...and the Monster of Amristar V
Apr. 24th, 2008 08:40 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
subplotkudzuChapter 5: Hogwarts, a Culture
And now an opportunity to provide our friends some information on the school. Hogwarts was constructed with a maximum capacity of 1008, or 144 students per year sorted into 4 houses of 36 students a piece. Each dorm has room for 18 boys & 18 girls each year. The attendance has been under that peak for centuries, so the houses have more room. (This year has only 54 students, slightly more than 1/3rd of the maximum.) Each house handles that extra room differently.
The Ravenclaw have 3 rooms per gender, radiating off the central tower stairwell in a double helix, with the girls on one strand and the boys on another. The stairs actually cause headaches in those who aren't able to grasp the shape and they have a devil of a time finding the right room. Gender years are connected by shared doors and Ravenclaws will spread out - while technically Castor has 5 roommates, he only shares a physical room with one other student, Ulee Leatherby. Jasmyn & Juliet share a room, with Beatrice & Barbara the next and Aldebeon & Aurora 2 doors down. Students go down the helix per year, so first years climb the most stairs.
The Slytherin have 3 rooms per gender per year, but apportion extra rooms to older students, shoving lower years together to give the seventh year prefect a private suite. Obviously, the Slytherin change rooms every year to better accommodations. The boys and girls rooms are separated by the common area.
The Gryffindors will put up to 9 students together in a room, with 2 rooms per gender per year. Once they're in that room they stay there for all seven years. Any extra rooms are turned into game rooms, wand practice rooms or similar spaces for the whole house. Boys & girls rooms are accessible by separate stairwells, and the girls stairs are enchanted to not let the boys enter.
Finally, the Hufflepuff have 3 rooms per gender per year. Like Ravenclaw these rooms are linked by doors, and traditionally the central room is used as a study and tea nook for that year's students. Pollux & Lachlan share their room with Sky, and share the central room with their other three first years. Once in a suite the students stay in it for seven years, and each suite has a long history attached to it - Hufflepuffs will often know the names of their suites former inhabitants going back decades, and the previous generations will often mentor their old rooms new inhabitants over school breaks.
The Gryffindor & Hufflepuff houses both have portraits as door guards. The Gryffindor is known just as "the Fat Lady, but Hufflepuff is guarded by a portrait of Professor Fogerty - a long time head of house and old teacher in Defense Against Dark Arts. Ravenclaw uses a knocker that asks philosophical riddles, while Slytherin has a secret door with password.
While Quidditch is the official school sport - the only one with an impact on house ratings - there are other sporting clubs on campus. This includes a Broom Racing club (slalom courses) and an on again, off again dueling club which is currently off. The Muggle born children do maintain small but persistent football and cricket clubs - these popped back up with force last year but still don't command much respect from those who don't spend time in Muggle society. The clubs will gladly teach the rules to anyone who wants to learn.
Most of the other clubs last only as long as there are professors interested in overseeing them. The school Dramaturgy club stretches back to the Elizabethan era (though it bristles when Caducia points out their club's longevity). It is overseen by Prof. Ogham and Madam Hooch, who makes up for her own lack of acting talent with a considerable flair for staging. The school does have a full theater on one of the lower levels.
The school's chorus has an equally long history, and is currently overseen by Professor Flitwick. The chorus has bi-annual concerts (including this year) with Green-law & Glasscastle. This helps the chorus, as no group of teachers wants to be the ones that let the centuries old event die. Flitwick has ambitions for a chamber music club, but with 7/8ths of his band graduating in the last two years the band is, at the moment, him and Daisy Fontaine. But he remains hopeful.
Speaking of Glasscastle & Greenlaw, those academies produce teams for a bi-annual "Witches Bowl", held in the years opposite the choral events. The Witches Bowl is a cutthroat trivia event that mostly draws contestants from Ravenclaw. While not part of the house cup, prof-essors find reasons to award points if they win.
