darthloki posted a comment on Wednesday 21st March 2007 8:44pm

I think, logically, there is more than one dorm room for each age/house group.
Teachers? Well, we know that classes for Potions are Gryff/Slyth, so presumably the 'two houses per class' rule continues elsewhere. If you had all students in a single year level in two classes - one for Gryffs/Slyths, one for Raves/Puffs - then for grades 1-5, that's ten classes a week minimum, plus sixth year NEWT classes and seventh year NEWT classes.

Will we see more Ollivander/Harry interaction?

Keldore posted a comment on Wednesday 21st March 2007 5:53am

Another brilliant chapter. The wizangamot detail is very well done, and as always you not only write the story but continue to build the world in which it is set. That is one of my favorite aspects of any fiction.

As for the glaring plot hole in the student/teacher ratio, I believe JKR admitted in an interview that this just wasn't properly thought through. A plausible explaination is simply that Harry's year is smaller than others, since other years aren't given in detail most of the time. So Hogwarts classes are actually much larger than is hinted at in cannon. Many of the classrooms also are not detailed in terms of size, so some could theoretically be large lecture halls with 100 students to a class. I can see subjects like Runes and Arithmancy in particular being set up like that. And finally, the upper years don't take or qualify for certain subjects, so there is some wiggle room there.

wolf550e posted a comment on Wednesday 21st March 2007 3:35am

why is Luna's letter

I need your help. That is, I need you to visit my father and me, and I would like for you to visit us at The Quibbler at your earliest convenience. Sooner rather than later that is.

stuck in the middle of a dialogue like that? I don't get it, seems like an editing error to me.

Crys posted a comment on Tuesday 20th March 2007 5:56am

I'm honored that you think so highly of my fic, Aaran. Thank you for your kind words.

Oh, I am looking forward to the verbal fencing between Harry and Severus now that Harry has some legal defense . . . *malicious cackling*

I like the reasoning you give for making Legilimency legal against students but not staff. But then why hasn't he used it against Malfoy and company?

*frown* I still dislike how AD is handling Malfoy. That unprovoked attack should have resulted in immediate expulsion from the Paladin program at the very least. Wand snapping and expulsion from Hogwarts isn't out of the question. Why AD decided to "speak" with him and give him a chance to "promise" to do better . . . Well, this is a canonical AD instead of my mental image, so it's your right.

> "Harry Potter SIR is the most kindest and most caring-est master of any house-elves in the world. If Dobby is allowed to rest from time to time, the trip should not tax Dobby too
much, but Dobby would go around the world for Harry Potter SIR."
*chuckle* Gotta love that elf.

> "Meditor integrum scriptor."
Ah, Mongering does have some nice bennies, doesn't it? :) Wonder how much he'll sell it to Hermione for.

Zachy / Zacky? *snicker* I noticed that he was specifically mentioned in the early part of the chapter, though. Caught some allusions to why he was so hostile toward Harry. Looking forward to more of the political maneuvering. It's not everyone's cup of tea, but I'm thoroughly enjoying it.

Now we are left to wonder what ace Smith has up his sleeve

And also wonder at the cause of Luna's letter

One thing bugging me, though. Nobody's scared of the Monger? The profs damn near hex him the instant he admits to it and now he's in a hall full of self-important, heads-up-their-arses purebloods. I'm surprised nobody tried to kill him (aside from the idiot deez, but they are another story).

Looks like the entire point for Fudge was trying to embarrass Harry. It worked, I suppose, but the backlash won't be pretty.

No freakin' wonder the purebloods are rich. Umbridge for instance makes 47 * 3 * 2 = 284 galleons per week. Talk about overpaid . . . And one of those votes is probably Weasley, isn't it?

That whole room was laughing at his ignorance. Reality is going to rise up and bite them on the ass sooner or later.

AD, you said that nothing of great import was there (hence why you didn't go to the session) yet there was a vote on increasing auror funding? Something doesn't jibe.

Greatly looking forward to the next.

UdderPD posted a comment on Tuesday 20th March 2007 5:23am

A few thoughts to add to my previous review.

The apparent size of the MoM, St. Mungo's and Diagon Alley together with a Quidditch league of some thirteen teams would indicate quite a substantial population base.

TTFN (again) UdderPD

UdderPD posted a comment on Tuesday 20th March 2007 4:25am

Excellent Chapter.

Reference the question in your notes:

A couple of years back JKR stated on BBC TV that there were two more girls in Hermione's dorm room but she couldn't remember their names at that time. As a fan fiction writer myself this appears, at first sight, to be a pretty serious omission.

However when the environment was being established in the first few HP books everything we saw was from Harry's PoV. What Harry never saw, or interacted with, we didn't learn about.

Ergo I think that it would be justified to accept that there are about a thousand students at Hogwarts. Also there would be many more instructors than those we are introduced to in canon in order to cover the extra students.

