A war in the making?

[carsten]

Harry, Ron, Neville, Dean, Seamus, Hermione, Parvati, Lavender multiplied by 7 (the number of years in Gryffindor) multiplied by 4 (the number of houses), you get a total of about 225 students total. Not quite "several hundred".

That's my calculation, too. I took the five from Harry's room, doubled it for the girls, and multiplied with 4 houses and 7 classes: 280! If the average occupancy was 8, it would result in 448.

It cannot be more for two reasons: There is no evidence for such a large group. Fred and George are sharing the room with Lee Jordan, but no one else I can remember, let alone eight! The other reason is the number of students in the classes: The few teachers we know of could not handle it.

Carsten

[Alice I]

The only flaw with that theory carsten is that we do not know that their are not other students even in Harry's year that just haven't been mentioned.

There are several places throughout the books where Harry and co. or someone esle like Colin Creevey is swept away by the tide of students passing through the halls.
It is quite possible as someone else said somewhere on this thread that all of the classes are not equal in size.
I mean if every year were exactly equal in the number of students that the sorting hat can put to each house they wouldn't really need the hat at all. It changes from year to year.

Also add to that that I am certian that there are not exactly 40 students age 11 entering Hogwarts in every given year.

Well I guess that the only one who will really know the answer to this question is JKR (right Athena )

[carsten]

The only flaw with that theory carsten is that we do not know that their are not other students even in Harry's year that just haven't been mentioned.

Yes and no. We cannot be sure. That's right. But on the other hand we have hints. In CoS Harry's dormitory is re-labelled "2nd year" or so. We haven't heard of other boys in that year. The tables in the great hall are of equal size, otherwise it would have been mentioned.

So I stick to my estimation of 280-420 students.

Carsten

[Alice I]

Okie Dokie

[Aberforth]

There are 2 as-yet unnamed Gryffindor girls in Harry's year (even JKR can't remember their names from her notes). I think it really odd that they haven't been mentioned yet since they are in Harry's year.

It was me who guessed 1000 pupils - I based it on my school. However, on average that gives 35 in each class, 17 boys in each dorm, meaning Harry's class is seriously undermanned.

Back to the point...

I think the main battle will take place at Hogwarts. However, the Voldemort/Harry duel may be elsewhere. Not sure. From a literary point of view, the story is told from Harry's perspective, therefore any action peripheral to Harry is not seen - only reported back later. This means that if a huge battle takes place (as most seem to agree it will), then Harry must also take part in the main body of the battle before perhaps being drawn away or turning his focus onto LV. Think Enter The Dragon. Bruce Lee fights in the big battle at the beginning of the battle, but then focusses on the main bad guy, who draws him away from the battle, isolating them.

[Groo]

i support the 800 figure
in one of the quidditch matches .. (hang on, i'll check)

ok got it, page 225 PoA ,The Quidditch Final, it says "200 people were wearing green"
so there are two hundred Slytherins and assuming that the students in other houses wont vary beyond 20-30 , there are 750-820 students in Hogwarts

that leaves around 25 students in Harry's class...

[Aberforth]

Good find. Plus it won't be the other houses supporting Slytherin because no-one like Slytherin.

[imc130d]

Sorry to hijack the thread again, but in my defense, it's back on the original topic.

I don't think Dumbledore or any other staff would want 11-year-olds in the way of danger, so I think the majority of the students would be sent into hiding, if the school fears an attack is immenant (sp?).

I think Athena's absolutely right about Dumbledore and other teachers not wanting their students to be placed in the way of danger. However, I'm not sure they would evacuate. They didn't evacuate the school when the Chamber of Secrets was opened, even after students were attacked. And I'm not sure where else they think the students would be safe.

[Aberforth]

But in CS they talked about closing the school, clearly something that they wanted to avoid. Evacuating students on a temporary basis is much less objectionable. They could escape through the secret tunnels into Hogsmeade just to get away from the action.

BTW I can imagine the death eaters being dive-bombed by students on broomsticks, like Fed and George did in the student's retelling of their departure from Hogwarts.

[Evil Wizard Petting Zoo]

Yeah, I'm pretty sure the final battle will be at Hogwarts. It's as good a place as any.
Oh, but they came like an inch from closing the school in CS, remember?
During the final battle, I think DD won't be expecting it so he doesn't evacuate the school, so when the attack comes, panic will ensue(sp?bigword!!).

[highsorcerer]

I think I first mentioned thinking the final battle would be at Hogwarts, Return of the Jedi style - grand epic battles being fought around a more intimate duel between Harry and Voldemort (aka the forest battle / space battle for Endor and the Vader / Skywalker duel).

[Groo]

i agree with highsorceror there, it would be like the Star Wars battle

i would love to see Grawp become a member of the Order

[Alice I]

BTW I can imagine the death eaters being dive-bombed by students on broomsticks, like Fed and George did in the student's retelling of their departure from Hogwarts.

Hey that would be totoally awesome!
Fred and George return to Hogwarts (Like JKR said in an interview or something)
They bring all sorts of lovely new inventions as ammo.
They lead the Hogwarts houses untited; on broomstricks ito the fray with nasty spell bombs being dropped all over the invaders!

What do you think?

[Dumbledores Master]

well you have to remember that the DE would probably fly there and so would also have broomsticks (bang goes the dive-bomb thing) and that there are DE`s nearly as strong (or atl least as terrible) as LV so they would know some spell for mass kablooies. I stick to the evacuation of the school thing with 5th years and up (also the DA) staying behind to fight if they want to. Although the fireworks going off would annoy them severely it would be a bit too funny too put into such a serious part of the book.

[Evil Wizard Petting Zoo]

I don't think Aberforth and Alice were being serious DM. All in fun, eh?

Anyways, I think they'll all apparate. Yes I know you can't apparate inside the grounds, so they'll apparate into like Hogsmeade or right outside the grounds. Then they march up and try to seize Hogwarts. Hopefully, everyone will have been forewarned about the attack and the students will all be evacuated. But of course Harry and co. will go help defend the castle.