Harry Potter and the Skittering Spouse

Well, US states seem to vary between roughly 3 and 6 police officers per 1000 people. Wizarding Britain seems to have probably between 12,000 and 3,000 people, so between 9 and 72 police officers. And that number include bureaucrats, and probably specialists, though not DEA, FBI, NSA, etc.
The problem is that number doesn't account for population density. dense metropolitan areas have way more police officers "per capita" than rural areas, but they have way more people total, in a way that skews the numbers low.
 
Guys, the fuck is even going on right now? I don't have population numbers honestly I don't know if anyone does. Only numbers I care about are combatants. Voldy had what 20-30 inner circle lieutenants some of whom where more political and less combat Mrs. Malfoy springs to mind. Prolly no more than ten grunts per lieutenant? Prolly closer to five honestly maybe as few as three. Ministry has… how many aurors who utterly fail to accomplish anything? Of course after voldy takes over and people go belly up there are all the regular mooks with no conscience that pick up work as snatchers and whatever else but they aren't relevant yet. And the Order is like 30-50 people? most of whom are too old or undertrained for any kind of combat op. Harry's defense group prolly numbers… what? 70-100 kids (seriously how many I can't freaking remember and don't have access to book 5 right now) maybe half of that being old/skilled enough that they won't just instantly die if they break cover? No idea how many are mentally prepared to fight for their lives.
There were 'at least 30' Death Eaters at Voldemort's resurrection, though Harry is not exactly in the ideal place to get an accurate count what with the darkness and everything. In addition to that, 10 Death Eaters get broken out of Azkaban, which is all of them that were in Azkaban at the time.

So barring additional recruitment, Voldemort is working with around 40 - 45 Death Eaters in the Second Wizarding War according to canon.



It's also worth noting that in the First Wizarding War, Remus claims the Order was outnumbered '20 to 1' which, if true and not hyperbole, would suggest that Voldemort had around 400 Death Eaters the first time around, given the Order numbered 20 people at that time.

I suspect that this is hyperbole though, as according to Rowling the total Wizarding population in the UK is around 3000, so 400 Death Eaters would have been an overwhelmingly large chunk of the population, as well as implying a near 90% attrition rate between wars. Furthermore; Rowling is terrible with numbers, which becomes obvious when you know that her 'around 3000' claim includes one third being Hogwarts students, and we sure as shit do not see Hogwarts having 1000 students. So I would take Remus's 'outnumbered 20 to 1' claim with a grain of salt.
 
Last edited:
There were 'at least 30' Death Eaters at Voldemort's resurrection, though Harry is not exactly in the ideal place to get an accurate count what with the darkness and everything. In addition to that, 10 Death Eaters get broken out of Azkaban, which is all of them that were in Azkaban at the time.

So barring additional recruitment, Voldemort is working with around 40 - 45 Death Eaters in the Second Wizarding War according to canon.



It's also worth noting that in the First Wizarding War, Remus claims the Order was outnumbered '20 to 1' which, if true and not hyperbole, would suggest that Voldemort had around 400 Death Eaters the first time around, given the Order numbered 20 people at that time.

I suspect that this is hyperbole though, as according to Rowling the total Wizarding population in the UK is around 3000, so 400 Death Eaters would have been an overwhelmingly large chunk of the population, as well as implying a near 90% attrition rate between wars. Furthermore; Rowling is terrible with numbers, which becomes obvious when you know that her 'around 3000' claim includes one third being Hogwarts students, and we sure as shit do not see Hogwarts having 1000 students. So I would take Remus's 'outnumbered 20 to 1' claim with a grain of salt.
I took it to mean 20 to 1 by Voldemort's forces, not specifically limited to just his Death Eaters. IIRC he recruited giants, werewolves, dementors, vampires etc. 20 to 1 would be pretty plausible, in that case.
 
Yeah, there's forty named students in Harry's year, and assuming that's fairly typical, around 280 total in Hogwarts. Which makes much more sense with the other numbers for Hogwarts things we're given in the text (one teacher per subject, one sports team of seven players per house).