A Wizards Chess club also covers Napoleonic era wargames, using animated pieces that dispute unpopular orders. Slytherin have a tendency to dominate as they are best able to direct the troops, but all bets are off when a Hufflepuff general controls the Russian Front! Professor Lippershey oversees this club, which meets at late hours to accommodate the astronomy professor's schedule. There are tales of a 1/10th size Waterloo battle four years ago - apparently not to be repeated.
There is a "Magick" club for those who practice their arts with maximal pretension. It is populated by Raven-claw & Slytherin who are skilled but, let's face it, full of themselves. It is overseen by Professor Vector, with some help from Professor Trelawney.
While there is no official school band there are many unofficial ones as musically inclined students aim to impress their fellows with renditions of the latest tunes or old classics. These do not have official sanction but hardly need it, as most fail to last even a term. Six years ago the band "The Yarrow Sticks" went on to fame and fortune, but the best most can hope for is some free pub food and some dates for providing the music.
Likewise, there are dozens of unofficial school clubs, which form and dissolve as clusters of students declare an interest in a topic: Regency era literature, Muggle TV shows, trading & collecting, Chocolate Frog cards, you name it. The main stumbling blocks for them is the 9:00 curfew to the dorms unless visiting a sanctioned club with a professor supervising them. Many older students are limited in that they already have advanced classes in the evening (I realized that the 5 lower years in 4 houses eat up almost all the daytime hours for professors of the major classes. Hence, 6th & 7th years must have late afternoon or evening classes in charms, potions, etc.). As a result, small clubs tend to be segregated by ages or house, which limits their longevity.
Outside of any clubs that they oversee, the advanced studies professors (such as Professor Plain or Professor Ogham) have minimal contact with first year students. While the professors in the major classes have more duties, the advanced studies professors have more time for research, and will occasionally call on 3rd+ years, but more often 6th and 7th years, to help them with that research. Professor Kettleburn does have a moderately large group of 3rd+ years who assist he and Hagrid in caring for the magical creatures on campus.
And now an opportunity to provide our friends some information on the school. Hogwarts was constructed with a maximum capacity of 1008, or 144 students per year sorted into 4 houses of 36 students a piece. Each dorm has room for 18 boys & 18 girls each year. The attendance has been under that peak for centuries, so the houses have more room. (This year has only 54 students, slightly more than 1/3rd of the maximum.) Each house handles that extra room differently.
The Ravenclaw have 3 rooms per gender, radiating off the central tower stairwell in a double helix, with the girls on one strand and the boys on another. The stairs actually cause headaches in those who aren't able to grasp the shape and they have a devil of a time finding the right room. Gender years are connected by shared doors and Ravenclaws will spread out - while technically Castor has 5 roommates, he only shares a physical room with one other student, Ulee Leatherby. Jasmyn & Juliet share a room, with Beatrice & Barbara the next and Aldebeon & Aurora 2 doors down. Students go down the helix per year, so first years climb the most stairs.
The Slytherin have 3 rooms per gender per year, but apportion extra rooms to older students, shoving lower years together to give the seventh year prefect a private suite. Obviously, the Slytherin change rooms every year to better accommodations. The boys and girls rooms are separated by the common area.
The Gryffindors will put up to 9 students together in a room, with 2 rooms per gender per year. Once they're in that room they stay there for all seven years. Any extra rooms are turned into game rooms, wand practice rooms or similar spaces for the whole house. Boys & girls rooms are accessible by separate stairwells, and the girls stairs are enchanted to not let the boys enter.
Finally, the Hufflepuff have 3 rooms per gender per year. Like Ravenclaw these rooms are linked by doors, and traditionally the central room is used as a study and tea nook for that year's students. Pollux & Lachlan share their room with Sky, and share the central room with their other three first years. Once in a suite the students stay in it for seven years, and each suite has a long history attached to it - Hufflepuffs will often know the names of their suites former inhabitants going back decades, and the previous generations will often mentor their old rooms new inhabitants over school breaks.
