Harry's bed (Was: A sandwich)

[Carol]

No: HPFGUIDX 178690

--- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, Pamela Rosen <pam_rosen at ...> wrote:
>
> <Snipping a bit of Mus' point:>
> 
> It's a minor point for me, though, because there doesn't seem to be
> anything in canon* to indicate that when you move from one year to
> another, you move to a different dormitory (unlike a lot of school
> stories) - by assumption, a given room is allocated to First Years
> once it's been vacated by departing Seventh Years.  So an empty bed
> (or two - Ron's would be empty too) doesn't seem too problematical.
> 
> Pam, for whom nothing is too small, comments:
> 
> Remembering the amount of death there had just been at Hogwarts,
coupled with the fact that there were no Muggle-borns at Hogwarts
anymore (I'm not certain if half-bloods were still allowed to go) it
seems to me there would be many fewer students at Hogwarts that year.
 Therefore, it is entirely plausable that there were many empty beds,
Harry's among them.  I can imagine that there would be no boy who
would want to be caught sleeping in the bed that had been Harry's, for
fear of looking like he was showing some small support of Harry to the
new administration, and for fear of flaunting a belief that Harry was
dead or run off to Harry's supporters in that room.
>
Carol responds:

I agree that there would be fewer students at Hogwarts because the
Muggle-borns weren't attending, and there were certainly no new
seventh-years. Since the students use the same dormitory each year
(rather than first-years moving to a new room when they become
second-years and so on), I see no reason why the room wouldn't retain
the same number of beds until a new set of first-years replaced the
seventh years and perhaps required an extra bed or two (unless there
are always five new boys and five new girls per House each year ;-) ).
The room wouldn't magically know that three of the five boys who had
used that room for six years wouldn't be attending for their seventh
year, would it? Maybe there's some magical connection or means of
communication between the Sorting Hat and the dormitories that tells
the rooms how many beds to produce, similar to the magic used by the
Room of Requirement. 

At any rate, I see no reason for Harry not to expect his room to be
just as he left it, only without his, Ron's, and Dean's trunks and
belongings. Hogwarts has been his only real home, and it's waiting for
him.

Carol, wondering whether HRH and Dean were able to finish up the month
or two left in the school year just as Hermione was allowed to finish
her second year after having been Catified and Petrified