Our discussions can get 
rather heated at times, but it's always with an intent of having fun.

Guguyni:
 I'd think you could get a feel for the size of the 
> wizarding community by looking at the turnout for the Quidditch 
World 
> cup.  On page 95 of GoF, Mr Weasley tells Harry that the 
> stadium "seats a hundred thousand."  

Potioncat:
We need to be very careful anytime JKR uses numbers. Some of us (me) 
have very vague notions of numbers and time. Others (well, Neri for 
example) are very precise.

JKR gives the impression of lots of students and great numbers of 
wizarding folk. This 7 story castle has crowded halls, thundering 
footsteps are heard between classes, students from the same house do 
not know each other after years of attending school together. Yet she 
only names 40 students for the one year, only has 5 boys in Harry's 
dorm, says that there are 20 students in a particular class. Heck, 
there are more than 40 new students every year in the local grade 
school in my small community. It isn't crowded and it is not a 7 
story castle.

I wouldn't exactly call it a Flint---but it's something you have to 
suspend disbelief over. But I do think she intends the numbers to be 
larger than we have hard evidence for. It's only a big deal when we 
try to use our understanding of the numbers to determine some other 
fact.

Potioncat, hoping she isn't rambling too very much after a long day 
at work.