AboutRachel Christian Expertise I can answer almost all questions regarding plot details and trivia in the books. I can also answer questions about the characters, their backgrounds, and information J. K. Rowling, the author, has posted about the books on her website. The only questions I can't answer are questions dealing with what happens in the next book, although I can point people in the right direction - namely sites like the-leaky-cauldron.org and mugglenet.com, which have compiled lists of all the known facts about Book 7, and spoilers and speculation lists.
Experience I have read all of the books repeatedly, and have read through most of the larger Harry Potter fansites for trivia and Book 7 information.
Expert: Rachel Christian Date: 2/6/2007 Subject: Harry Potter's dormitory
Question So as far as I know, there are only 5 boys in the same grade as Harry in Gryffindor. That equivolates to 10 kids per grade level, per house. So that would be about 70 kids per house and 280 kids in the school. That seems really small compared to how some of the movies look. Where do all the other wizarding children go to school besides Hogwarts. Thanks
Answer This is a question that's seen a lot of debate over the years. Originally, J. K. Rowling planned 40 characters in Harry's year (from all Houses) that she knew a lot about - 40 characters that she already had information on that she could drop throughout the stories. But over the years, it's just become easier for her to stick to those 40 characters that fans already know. So while her original estimates of the school's student body was somewhere in the hundreds or thousands, most of those students have been left unmentioned. If you'd like a more in-depth answer, you can either ask for more details or go to hp-lexicon.org, which has the original theories and debates on the topic. Also, the movies are hardly totally accurate when compared to the books (although they are fun to watch), so you probably shouldn't rely on them as your sole source of information. And, as mentioned in the fourth book, most (usually all) wizarding children in the U. K. go to Hogwarts; there's Durmstang for the witches and wizards in Eastern Europe, and Beauxbatons in France for the witches and wizards on the western half of the Continent. Also, there have been mentions of a Salem Institute in America, which leads many people to believe that there are more wizarding schools out there.
