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AIBU?

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:

Report

JeanPaget · 30/08/2013 23:34

I think the opposite must be true as well for the siblings of Muggle-borns. Finding out that magic is real and that there's this whole fantastic world out there, but you aren't allowed to go because you're not one of the special ones.

Makes me quite for Petunia Dursley (not that locking Harry in a cupboard was great or anything...)

ConfusedPixie · 30/08/2013 23:37

A potential estimate, she may've hidden a whole other house in the cupboard that we didn't see in the films

It is as good an estimate as we'll ever get isn't it? Nobody knows for sure, I think that even JK doesn't know, it was one of the things she had on her HP-Centric personal website before I may possibly have spent hours upon hours on that site

CorrinaKedavra · 30/08/2013 23:39

I think Neville suspects he is a squib at one point.

And look how he turned out

ProudAS · 30/08/2013 23:41

OFSTED report as promised:

www.tes.co.uk/article.aspx?storycode=381022

DiseasesOfTheSheep · 30/08/2013 23:46

I think Neville suspects he is a squib at one point. And look how he turned out

Good point - now that was some transformation

FairPhyllis · 30/08/2013 23:47

I think that the problem of how many children are at Hogwarts is related to the genre shift that took place after book 3 - once they stopped being fun boarding school stories in a wacky setting and became Terribly Serious Works About Good And Evil, with more emphasis on the realism of the world, you start to realise that absolutely nothing about this wizard society or about the way anyone behaves makes any fucking sense at all.

I love love love the OFSTED report.

Lottiedoubtie · 30/08/2013 23:53

Favourite thread ever!

I think 300 is about right on numbers. Those tables in the great hall take up more space than the actual people I'd say?

When Harry sees the thestrals is a bit of a plot hole as far as I can tell. Best explanation I've ever seen it that you have to be passed the shock of death and have processed seeing it right in front of you before you can see thestrals. ... Bit too convenient for me that one. Would make more sense if Harry had seen them at the end of GoF.

Runwayqueen · 30/08/2013 23:58

This thread has made my day. Thank you

ConfusedPixie · 31/08/2013 00:00

"Harry is able to see the Thestrals at the beginning of Order of the Phoenix. It is later explained that you can see them after you have seen death. Harry had seen the death of his mother and possibly his father before he saw Cedric Diggory die, so why didn't he see the Thestrals before? Thanks, Kerry!

JKR's response: You can't see them until the death "sinks in."

From Mugglenet:
www.mugglenet.com/books/mistakes/ootpmistakes.shtml

Lottiedoubtie · 31/08/2013 00:18

Odd how the death of his parents didnt sink in until the September after he saw the death of a classmate though?

SarahAndFuck · 31/08/2013 00:25

It annoys me how few pupils there are to be seen in the films.

That castle is massive. MASSIVE.

And there's about 100 people living in it. I'm sure there were more in the book, even if they weren't named and active in the story. There was just a general feeling of moreness about it.

I went to a school with 54 pupils in it. That was for four whole year groups. 54 of us and we didn't get a massive castle and we didn't need one.

He didn't remember the deaths of his parents though, did he? So perhaps he had to be aware of what he was seeing and remember it before he had 'seen death' in the way required to see the Thestrals.

SarahAndFuck · 31/08/2013 00:29

Maybe Hagrid knew that Sirius wasn't bad?

Sirius was Order of the Phoenix and I bet Dumbledore never believed he was bad, even if he couldn't prove it. And he trusted Hagrid so might have said so to him.

So Hagrid was telling the truth when he said they were all in Slytherin.

MidniteScribbler · 31/08/2013 00:39

I don't think squibs would be sent to local muggle schools. I would think that they would probably continue to be home schooled and pushed into mundane type of work (like Filch was). A few smarter ones might leave home and go out to the muggle world, as the only squibs we see in the book aren't particularly "bright" types.

