Harry Potter question

[dr4b]

I don't follow the fan sites at all, so I just realized something weird while thinking about it on the bus this morning, and I'm sure this has come up elsewhere: if in every year at Hogwarts there are 40 kids, 5 per gender per house (and is this true? maybe not), you have to wonder who the fifth guy was sharing a dorm with Sirius, James, Peter, and Remus. and wouldn't it have totally driven them nuts?

Unless, of course, there were more than 5 per year then, maybe if there were 8 or 9, then the four of them would have had a room to themselves or something.

I also have to wonder what the heck it must be like being the other kids in the same room as Fred and George Weasley. Oh man. Well, I guess they're friends with Lee Jordan, but... well, we never hear of any others, so hm.

Comments

[sleepsong.livejournal.com]

There isn't always 5 students per gender per house. As is, in Harry's year there are only three girls in Gryffindor, three girls in Hufflepuff, three or four boys in Hufflepuff, and four girls in Slytherin.

[dr4b]

No, there's only that many we know by name. There are probably others, and I think she's specifically said things like "The 20 students followed Sprout down to the greenhouse..." or something during classes.

[sleepsong.livejournal.com]

We also know that Rowling can't do maths, as she claims that there's thousands of students and yet there can't be more than 300... And we know the names of students she doesn't mention in the books. My count above includes those.

[wandelrust.livejournal.com]

I thought in the first two books there was another kid in Fred and George's year besides Lee, but I can't for the life of me remember who.

I also got the impression that the classes weren't set at size 40. There just seems to be way more than 280 kids at Hogwarts. I just assumed that Harry's class/gender/house combination was small, or there was another male Gryffendor dorm room of his year, and we just didn't hear much about them.

[dr4b]

Yeah, you're probably right, the older kids were mentioned more in the earlier books and had graduated by the later books, maybe.

I don't think they have enough for another dorm room his year though -- not enough gaps in the "another student or two, then --" part of the sorting hat?

[zaph.livejournal.com]

Kenneth Towler is the fourth Gryffindor boy in the twins' year. He's mentioned in Order of the Phoenix as having come out in boils during their fifth year because Fred put Bulbadox powder in his pyjamas, which strongly implies they shared a dorm.

[genuinekfc.livejournal.com]

Welcome to the big debate, fueled by JKR's inability to do math. She claimed that the student body was ~1000, then had to backtrack when people pointed out the average number of students per year per house.

Somehow, I think the Gryffindor boys were just those 4 in that year. That's the only way I can think of as how Peter got included, even though he was more of a hanger-on. The students are so divided by House and year when making friends.

[bpr.livejournal.com]

The students are so divided by House and year when making friends.

Which is an artifact of how the classes are set up. If you place the same group of people together for 90+% of their day then how should they go about making friends elsewhere. It does seem that the division by year is much weaker than by house. And that Harry is proving to be a powerful unifier (think DA) / divider.

[genuinekfc.livejournal.com]

Division by year: They have the common rooms to interact with people in their House but in other years. I'm guessing it also like Fraternities here, in that older students guide the younger students in their House.

Harry is proving to be a powerful unifier (think DA) / divider.
Er, Hermione and Ginny were the reason the DA included more students from other houses. Harry seemed shy and distant from other students, partly because he didn't like the initial reactions he got due to his fame. I seriously wonder if it's as divided as it appears through the "Harry Filter." JKR's favorite book uses an unreliable narrator, and she certainly has elements of that in the series.

[bpr.livejournal.com]

Sure, he is shy and distant, but people still wanted to learn from him and eventually he formed into the "leader" of this group of students. Especially looking at their final action in the MoM.

What is JKR's favorite book?

[genuinekfc.livejournal.com]

He warmed up to them once they were part of the DA, but he doesn't actively seek out other people to interact with. It's splitting hairs, so it's not really relevant. He's famous enough that he can influence other students without meaning to.


JKR has said in multiple interviews that her favorite book is Lolita by Vladimir Nabokov.

Yes, I am Sirius serious.

[bpr.livejournal.com]

I've stayed away from reading JKR interviews, fansites, etc etc. I rely on my friends to provide me with the juicy summaries of what I should know.

[genuinekfc.livejournal.com]

btw, were you part of Pioneers buggy? I get the impression I should know you. (I was in CIA buggy 99-02).

[bpr.livejournal.com]

Yes. I did Pioneers buggy from 01-03. I was "dragged" into it by my 15-211 partner, cgeisser; who also ended up being my 412 and 451 partner.

I know your username is familiar, but I can't seem to put a face to it (your userpic non withstanding).

[genuinekfc.livejournal.com]

ah yes, Carla. I'm Katherine (aka kfc). I'm trying to find a picture of me that doesn't suck, but cia's website has this stupid thing where it's nearly impossible to find a direct link to a picture.

Go to ciabuggy.org and search for photo ID #662.

[bpr.livejournal.com]

Oh ok. Yes, this is certainly a case of "shouldn't we have met before."

Hi. I'm Brian.
Nice to meet you. :~)

[bpr.livejournal.com]

You beat me to the befriending thing. I went to your journal to see what interesting posts there were and discovered that I could see protected entries. Certainly had to do a double take. Anyway, it goes along with further lj weirdness today. I haven't received emails notifying me about your replies to my comments. Apparently, lj likes D too much to tell *me* about what is happening in her journal. :)

[genuinekfc.livejournal.com]

That was happening to you, too? I received an email for your first comment (after I had replied) and this one. I could check the lj maintenance community to see if there is a reason for this, but I'm lazy.

[bpr.livejournal.com]

Well, this one came with an email so I am guessing that things are fixed now.

[cmdr-zoom.livejournal.com]

JKR being bad at math reminds me of her unfortunate comment that the US would, of course, have "their own school." Singular.
There's a basic lack of comprehension of differences in scale there.

[zaph.livejournal.com]

Nah, it's possible - there should be only about 40,000 wizards and witches in the US, so a single school would be reasonably big, but certainly no bigger than some high schools I've seen.

[cmdr-zoom.livejournal.com]

Right, a 5:1 population ratio. Is it practical to have just one school for a place the size of the US, though? The state I live in, Oregon, is as big as England all by itself.

[damienroc.livejournal.com]

Why not? It's clear that the wizarding world is far more adept at making distance insignificant.

[genuinekfc.livejournal.com]

Although that works both ways. I know of several Americans who bemoan her low number of minority characters, but the UK has a very different racial makeup than the US.

[zaph.livejournal.com]

Well, there are also about 8000 wizards and witches in the UK and Ireland, but we don't know all of them by name, either. :)

But also, the books aren't about the time MWPP were at Hogwarts, either, so the only times we ever see them or hear about them are when they're outside their dorm - it's entirely possible they did drive their other housemates crazy, but we just never hear about it, because it doesn't advance the plot.

I think we're meant to understand that there are also students at Hogwarts in Harry's time who we've never been introduced to, or who aren't mentioned by name at a particular time - where was Zacharias Smith when the Hufflepuff second-years were all avoiding Harry in Chamber of Secrets? Might Romilda Vane have been 'a second-year' who asked Harry to the Yule Ball in Goblet of Fire?

For that matter, there's also a mysterious Muggle Studies teacher whose name is entirely unknown to us...