My first ever Harry Potter theory.....ish

[Hayzie]

Okay, well I've just been reading a Mugglenet interview, and I've come up with the theory that it is possible that the Sorting Hat could possibly be wrong.

In the books, it's clear that there are 5 beds in each dorm, right? And JK says that there are only 40 people in each year, meaning that there needs to be 5 girls and 5 boys in each house to make up numbers

With me so far?

Well, this means that each year, the Sorting Hat needs to put 10 people into each house.

This is where my theory comes in.

Say there were already 10 people in Gryffindor and 9 in Hufflepuff, and 10 in all the other houses.... To make numbers correct, the fnal person should go into Hufflepuff... but what if they belong in a different house? The sorting hat in theory has to put them into Hufflepuff, otherwise they have nowhere to sleep....

So therefore, it could be possible that the sorting hat could be wrong in order to keep 10 people in each house.

Comments?

[Aridan]

5 boys and 5 girls?

I don't know....I thought there were more then 5 of each gender in each year of school per house... but now that you mention it... I don't recall Jk ever using more then five names

Clever way to not have to use so many names

anyway -pokes nose- good one hayzie

[Teagan]

Yes, this sounds true. BUT there's usually less than five people going to each house every year.

[Nnhy]

Makes sense. That wasn't something I noticed. I suppose since it is Hogwarts, they could always have more beds, or perhaps there just happens to be the right amount of people needing do be sorted into each house, each year.

Very confusing, but clever. Huzzah for you Hayzie!

[Jesslin]

But there wont always be an exact 40 new students, it almost like saying 'we have only 39 newbies coming to Hogwarts this year so we'll have to conjure one up to make numbers'. also the number of students who go to a house doesn't depend on the Sorting Hat but rather on what they are like on the inside, you cant judge personal reaction. Sorry Hazyie

[Telah]

And what if there are more then 40 magical children in britten that are meant for a sertain year.

[Teagan]

Well, they won't be accepted. Simple.

[Jesslin]

Couse theyll be accepted, that cant choose certain people to not go to the school just coz there are to many for one year. Sorry but I cant agree

[Teagan]

jesslin said:

Couse theyll be accepted, that cant choose certain people to not go to the school just coz there are to many for one year. Sorry but I cant agree

I think they might just convince another school to accept them, instead of sending a letter from Hogwarts to the child. Either that, or they'll add beds and make the rooms bigger. Or there's the possibility that this will just never happen because somehow everything is specifically balanced so that there are no more than ten students to each house because only fourty witches/wizards in Britain are born each year... They've said that there just seems to be fewer wizards than muggles. -shrug-

[Hayzie]

I see what you're all saying about how there may not be 40, but I was reading an interview with JKR yesterday, and it said that there are always 40 people in each year..... -goes back to find it-


EDIT: Found it!!!

MA: Or in Hogwarts.

JKR: Well, Hogwarts. All right. Here is the thing with Hogwarts. Way before I finished “Philosopher's Stone,” when I was just amassing stuff for seven years, between having the idea and publishing the book, I sat down and I created 40 kids who enter Harry's year. I'm delighted I did it, [because] it was so useful. I got 40 pretty fleshed out characters. I never have to stop and invent someone. I know who’s in the year, I know who's in which house, I know what their parentage is, and I have a few personal details on all of them. So there were 40. I never consciously thought, “That's it, that' s all the people in his year,” but that's kind of how it's worked out. Then I've been asked a few times how many people and because numbers are not my strong point, one part of my brain knew 40, and another part of my brain said, “Oh, about 600 sounds right.” Then people started working it out and saying, "Where are the other kids sleeping?" [Laughter.] We have a little bit of a dilemma there. I mean, obviously magic is very rare. I wouldn't want to say a precise ratio. But if you assume that all of the wizarding children are being sent to Hogwarts, then that's very few wizard-to-Muggle population, isn’t it? There will be the odd kid whose parents don't want them to go to Hogwarts, but 600 out of the whole of Britain is tiny.

Let's say three thousand [in Britain], actually, thinking about it, and then think of all the magical creatures, some of which appear human. So then you've got things like hags, trolls, ogres and so on, so that's really bumping up your numbers. And then you've got the world of sad people like Filch and Figg who are kind of part of the world but are hangers on. That's going to bump you up a bit as well, so it's a more sizable, total magical community that needs hiding, concealing, but don't hold me to these figures, because that's not how I think.

Link: www.mugglenet.com/jkrinterview.shtml

So okay, I know it only says there were 40 kids in Harry's year, but if all the dorms rooms are the same as we've seen in the books, then surely there'll only be 5 kids in each dorm.....

[Aridan]

They never do tell use where the other children sleep do they... they give detials for harry's year each time but never the others

Liek when harry is a first year, where to Fred and George Sleep... how are the dorms set up to handle each year of students. Are they in a pile, first year on bottom, then the next sotry has second years and so on.

[Rezna Lardale]

I like the theory, and it's a good one. But I have always thought by reading the books, that there are always fewer Hufflepuffs than any other house. And it should be true, since it pretty much is divided among the other three and if someone doesn't belong there, they are sent to Hufflepuff. So, to me at least, it seems as though the houses don't have to be evenly divided. (For example, at school, our classes are also never even).

So haven't there been times when JK wrote something like, 'there were three six year girls standing in the corner giggling as Harry walked by'? Well, those three might be three more people of Harry's year that JK just didn't give names to. So maybe the total then is 43, and then she adds another nameless face somewhere adn the total is moved up again.

Do you see what I'm saying. I think that JK has only named 40, but maybe there a little more or less if you count all of them up. Or I might just be rambling on for nothing. And the beds thing, perhaps that was solved magically as Teagan and Aridan suggested.

[Aridan]

In the last book maybe I misread the book or maybe am simply misremembering it but didn't it say Fred and George were trying their fainting stuff on a group of first years in the common room, I thought it said something like six kids... I don’t have my book here with me so I can not double check.

[-a r e l l a-]

Quote from Harry Potter and the order of the phoenix, chapter 13:

"...But Hermione was not listening; she was squinting over into the far corner of the room, where Fred, George and Lee Jordan were now sitting at the center of a knot of innocent-looking first-years, all of whom were chewing something that seemed to have come out of a large paper baf that Fred was holding..."

then later on...

"...A few of the first-years were stirring. Several looked so shocked to find themselves lying on the floor or dangling off their chairs, that Harry was sure Freg and George had not warned them what the sweets were going to do..."

See...no where did it mention the exact amount of students...and anyway even if it did state the amount of students eating the sweets there is nothing to say that that is the whole number of students in the grffindor because not all of them would join in on the the sweet testy thingie...

In my opinion, I think that witches and wizards are rarer than muggles and therefore not as many are born each year (which is obvious). Therefore there would be many many less students getting into the school each year, and I doubt that Hogwarts is restricted by things such as beds...if they had more than 40 students then conjuring some beds to accomodate the first-years would be simple enough.... Harry's year may only have had 40 students but that is not so say that every year is the same size...in my opinion....

[Artemis]

I agree with Arella, and maybe they can put more than five beds in a dorm? Don't laugh, I've been thinking waaay too hard lately. *brain dead nod*