The Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows discussion thread...ENTER AT YOUR OWN RISK!!

[Alchemy]

Maybe there wasn't a muggle that did magic after all. I don't remember it.

[miscorrections]

amy, there aren't that many wizards in general. think about it. in harry's year in gryffindor, the males are harry, ron, dean, seamus, neville, and let's assume just a few more, say ten total for the sake of argument. suppose there are also ten female gryffindors in his year. so twenty per year. multiply that by seven for how many years there are and there should be about 140 per house. and then multiply that by four for the four houses and you come out to about 560 hogwarts students at any given time.
~600 out of the millions of inhabitants in the uk is a very small fraction. so i think the struggle would be fairly isolated, and not that many people involved. i don't think there were a lot of wizards sitting on their asses twiddling their thumbs not doing anything.

[Alchemy]

Hmm, if the muggles try really hard, they can over-power the wizarding world easily.

[miscorrections]

Maybe there wasn't a muggle that did magic after all. I don't remember it.

i don't either. but i remember rowling saying there would be a non-magical character who did magic later in life under desperate circumstances.

[Alchemy]

i don't either. but i remember rowling saying there would be a non-magical character who did magic later in life under desperate circumstances.

Yeah, I remember when she said that too. Maybe she decided to drop it.

[amyzzz]

The wizards have their own little shadow villages, and there are wizards in other countries as well. Why didn't the other countries get involved? Did Voldemort only want to rule over English wizards and witches? I was thinking there was a small number of wizards--I guess I didn't word that right. It just seems like there are so many more Muggles than wizards.

edit: now I remember what was confusing me. It was that damn movie. In the 5th movie, when they go into the Ministry of Magic, it looks like there are hundreds or perhaps thousands of wizards and witches walking around inside that building. I'm not sure why they had so many people in there--unless the Ministry of Magic is magicked alongside some Muggle place, and those other people are mostly Muggles.

[Alchemy]

The wizards have their own little shadow villages, and there are wizards in other countries as well. Why didn't the other countries get involved? Did Voldemort only want to rule over English wizards and witches? I was thinking there was a small number of wizards--I guess I didn't word that right. It just seems like there are so many more Muggles than wizards.

Voldemort wanted wizards and witches to come out of hiding and to rule the muggles, so this would involve the entire world. I know that the Baltic states or Russia must have been involved though, because Igor Karkaroff was a Death Eater as well. Unless he just came from the area to Britian.

[miscorrections]

other areas were involved, yes, but he was centering his attack on britain first.
it's like how grindelwald focused exclusively on eastern europe and not so much the uk. i think they all have a target area from where they will spread out once the resistance there is dead. it's just imperialism wizarding style.

[bballarl]

Clarification from earlier: you were saying that there are ~600 wizards at Hogwarts at a time, yes? Not in all of Britain.

[miscorrections]

yes, i think that would be a good rough estimate.

of course as to the total number in britain i have no idea, but they would still be an extremely small part of the population.

[bballarl]

Right.

[Alchemy]

Really small, especially since some of the wizards and witches are completely muggle-born or half-blood. So the number of wizarding parents of all those kids at Hogwarts is probably just a little more than the number of kids. I think I read somewhere that a fourth of them are muggle-born.

[miscorrections]

given the number of muggle-borns she's introduced (hermione, the creevey brothers, lily evans, possibly dean thomas, etc.) i wouldn't be surprised if it came to 1/4.

[thefunkylama]

Reading now. Be back in a little while to discuss.

[Alchemy]

I was always hoping that they'd mention what was going on in America, or that some American equivalent to the Order would come on over to do something... What happened in 1998 that might have distracted our wizards from the return of Voldemort? Must have been the Monica Lewinsky stuff. She was probably a witch.

[miscorrections]

the only time she really ever mentioned the american magical population was in goblet of fire at the quidditch world cup; there was a brief observation of the salem witches' institute.

[Alchemy]

I bet Americans suck at quidditch. They probably have some sort of magical equivalent to American football.

[Good Days Last]

Are you guys forgetting that not every kid that's a wizard or witch HAS to go to school?

[Alchemy]

I'm going to guess 140,000 wizards and witches in the metro area of London.

[miscorrections]

Are you guys forgetting that not every kid that's a wizard or witch HAS to go to school?

you're right, they don't have to. and they also don't have to go to hogwarts, they could go to another school. this is just a rought estimate.

[Alchemy]

I made mine on the assumption of 1 wizard or witch for every 100 people.

[Alchemy]

Actually... You'd think there would be a whole lot more at Hogwarts if that were the case. I have no clue.

[Good Days Last]

you're right, they don't have to. and they also don't have to go to hogwarts, they could go to another school. this is just a rought estimate.

Just saying... there could be MILLIONS of witches EVERYWHEREEE

[Alchemy]

I think Rowling is considering writing a sort of encyclopedia about Harry Potter and the wizarding world. I hope she addresses these curiousities if she does.

[miscorrections]

she already wrote quidditch through the ages and fantastic beasts and where to find them.

i hope she does more textbooks. that would be so great.

[Alchemy]

The Half-Blood Prince textbook would be fun.

[joeinthebox]

I think Rowling is considering writing a sort of encyclopedia about Harry Potter and the wizarding world. I hope she addresses these curiousities if she does.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/19935372/


yes! she is indeed doing an encyclopedia! it's gonna rock.

[amyzzz]

Did anyone notice Harry's birthday? I think it was something like July 31st 1981. I was a bit amazed that all the Harry-Potter-at-Hogwarts was supposed to be happening in the 1990's.

edited: added 3 to 31st. My fucking 3 key doesn't work well.

[bballarl]

Oh yeah I noticed that too. Kind of threw me a bit, although I think she had dated the books in Sorcerer's Stone, if I remember properly.

[Alchemy]

Yeah, Harry Potter is 26 years old in our time. Though, now the book has gone into the future with that last chapter.