Worth noting that harry's year, and probably the one after it, are the years at the absolute nadir of the War. I suspect the year after Ginny's was 2-3 times Harry's year in size from the baby boom.
IIRC, what we see in Snape's pensieve suggests 1000 is pre-war Hogwarts size.

And yes, anything above Harry's year's number as the average makes the teachers' schedules even more ridiculous. Though Fencer can at least handwave that, because without focus on the teachers' days, it wouldn't be noticed.
 
But Hermione's time turner was the first to enter hogwarts, because she needed it to take all the subjects, despite Percy doing so (at a higher level) without one.
 
Honestly, the further you get away from Hogwarts the less the magical world holds together. Rowling really focused on the school as the center of the plot and setting, everything else was secondary and generally warped to fit into the Hogwarts mold. It does mean that you can create just about anything within the setting and still have it be realistic, though.
 
New Blood, by artemisgirl on FFN.

White Squirrel on that same site also has an alternate Hermione fic series, The Arithmancer, where her ultimate goal is to kill all the Dementors, although she doesn't get there until the third fic. (In the climax of the second fic, Hermione kills Bellatrix with a spell she created called the Deplorable Word after the one in the Narnia books)

Oh shit, a well made fanfic of over a million words!

This will last me like, two weeks at work!
 
For Taylor, this is not long after she's heard Dinah's end of the world prophesy, fought the Slaugtherhouse Nine & Echidna and seen her first boyfriend /lover vivisected. She may find the comfort of sleeping next to someone she can trust a great relief.
She may also find she get's to spend some time in the Potter bed in the infirmary under Poppy's care when she get s to Hogwarts. As Dumbledore isn't a tanner, testing the basilisk skin with Hagrid, Kettleburn and or Flitwick could be worthwhile.
ie Bubble-head charm against the smell, strong severing charm to see if it retains magic resistance. Taylor may remember or one of those three teachers or the ghosts could suggest boiled leather, as something like plastic for opaque tower shields like police riot shields or bucklers if a ~foot sized round shield would be worthwhile in magical combat, suitably scaled up for Hagr id too so he has a little more defense. If runes can be molded in for extra effect so much the better.
If Harry & Taylor visit Kreacher at Hogwarts to reinforce his orders, they may also meet Dobby. If bonded, then Taylor could have a safe way to move unobtrusively in London proper. Then she could use libraries. She may have used flashbangs with Coil's mercenaries & might at least know about magnesium powder from cartoons (ie early cameras). If she brainstorms with Hermione, or with Hermione's parents, sodium or even aluminium powder could come up. If samples of the metals allow them to be understood enough to be easily transfigured & another spell can reduce it to powder, some flash options are available. White Squirrel's Arithmancer had Hermione creating such spells. In general if Taylor has access to London, she could get some help from the family of the muggleborn students. In the Wards she studied tenaciously. Some small group military tactics might help, & could be available in libraries.
If Taylor picked up a rifle in her acquisitions, she could provide support in Order response to Death Eater attacks - if she is protected against notice-me-not charms. On her ritual possibilities, LacksCreativity's Double Cross Dresden files shows some ideas.
 
Last edited:
Contrary to your apparent belief, there is a lot of canon and wog about this, I have neither the time nor inclination to search for it all for you. Maybe you should start with book 6 where the difficulty of things increase drastically with something as minor as not saying the spell out loud, or the African school that exclusively teaches wandless magic.

Not saying an incantation is not the same as not using a premade spell...

And while wandless magic is occasionally shown and referenced there isn't much in the way of details that I recall.
 
The Auror thing is weird since they're the special services and investigations branch. Before Tonks joined, there hadn't been new recruits in 3 years.

Hit Wizards are your, well not entry level, police force slash riot squad.

As for Death Eaters, there's like…40 marked ones? Narcissa doesn't count as one, but there's also, supposedly, the Werewolves, Vampires, Giants, and Dementors.

Also the 1000 students number was off the cuff during an interview from what I found on Reddit, and Harry's first few years are closer to the 600 mark at best.

Also, if the game is any accurate representation, Hogsmede has maybe a hundred people tops.
 