Additionally I have often thought that the younger student would have to have lessons in (at least) English and Maths as well as their magical subjects. After all they are only eleven years old when they start at Hogwarts.

TTFN UdderPD

DrT posted a comment on Tuesday 20th March 2007 12:02am

In my stories, I postulate about 340 students, and a wizarding population of between 20,000 to 30,000 (their long lifetimes accounting for part of that number, and the fact that many 'Pure-bloods' live like the Gaunts, ie poor and with hand-me-down wands, making the Weasleys look well-off). Obviously, my political account differ as well, but yours was still interesting.

Back on point. Even with 340 students, the actually class-load per main teacher is unlikely. Each charms class year 1-5 seems per House. So, even allowing just one meeting per week, and combining all NEWT classes into one per year, that's 22 class meetings per week for Flitwick. And schedules just cannot be made out of canon references. So, do what you have to do to make your story work, even if it goes against canon, as canon is impossible in this instance.

"T"

Prince Charon posted a comment on Monday 19th March 2007 2:47pm

You're very good at this.

I'm not sure about your question at the end, unless the teachers really are using Time Turners, and let Hermione borrow an extra one in Book 3 (which would explain why they had one to give her).

Thank you for the update.

More soon, please.

Brad Crawford posted a comment on Monday 19th March 2007 10:21am

i like the interplay in each story between the two couples! keep up the awesome writing!

TxA_GunFighter posted a comment on Monday 19th March 2007 8:43am

Outstanding chapter to a fine story. I an really enjoying this story. I think it should be more than a thousand.

gunny

kainboa posted a comment on Monday 19th March 2007 7:54am

great chapter as usual, although it was a bit odd to have a letter from luna in the end of the chapter, in the middle of a conversation.

keep up the great work :)

uthamm posted a comment on Monday 19th March 2007 6:39am

Good chapter! I like the spell mongering issue and think that it is much more likely the 'power-he-knows-not' than something like . . love.
I admire your efforts to make the story Harry/Hermoine and Harry/Ginny at the same time. I have read both and think that you do an excellent job of making the 'ship-centric' parts remain in character.
As far as the student thing, I think that the 1000 student thing is something else that JKR didn't fully think through before commenting. There are many issues with the 'world' that she created from travel issues (apparition, floo - neither of which were in book one . . why did it take so long for DD to go to the ministry and back?) to exchange rates to wizarding professions (which is why I think HP is a goner). I think that she had no idea it would be so well received. I agree that 1000 students is not even close to realistic. I figure 140 students per house (10 boys, 10 girls max per year, x 7 years) with 500 - 600 total students. I think it is a shame if nothing else 'official' comes out of the HP Magical world! There is just too much left unexplored and unsaid. How many characters do we really know? What about other magical schools? Are there really only 48 - 60 magical children per year (12 - 15 boys/girls per house per year)? Thanks for the story and room for the rant.

Wonderbee31 posted a comment on Monday 19th March 2007 12:27am

Well, I must say that this was an impressive part here, and really enjoyed the history lesson that you created, as it seems like it gets brushed off so much incanon at time. I look forward to what the knowledge Harry has recieved will assist him, as well as what it might mean since it seems Dumbledore is still not helping like he should have at time, seeming to still want to hold onto his secrets, no matter what.

Ken Warner posted a comment on Sunday 18th March 2007 3:51pm

another very enjoyable chapter - I really appreciate the way that your characters are fully fleshed out, with motivations that make sense in context.
as to your question - the only way that there could be a thousand students is if JKR was ignoring the vast majority of the students and faculty, and only mentioning the heads of departments, or conversely, the junior members of the departments who teach the lower forms, and there is a large %age of the staff we have never been introduced to. From context this appears not to be the case, thus I would lean more to the concept that I have seen in other fanfics that Hogwarts takes the top 15% of the british wizarding population, and the remainder are in so-called Hedge academies or apprenticeships or home schooled.

thanks and warm regards

Evan Mayerle posted a comment on Sunday 18th March 2007 1:07pm

An interesting chapter with much to chew on. The only real fanfics with a political dimension that I've read, besides yours, are Chrys', Dr. T's (esp. his set with Harry going back in time to fix things after winning a rather Pyrrhic victory), and "Harry Potter and the Winds of Change" on FFN (though this last adds another chamber that gives the Puerbloods extra control).

I like the way you're taking this and I look forward to seeing how things evolve.

Oh, and see my comment on "Great Scott..." for my immediate thoughts on student numbers.

Jim_xinu posted a comment on Sunday 18th March 2007 9:48am

Is the (partial?) letter from Luna supposed to be in the middle of that conversation? It looks like an editing mistake, to me.

Other than that, good chapter. Thanks for sharing it with us.

