Severus hasn't considered that Claire might be anything but a simple muggle girl - because he's self-centered and as tolerant as he's being right now, he doesn't actually hold any respect for the average person. Average people are dull and uninteresting and probably violent; her tone makes him reconsider. But only a little.
"Not compared to the overall population of the United Kingdom. We have one school... it's..." he trails off, thinking about the population. Before Grindelwald, before Voldemort, Hogwarts might have a thousand students circulating at any given time of year. "We used to be larger but times have changed. There are maybe four hundred students at any time. Ages eleven through seventeen usually."
Distracted, suddenly, these thoughts reminding him sharply of who he is-- "I need to go, I'm bloody exhausted."
He's fine with discussing the facts. He's done it with plenty of parents, ones horrified to discover their mixed or muggle-born child has been sorted into Slytherin, or ones newly relocated to the UK, or ones too rural to know anything before the fateful letter arrived. But this is different and after talking with Harry and fighting with Sirius, dissecting Hogwarts like it's normal when it's a billion lightyears away by now is unsettling.
no subject
Severus hasn't considered that Claire might be anything but a simple muggle girl - because he's self-centered and as tolerant as he's being right now, he doesn't actually hold any respect for the average person. Average people are dull and uninteresting and probably violent; her tone makes him reconsider. But only a little.
"Not compared to the overall population of the United Kingdom. We have one school... it's..." he trails off, thinking about the population. Before Grindelwald, before Voldemort, Hogwarts might have a thousand students circulating at any given time of year. "We used to be larger but times have changed. There are maybe four hundred students at any time. Ages eleven through seventeen usually."
Distracted, suddenly, these thoughts reminding him sharply of who he is-- "I need to go, I'm bloody exhausted."
He's fine with discussing the facts. He's done it with plenty of parents, ones horrified to discover their mixed or muggle-born child has been sorted into Slytherin, or ones newly relocated to the UK, or ones too rural to know anything before the fateful letter arrived. But this is different and after talking with Harry and fighting with Sirius, dissecting Hogwarts like it's normal when it's a billion lightyears away by now is unsettling.