FlutteringButterflie · 31/08/2013 00:48

Odd how the death of his parents didnt sink in until the September after he saw the death of a classmate though?

Maybe it never sunk in? And it was only Cedric's death that allowed him to see.

OP posts:

olidusUrsus · 31/08/2013 02:47

Yy Flutter you have it right according to JK!

olidusUrsus · 31/08/2013 02:48

Also I recall JK saying that only in the film adaptations was it implied that Harry witnessed the death(s) of his parents, in the books he does not.

almapudden · 31/08/2013 03:18

OH MY GOD I had forgotten all about the Shoebox Project.

slapandpickle · 31/08/2013 03:30

Ron says at some point that "he has a cousin who is an accountant but the family don't talk about him" or something like that. :)

ihavenonameonhere · 31/08/2013 04:51

I am a massive HP geek, too huge lol

I always get sort of upset at the relationship Hermiome has with her parents. It feels to me that when your child is a wizard and you are a muggle then you lose a lot of the relationship. She hardly goes home at Christmas and is off to Rons as quick as she can in the summer holidays!

And dont get me started on not blaming Petunia for being bitter towards her sister and parents!

YoniBottsBumgina · 31/08/2013 05:31

I think hagrid was doing his usual blundering along with total confidence thing and forgetting all about Sirius and potentially some other wizards who "went bad". I don't think hufflepuffs are stream b either as they don't seem to be streamed at all, surely if they are sorted according to personality then they just all have different
strengths. It's not really covered in the book, harry sort of just accepts the other characters idea that hufflepuff is "the thick house", but in pottermore and other sources etc they come across as more kind, inclusive, thoughtful, caring etc rather than thick.

I have often wondered why Gryffindor is meant to be the best house since bravery doesn't seem like such an amazing attribute to have. Yes it's obviously a good one, but there's not much use being brave if you can't judge whether a risk is worth taking or how it might impact on others etc.

Tee2072 · 31/08/2013 06:30

If I had remember what Hagrid had said about bad wizards and Slytherin, I'd have assumed it was a foreshadow that Sirius wasn't bad.

Dumbeldore, on the other hand, is really not a nice person. He left Harry with people he knew hated wizards, he didn't fight for Sirius to have a fair trial, he manipulated everyone in the Order and more.

My favourite fanfics are the ones that point out all of that and fix it.

ebwy · 31/08/2013 06:56

I always considered it Hagrid showing his prejudice. Because nothing in being cunning and ambitious means someone is going to turn bad, whereas loyalty doesn't mean they have to be loyal to the 'good'side, intelligence doesn't mean always good and always right, and some pretty terrible people have been very brave.

Who you are are at 11 doesn't determine who you will be at an older stage of adolescence either.

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ProudAS · 31/08/2013 07:29

I think that the class sizes (whilst untenable in most schools) are about right.

As for the funding - the students provide their own books etc and a lot of the housework is done by magic or slaves house elves.

Its probably due another OFSTED now as the last one was five years ago.

FreyaFridays · 31/08/2013 07:52

Another massive HP geek wading in here!

Rowling said on her personal HP-centric website years ago, in response to the Thestrals thing, that Harry never saw his parents die. His father died downstairs while he and his mother were upstairs, and his mother laid him in his cot before she was killed, so baby Harry saw nothing but the flash of green light above him. Canon Harry didn't see death until he witnissed Cedric's murder.

Gah, one of those things that makes me really, really not like the films. They got so much so WRONG! They also show Harry witnessing Quirrel's death, which also confused film viewers when it came to the Thestrals. I can't really take anything from the films too seriously, as they don't even pronounce Voldemort's name correctly... geek geek geek!

Also, sorry, more geekness, Lavender doesn't die in the books. She's saved by Trelawney in the Battle of Hogwarts. She was killed off in the films, however.

Tee2072 · 31/08/2013 09:17

There's more than one way to pronounce Voldemort?

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