The Gryffindor & Hufflepuff houses both have portraits as door guards. The Gryffindor is known just as "the Fat Lady, but Hufflepuff is guarded by a portrait of Professor Fogerty - a long time head of house and old teacher in Defense Against Dark Arts. Ravenclaw uses a knocker that asks philosophical riddles, while Slytherin has a secret door with password.
While Quidditch is the official school sport - the only one with an impact on house ratings - there are other sporting clubs on campus. This includes a Broom Racing club (slalom courses) and an on again, off again dueling club which is currently off. The Muggle born children do maintain small but persistent football and cricket clubs - these popped back up with force last year but still don't command much respect from those who don't spend time in Muggle society. The clubs will gladly teach the rules to anyone who wants to learn.
Most of the other clubs last only as long as there are professors interested in overseeing them. The school Dramaturgy club stretches back to the Elizabethan era (though it bristles when Caducia points out their club's longevity). It is overseen by Prof. Ogham and Madam Hooch, who makes up for her own lack of acting talent with a considerable flair for staging. The school does have a full theater on one of the lower levels.
The school's chorus has an equally long history, and is currently overseen by Professor Flitwick. The chorus has bi-annual concerts (including this year) with Green-law & Glasscastle. This helps the chorus, as no group of teachers wants to be the ones that let the centuries old event die. Flitwick has ambitions for a chamber music club, but with 7/8ths of his band graduating in the last two years the band is, at the moment, him and Daisy Fontaine. But he remains hopeful.
Speaking of Glasscastle & Greenlaw, those academies produce teams for a bi-annual "Witches Bowl", held in the years opposite the choral events. The Witches Bowl is a cutthroat trivia event that mostly draws contestants from Ravenclaw. While not part of the house cup, prof-essors find reasons to award points if they win.
A Wizards Chess club also covers Napoleonic era wargames, using animated pieces that dispute unpopular orders. Slytherin have a tendency to dominate as they are best able to direct the troops, but all bets are off when a Hufflepuff general controls the Russian Front! Professor Lippershey oversees this club, which meets at late hours to accommodate the astronomy professor's schedule. There are tales of a 1/10th size Waterloo battle four years ago - apparently not to be repeated.
There is a "Magick" club for those who practice their arts with maximal pretension. It is populated by Raven-claw & Slytherin who are skilled but, let's face it, full of themselves. It is overseen by Professor Vector, with some help from Professor Trelawney.
While there is no official school band there are many unofficial ones as musically inclined students aim to impress their fellows with renditions of the latest tunes or old classics. These do not have official sanction but hardly need it, as most fail to last even a term. Six years ago the band "The Yarrow Sticks" went on to fame and fortune, but the best most can hope for is some free pub food and some dates for providing the music.
Likewise, there are dozens of unofficial school clubs, which form and dissolve as clusters of students declare an interest in a topic: Regency era literature, Muggle TV shows, trading & collecting, Chocolate Frog cards, you name it. The main stumbling blocks for them is the 9:00 curfew to the dorms unless visiting a sanctioned club with a professor supervising them. Many older students are limited in that they already have advanced classes in the evening (I realized that the 5 lower years in 4 houses eat up almost all the daytime hours for professors of the major classes. Hence, 6th & 7th years must have late afternoon or evening classes in charms, potions, etc.). As a result, small clubs tend to be segregated by ages or house, which limits their longevity.
Outside of any clubs that they oversee, the advanced studies professors (such as Professor Plain or Professor Ogham) have minimal contact with first year students. While the professors in the major classes have more duties, the advanced studies professors have more time for research, and will occasionally call on 3rd+ years, but more often 6th and 7th years, to help them with that research. Professor Kettleburn does have a moderately large group of 3rd+ years who assist he and Hagrid in caring for the magical creatures on campus.
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Date: 2008-04-27 10:12 am (UTC)