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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

to think Hogwarts is actually a really small school?

223 replies

FlutteringButterflie · 30/08/2013 19:57

I watch the film earlier and realised in Griffindor in Harry's year there were only 5 boys and 3 girls. There are 4 houses so probably about 40 pupils per year.

7 years, so about 280 pupils - not really that many when you think about it.

[geek]

OP posts:
GrimmaTheNome · 30/08/2013 20:02

Yes, they're all in the same classes together with the other houses aren't they so can't be more than about 40 ... unless there's a whole B stream we don't get to see Grin

GrimmaTheNome · 30/08/2013 20:03

Not that many teachers either. No wonder the place is invitation only.

olidusUrsus · 30/08/2013 20:04

I would love for Hogwarts to have a B stream, but I reckon Ron would have been in it so they can't have one Grin

ITCouldBeWorse · 30/08/2013 20:04

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attheendoftheday · 30/08/2013 20:05

I think Hufflepuff are the B stream. Poor Hufflepuff Sad

cory · 30/08/2013 20:06

It's the same with all these famous places. Dowton Abbey needs a butler and an underbutler to maintain smooth running of the dinners but doesn't run to a single gardener and there is nobody to do their laundry either.

Ericaequites · 30/08/2013 20:07

Neville would defineately been B stream. I'm glad to know other people have thought this through also.

Original poster
FlutteringButterflie · 30/08/2013 20:07

In primary school there is 7 years (Reception up to Year 6)

I think there was about 30 in my class and we used to have a whole school assembly every morning.

There is no way we would have filled out 4 massive long tables in the great hall.

OP posts:
cory · 30/08/2013 20:16

What always gets me is how the finances work: how do they pay the teachers and provide all those wonderful school dinners with such few boarders, especially as some poor ones have bursaries (Voldemort, for one, and one suspects Snape as well). My hunch here is that most of the teachers they recruit probably have family dosh so they pay starving wages and expect them to make up the difference from their own money. People like Professor McGonagall probably do come from rather naice families. Which would explain why Snape is still living in a hovel when he is a head of house.

And how do they persuade Muggle parents to pass with the dosh for a school they have never heard of and never get to see? And, under the circumstances, how on earth do they keep it secret? Why do Hermione's old Muggle friends never ask? Do they have to obliviate them every time?

OnTheBottomWithAWomensWeekly · 30/08/2013 20:23

Downton Abbey would have loads of gardeners but you wouldn't see themas they would never come into the house, being likely to have lodgings above the stables and so on.

Kumiho · 30/08/2013 20:24

Maybe the Ministry pay for it? Like, state school :)

GnocchiGnocchiWhosThere · 30/08/2013 20:25

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zoobaby · 30/08/2013 20:25

You all raise some valid points. I always thought it was equivalent to a 2 form entry since Gryffindor and Slytheran shared a few lessons. I suspect Huff and Raven do likewise until they're older and choose elective of course.

I'm pretty sure that place has some very wealthy benefactors.

Also agree with Cory, the teachers do it for the PRESTIGE.

Maybe Hermione didn't have any muggle friends?

Kumiho · 30/08/2013 20:26

I like the theory that very few wizards were having children during the First Wizard War, so Harry's population was lower than his parents' might have been, or his own kids will be.

GnocchiGnocchiWhosThere · 30/08/2013 20:26

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GrimmaTheNome · 30/08/2013 20:28

Yes, the Ministry must pay - investing in the future of magic. No way would all those weasleys be able to afford it otherwise. Obviously they only cover board and tuition, clothes and books are provided by the family hence Ron's woollies and their second hand books.

GnocchiGnocchiWhosThere · 30/08/2013 20:28

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GnocchiGnocchiWhosThere · 30/08/2013 20:30

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nomorecrumbs · 30/08/2013 20:31

Come on HP fans! The house elves did the laundry.

AmazingBouncingFerret · 30/08/2013 20:31

I'd imagine there were more children attending Hogwarts who were several years younger than Harry, there would have bound to have been a baby boom after Voldy-knickers popped his clogs first time round.

GrimmaTheNome · 30/08/2013 20:31

Maybe Hermione didn't have any muggle friends?

she'd be like the kid who gets a place at a superselective GS miles away and loses contact with her old pals. And frankly she probably didn't have that many at primary, she'd have been a bookworm billy no-mates.

Original poster
FlutteringButterflie · 30/08/2013 20:34

I'm now reading an article about evidence that suggests there were actually two more girls in Gryffindor.

Confused
OP posts:
ebwy · 30/08/2013 20:35

I suspect in the year or so after the first war there was a baby boom so the year below Ginny Weasley and Luna woukd have been huge by comparison.

Tee2072 · 30/08/2013 20:36

And where to Wizards and Witches go to school before they are 11? Who teaches them to read and write and do maths?