Scabbers/Wormtail: What Kind of Rat Am I?

[Rita Winston]

No: HPFGUIDX 9189

--- In HPforGrownups at egroups.com, "Caius Marcius" <coriolan at w...> 
wrote:

> I've always pictured Scabbers as a sort of tame white lab rat, the
> kind we ran through mazes in back in introductory psych class. 

So did I, until the x-th time I heard Jim Dale reading some scene or 
other....

As for Scabbers, here's a quote from PoA (the revelations in the 
Shrieking Shack): "for a moment, Scabbers was frozen in midair, his 
small gray form twisting madly"

Earlier in PoA, in the Magical Menagerie shop on Diagon Alley, 
where Ron buys rat tonic and Hermione buys Crookshanks, the 
clever rats showing off in a communal cage on the counter are 
described as black rats.

CoS: At the Burrow: "Ron's magic wand was lying on top of a fish
tank full of frog spawn on the windowsill, next to his fat gray rat,
Scabbers, who was snoozing in a patch of sun."

SS/PS: Harry meets Ron at King's Cross station: "Ron reached inside 
his jacket and pulled out a fat gray rat"

That reminds me: what is the phrase "King's X" and does it have 
anything to do with King's Cross station?