Also, if the game is any accurate representation, Hogsmeade has maybe a hundred people tops.

Typo, you forgot the a in Hogsmeade. Anyhow, in general games simplify cities and towns, reducing their size for example. Structure of the town/city? Yes, that you can take as canon. But multiply the number of buildings and inhabitant by quite a bit.

As Hogsmeade is the only wizarding town in the entirety of Britain, I'd go with a thousand inhabitants at the least
 
Not saying an incantation is not the same as not using a premade spell...

And while wandless magic is occasionally shown and referenced there isn't much in the way of details that I recall.
You really need to get better at critical thinking and applying it to things.

Literally everyone struggled with non-verbal spellcasting, even as adults most people preferred to just say the spell instead of bothering with it.

Now think about how hard it must be to cast the spell without a wand.

Now think about how hard it must be to not cast a spell at all, but to just do it.

You're right, not saying an incantation is not the same as not using a premade spell, it's infinitely easier

and the reason wandless magic is barely mentioned or talked about is because a grand total of three people explicitly use it in any capacity throughout the books, and they're the three best spellcasters in the books.

The thing that annoys me about this is that if you had bothered to think about this, like at all, you should have figured it out, easily. I don't like doing your thinking for you. And it's really starting to seem like you just didn't read the books, please do so, or at least fucking google something first.
 
You really need to get better at critical thinking and applying it to things.

Literally everyone struggled with non-verbal spellcasting, even as adults most people preferred to just say the spell instead of bothering with it.

Now think about how hard it must be to cast the spell without a wand.

Now think about how hard it must be to not cast a spell at all, but to just do it.

You're right, not saying an incantation is not the same as not using a premade spell, it's infinitely easier

and the reason wandless magic is barely mentioned or talked about is because a grand total of three people explicitly use it in any capacity throughout the books, and they're the three best spellcasters in the books.

The thing that annoys me about this is that if you had bothered to think about this, like at all, you should have figured it out, easily. I don't like doing your thinking for you. And it's really starting to seem like you just didn't read the books, please do so, or at least fucking google something first.

Then how do you explain the African school of magic that teaches only wandless magic? And is important and is only school of magic in Africa?
 
I don't have population numbers honestly I don't know if anyone does.
Idea: Listed numbers of 3k pop with 1k students are official numbers for Ministry. Like, according to last census, Britain has 3k wizards and witches. Don't ask when it was taken. Simultaneously, Hogwarts has budget calculated according to needs of 1000 students. When it was set? Well...
 
So, if Britain only has 3k people...

How did they get to host the world cup?

Easter Island has never hosted an international world anything; they simply don't have the resources.

3k people is less than half the people that worked the last FIFA World Cup.

The Quidditch match had, according to Canon, 100k people at it. Britain would have had to absorb 33+ times the entire population of the nation, feeding them, making souvenirs, all those things we read about.

A three thousand person population is impossible, just by Canon events.
 
So, if Britain only has 3k people...

How did they get to host the world cup?

Easter Island has never hosted an international world anything; they simply don't have the resources.

3k people is less than half the people that worked the last FIFA World Cup.

The Quidditch match had, according to Canon, 100k people at it. Britain would have had to absorb 33+ times the entire population of the nation, feeding them, making souvenirs, all those things we read about.

A three thousand person population is impossible, just by Canon events.
My personal head cannon is that there is somewhere between 10k and 30k wizards spread out across Britain, with Hogsmeade and Diagon Alley being the only two major population centers that are entirely magical. Then you have scattered wizarding households spread out in towns and villages across the nation that go out of their way to avoid interacting with their muggle neighbors. The Weasley's, Lovegood's, and Diggory's live on village outskirts where they can be a bit more open, while people like Bathilda Bagshot and the Dumbledore's live right in the heart of mixed wizard/muggle villages like Godric's Hollow. There are also wizarding properties concealed within major cities (see Grimauld Place), and again wizards go out of their way to avoid interacting with the neighbors. Then there are a few wizarding manors out in the countryside where a simple muggle repelling ward can keep a wide area free from muggle incursion.

