So Exactly how many students ARE there at Hogwartz?

[sigurd at eclipse.net]

No: HPFGUIDX 191566

Dear Steve

Oh to be sure. That was my point. These structural details really don't matter though they're nice to tease out a little. It's not like they take away anything from the story that Rowling has'nt gotten her enrollment numbers right.

But I didn't get the idea of a wizzarding world in decline from the story, nor do I think we can infer that from mentions of unused rooms sections etc. Hogwarts is a building and it doesn't matter how old wizzards can get, a building (so long as it doesn't fall down) will outlast them all. Hogwarts could easily be explained as the accretion of centuries which endure a lot longer than the human beings who pass through it.

The whole of Hogwarts is designed as a "theatrical set" to set a mood, both of ancient mistyness and  presentist comfort with a nostalgic view of Britain back a hundred years or so ago (Everyone in Hogsmead and Diagon Alley, and on the train platform seems stuck in Edwardian England of 1892 to 1914. The "set" of hogwartz is not therefore "replicative" but "evocative." It is not meant to be a detail of reality, but a tool to set the mood.

As a device to create "sense of wonder" it works fairly well.

Otto