Harry Potter question

[tigriswolf]

Does anyone know how many students actually attend Hogwarts every year?

According to the wiki, in Harry's year there are 8 Gryffindors, 9 Slytherins, 8-10 Hufflepuffs, and 10 Ravenclaws. But in Goblet of Fire, only 4 Gryffindors, 2 Slytherins, 4 Hufflepuffs, and 2 Ravenclaws are Sorted.

(Were there only five Gryffindors in Harry's parents' year? With Lily the only girl?)

This makes it very difficult to write a fic not about Harry and his peers. Do I just make characters up? Or ignore how imbalanced it seems?

Comments

[natural-blue-26.livejournal.com]

I always just figured there were a bunch of people Harry didn't personally interact with and thus weren't names. (The movies certainly have many more students per class than those numbers, anyway.) So as long as the answer is SIX MILLION etc you're probably fine. -_^

[tigriswolf]

Alright. Well, I like coming up with characters, anyway.

[kc-anathema.livejournal.com]

The numbers are notoriously screwy, and I've seen several sites trying to reconcile how few wizards there are. Essentially you can make up who you like as needed without worrying much, but then the story itself is pretty unbalanced in how Rowling favors the Gryffindors and slights everyone else.

[tigriswolf]

I don't remember noticing how prejudiced it was when I first read the books - but rereading the Sorting scene in GoF, it slapped me upside the face.

I'll just make up characters whenever I need someone, then.

[kc-anathema.livejournal.com]

With me, I saw it clearest at the end of the first book, when Dumbledore waves his hand and awards *just* enough points to Gryffindor to give them the house cup.

Yeah, that's pretty much what I do, although sometimes I'll scope out the wikis for any barely mentioned characters to snag.

[shhdontlook.livejournal.com]

I think JK admitted she screwed up the numbers. Best fanwank I've seen so far is that Hogwarts would normally have hundreds (if not thousands) of students, but Harry's genereration is made of kids who were born during the war (and whose families didn't flee to other countries), so it's significantly smaller (a couple hundred people or so).

[tigriswolf]

That actually makes a lot of sense.