10-30k makes sense for a government with only one settlement (Hogsmeade) one school, one hospital, one prison, etc. If concentrated, they could probably fill a decent sized town, but by spreading out they blend their resource draws and impact out across the country. Such population figures would still have the Ministry rather oversized, but then again I suspect that wizards have far less of a need for economic activity, and would have plenty of vanity offices in government just for bragging rights (department of games and sports anyone?). So for purebloods with nothing else to do? Some relative could get them a do-nothing job in the ministry working under someone else with barely any work, all just passing the same few coins around the economy since there's not much to spend it one if you don't need to pay much for food/rent/property.

Its also worth noting that the wizarding world and magical world overlap, but are not necessarily the same. By which I mean the wizards may claim to rule everything that is magical, yet many magical subgroups have varying degrees of autonomy/independence. Centaurs, werewolves, giants, goblins, and possibly veela are all outside the direct control of the Ministry of Magic. They could be considered part of the magical world writ large, but not the wizarding one. Then there are beings like hags and vampires which are implied to live among wizards without being so themselves.
 
A three thousand person population is impossible, just by Canon events.

Yup. JKR is really bad at math. I think the theory was that Magical Britain's population in comparison to other magical countries is proportionately the same as regular Britain vs the other countries, so if Magical Britain has 3000 people, Magical Easter Island might have 5, or some such.

Then how do you explain the African school of magic that teaches only wandless magic? And is important and is only school of magic in Africa?

You have to do lots of headcanoning or outside world building to make it fit. My suspicion (which is nearly 100% headcanon and not supported at all by canon) is that much like how British Wizards are more long lived than muggles, and hence sort of lagging behind the muggle world on cultural issues, all the other wizards have the same thing. Which means slavery and European Colonialism are much more in the memories of African Wizards, so they straight up isolate themselves (It is mentioned that the location of the African school is entirely secret). While European wizards are likely largely using magical traditions derived from Rome, African wizards have their own thing that never developed wands, so use entirely different methodologies that they don't share with Europeans.

Personally, I'd also expect there are other traditions in other areas as well, but they mostly isolate from Europeans because of how Europeans have treated them. There are likely still living Japanese wizards who remember the US sending warships in to force Japan open for trade in 1853, so I would expect magical Japan to still have a lot of isolationism. If the Magical Americas followed the pattern of normal Americas, then I suspect most of the native magical tradition was wiped out and replaced by a European one.

While I have no clue what is going on in Magical China, I could plausibly see them being in a civil war of some form, with the pure blood magicals largely still being aligned with Imperial China, which would put them in opposition to both the muggle government and any new Muggleborn who are most likely picked up by any magicals who are aligned with the CCP, because they will have grown up with beliefs that are radically different from support for imperial china.

There is all sorts of cool world building that could have been done with other magical countries, especially with the longer lifespans and some degree of isolation meaning that they culturally tend to lag behind the muggle world. Too bad that JKR put basically zero thought into it and just gave off the cuff answers when asked.
 
I like the idea that Magical America is entirely different from Mundane America myself. With magic involved the difference in power between the natives and the colonists is basically nonexistent, so the larger population would win. And with Europe having spent centuries losing magicals to the witch hunts and internal wars, I would expect the natives to win. So you have the eastern seaboard and probably the islands in the Carribean being European-centric magicals, while the rest of the continents are still native magical populations. No MACUSA (which was fucking stupid, 'founded' prior to the United States themselves!), but instead there would be the Coastal Magical Government(s) [Name(s) Here] and, say, the Tribal Federation of North America/Whatever the native magicals call the continent, The Aztec Republic, and the Incan Imperial Unity. The idea that the magical community mirrors the mundane community has always left me rather miffed. It's been 400 years since the Statute, half the nations that exist today didn't when it was implemented, why the hell do the magicals mirror the mundanes?
 
Ok ok enough with the census numbers and the speculation on non European magic/cultures. Take it somewhere else folks it's not really relevant here unless it relates to how many fighters any given faction has.
 
Back
Top