So I got to thinking... · 7:02am Apr 4th, 2019
It so happens, I just got back from a fairly lengthy trip to the dentist... and on both legs of the journey, I spent the time listening to a Harry Potter audiobook. Woulda been an Honor Harrington book- they're cheaper, plus I need to read them for the Sphinxian Equine- but I don't like that reader's voice, and the Potter books were voiced well, in my opinion.
That said, I noticed a few things... that a lot of fics seem to miss.
Firstly: One chapter gives the initial situation. Some three chapters, or a little more, detail Harry's time at the Dursley's. A few more chapters, and they were back from Diagon Ally, headed to Hogwarts. All said, the sorting takes place about halfway through the book! After that, much of their time at Hogwarts is glossed over, with the occasional snippet, a training montage. Admittedly, I don't like how this leaves both Ron and Hermionie rather lacking in character development (I mean, we had half the book to develop Harry...), but it kinda makes sense.
Second, Third, & So On (They kinda go together): Second, it is implied early on that the students have each class once per week, on the same day every time. This isn't uncommon, in higher education institutions, though such classes tend to be much longer than their three- or five- class-meet-per-week cousins (on the order of an hour or two).
Third, the book list has 7 entries on it. This seems strange to me, given my second above; seven doesn't divide by five (they clearly have weekends off) very easily. Then, homework does seem to be somewhat of a problem, though they also seem to have a lot of free time on their hands. So, seven classes per week shouldn't be that hard; I know double potions is mentioned at one point, so if the longer classes are on their own and shorter classes are paired up on the remaining days, that kinda makes sense.
Third... there are approximately 10 first-year Gryffindors starting with Harry, across both genders. Multiply that by 7 years, and 4 houses, and you get a measly 280 students across the entire school. I graduated from a small, rural high school in a class of 58... approximately 50% larger than any such Hogwarts graduating class could be, even though Hogwarts is touted (in later books) as one of the "big" schools.
Furthermore, England has a population of about 66 million... right now. It was around 58 million in the year range the Potter books take place in, so I'll start there. If I assume everyone lives to a hundred years old (higher than average), to simplify the calculation, we get approximately 580,000 sixth-graders per year, assuming an even age distribution (which, to my knowledge, almost never happens). Further assuming approximately 1/1,000 of them are wizards, as any less has the programmer in me wondering how the magic even still exists... and we end up with a total pool of 580 first-year students, to split across the three major schools (including the two others mentioned in the 4th book).
That still leaves about 200 first-years, not 40, for Hogwarts to consume, if an even split is assumed... And let us not forget, I'm pretty sure Hogwarts is also touted as the biggest magic school. Further supported (rather weakly, but still) by how there was both an Abbot and a Zabini in the same sorting as Harry- and some seven or eight students in, she was still on the Browns.
While this is a large enough pool of young to suggest a TOTAL wizarding population large enough to need its own governing body, especially one as large as the Ministry of Magic is shown to be, this pool is also large enough for so many pure-blood family lines to have survived without massive inbreeding.
But only one problem: It suggests either some impressive layering magic for Hogwarts (unlikely), or legions of students (and probably teachers) that simply aren't mentioned in the books. That's what I think happened.
Further supported by how Hermione, in that book with the time turner (forget which it was), had some 4 or 5 classes- around half the named classes in the school, at that point- packed into just two hours of day one, and still needed the time turner to fit them all in her week.
Oh- and Harry's description of things like the Entrance Hall and the Great Hall sound like they'll seat a lot more than 300 students. But that's personal opinion.
Then, the next issue on my list: In one or the other of the books (don't remember which), Hermione makes the claim that electricity doesn't work at Hogwarts, because the magic conflicts with it- and that's never challenged. This is blatantly false, as not only does one of the Weasley twins have a wristwatch during Harry's first Quidditch match, among other bits and bobs of technology at Hogwarts (including that first-year's muggle camera, equipped with a flash bulb, in the Chamber of Secrets), but the human body is an electrical machine! If magic made electricity in general go crazy, magic would instantly kill every single witch and wizard on the planet! Constantly!
As such, it is my opinion that this is a misperception by the magical community (who are so jaded they don't know what a "gun" is, instead likening it to a thin piece of wood that has fallen or been cut from a tree that could also be called a Thunder Barker). Electromagnetic interference is a thing- and one wizards are likely unaware of so, when they first encountered it, they probably generalized it to all muggle technology and discarded it all. In case you didn't know already, electromagnetic interference- produced by the atmosphere- is the main reason you can't climb a tall mountain and connect to a public wifi hotspot hosted at the bottom of a neighboring valley.
Magic-induced interference could completely trash wireless communications signals and, depending on strength, even do damage to sensitive electronic components. Anything properly shielded, though, like most modern (quality) electronics, would be just fine- including that attached to a powerful enough antenna to cut through the noise (assuming said antenna is properly shielded, as well). Meaning, you'd probably want to put your phone in airplane mode, to save power since it won't be able to connect to anything- but it'd still work. And if you bring a laptop... the more powerful WiFi technologies may (or may not) be able to cut through the noise at short ranges, and wired connections (those wires are shielded, and heavily at that; noise in the air can easily disrupt a data signal in an unshielded wire) are almost certainly fine. Which means, if you brought some way to make electricity, you could drag in your laptop, printer, and USB cable to connect the two... and never have to touch a quill again.
Nevermind that wizards have never heard of pens, either.
All that in mind... I'm curious. What would you think if I were to write a ponies-and-Hogwarts story? And if you like that thought, any suggestions for plotlines, both large and small?
No, I'm not talking about something like From Pouch To Pockets. That was a flop; the main character was from another crossover source, that story would have quickly developed into something best left on fanfiction.net, and not posted here. This would be with original Pony characters and mindset (may be OC, may not be, but all originally from Equestria)... and, in theory, develop into something of an interesting mess.
Huh, perhaps. You'd need to find your own niche, there's a glut of those stories right now. Perhaps if you focused it purely on your pony OC off in ravenclaw or summat and kept well away from the dramatic shenanigans of the other stories. You know, a "serious" crossover in the vein of the old pony-on-earth stories we had a few years ago. That could be interesting.
5037983
Hmm, yes. I do like stuffing them into the action, but...
I mean, Hogwarts is Hogwarts. Gryffindor can't have all the fun stuff... I'll have to make sure I sort any ponies I send appropriately.