Quizer posted a comment on Sunday 18th March 2007 9:23am

Great to see you updated. I enjoyed this chapter, especially the section with Dumbledore at the beginning and the fight + aftermath.

Your portrayal of Dumbledore is exemplary. You don't make the mistake of ignoring his faults and the instances where he gravely wronged Harry through negligence, ill judgment or ignorance. However you also don't damn him for it, and I find that agreeable. I enjoy a good Dumbledore-bashing fic, if he is displayed as an actual manipulative bastard, but it's displays like yours, where the problems get acknowledged and then moved past, that I find really satisfying. The bit with the twinkles is really inspired; I've never seen someone else get away with this, but you make it work.

I also like your portrayal of the wizarding world politics. The Wizengamot portrayal is unique, very different from those other two authors you mentioned. You actually went and gave it JKR-like quirky rules and conventions!

I'm glad Harry actually ended up having a number of voices greater than two, because while I dislike giving them to him just for the hell of it, doing otherwise would make him a neglible power in the wizengamot, which just wouldn't do. But I didn't see that revelation coming until the end. Good job on that!

I enjoyed the fight scene. Looks like Harry made an ally of Smith Sr.. I'm really looking forward to that press release / lesson in genealogy concerning Tom Riddle's ancestry. Harry mentions it in many stories, but I have never seen it produce real outrage on a grand scale yet.


Regarding your question, I don't think it works, any way. It just isn't conceivable that Harry didn't hear about those mystery students. Something which I would just barely be able to believe if presented properly is that Hogwarts is actually a conglomerate of several schools or school-like entities, almost completely isolated from each other. Dumbledore would probably have to be Headmaster of all of them or the Lead Headmaster, since if there was someone in the hierarchy above him, we'd have heard of it during Harry's career of troublemaking / troubleshooting.

But that's just a wild idea, one which I could see you pulling off, but which I'd trust only a select few other authors with.


Quizer

Princess Fictoria posted a comment on Sunday 18th March 2007 6:26am

Great new chapter! Loved the detailed explanations as well as the major faux-pas that Harry made with his miniscule voting.

Definitely looking forward to reading more. I do have a few questions, however. Isn't what Umbridge did with the bloody lines illegal? If so, why doesnt Harry seek to have her arrested. If it is not illegal, per se, can he find some sort of redress by going after her large number of familial votes? If he could and one of them was the Weasley family vote, couldnt he use that to reinstate that family? What about her admission, in front of numerous witnessess, that she alone was responsible for ordering the Dementor attack on him... that too could be used against her politically if not jucicially... right?

As for you questions regarding Hogwarts.

We can assume that the number of children in Harry's year is the lowest in a long time. Harry was born 15 months before the fall of Voldemort and it was during this time frame that the war of terror that Voldemort was heading was at its darkest. During this time, it is very believable that the number of people brave enough, or stupid enough, to have children would be smaller than in a long time with the previous few years having gotten smaller a bit as well.

As such the following could easily be true. The sixth and seventh years have about 50 children sorted per house. That number falls to 45 for the fifth years, 40 for the fourth years, 30 for the third years, 20 for the second years, finally ending in the 10 we know of for the first years. These numbers would have meant there were about 980 students enrolled in Hogwarts for Harry's first year. Using the thought of a baby boom in the first years of peace... that number would have gotten much larger for his next few years pushing the number to average a thousand or more students.

As for class size: Remember that classes are taken with another house so you would have class number ranging in size from 20 students to 100 students per class. Also take into account that not every student takes every offerred elective after third year and that OWL and career paths also greatly affect class choices.

Hogwarts seems to emply an almost collegiate setting for its classes, as such it would not be inconcievable for there to be a number of teacher's aides available for assisting the students should the class size become unmanageable. Since the books primarily follow Harry and his year, it would make sense that we have not seen the need for such additions as his class would have been the smallest of all. This, added to the magical charms and such that the teachers could use to control their unruly charges could explain why we only see the bare minimum of teachers introduced in Cannon.

Also, since Harry has barely made it through 6th year in the books... and I think HBP is the worst book to use to attempt to devine the educational offerings of Hogwarts, one can assume that there are additional classes, such as the ones you have introduced, for those of the higher years. This would further serve to control class sizes.

Hope my thoughts have been at all useful and I look forward to reading more of the remarkable story soon.

Chrispy posted a comment on Sunday 18th March 2007 5:36am

Excellent chapter!

About your request, mayhap there be secondary students auditing some classes that they never took in their youth? They wouldn't need to spend time at the castle outside of class.
Or there could be students from minor schools who wish to take post owl level classes (and all get grouped together in a separate class? Although to say they have their own places to bed is a bit of a stretch.

Brad Crawford posted a comment on Wednesday 14th March 2007 8:02pm

wow an excellent story so far i cant wait to read more keep up the awesome writing!