Ethnicity (was Hogwarts Location)/+wizard transport options/+parallel world theory

[Neil Ward]

No: HPFGUIDX 14513

Amy Z said:

<<Jim Dale chose to give Seamus an Irish accent but the Patils English ones,
not Indian.  That may reflect nothing more than his relative  talent at
different accents.  I'm quite sure it was up to him, not  something he ran
by JKR.>>

An Irish accent for Seamus is not surprising, but I think it is unlikely
that the Patils would have Indian accents.  If, as Rebecca (?) suggests (and
I agree) they are third generation Asians, they would speak with English
accents.  Having said that, the Asian community over here retains its own
culture and traditions and it is possible to detect Indian tinges in the
speech of some younger Anglo-Asians; presumably a side effect of
bilinguality in the home.  I can think of two Asian people I know (both
younger than me) who cannot pronounced the letter 'V'.

***

This whole topic of student ethnicity has got me wondering about the
transport students take to get to Hogwarts.  If there are students from
Scotland, which there must be (incidentally, not all Scots are called Hamish
Macdonald and Morag McTavish, so names tell us nothing, really), I doubt
they would gather at King's Cross to take the Hogwarts Express (HE) all the
way back up to Scotland.  I guess they would get to the castle by other
means.  Can anyone recall, are any children described as joining the HE en
route? Does it make any stops to pick people up?  Is the focus on the HE
because that's the closest mean of transport to Little Whinging and we are
seeing everything from Harry's POV?  Are there other trains converging on
Hogwarts?  I get the impression that the HE is very special and probably
unique.

I'm also formulating in my head an image of the magical world covering an
alternative plane, but complementary to the Muggle world, rather than the
two working alongside each other.  In my mind, the map of the magical world
is more sparse; its features are dotted around the map, but with huge spaces
in between, which are, in the Muggle world, completely full.  Landmarks such
as Hogwarts, Diagon Alley and Hogsmeade are among the few named places on
the wizarding map and would appear as "holes" on the Muggle map (not actual
holes, but areas that somehow had nothing of note, for no apparent reason)

I see the track which takes the Hogwarts Express from King's Cross to
Hogwarts as the only transport route marked.  Older witches and wizards can
apparate and use brooms for travel, so there is no need for a network of
roads and tracks in the wizarding plane.  Although I see these two planes
one on top of the other, I don't think things can exist in the same space
(but bear in mind that some things could be below others - e.g. Gringotts).

So, what am I saying?  That wizarding locations are, somehow, in the
interstices of the Muggle world, and that the patterns of the two
communities fit together like the pieces of a puzzle.  Also, I think I'm
saying that the two worlds' planes are not flat, but complex, like the
pieces of one of those annoying wooden cubes that I can never get back
together once I've dismantled.  This would allow some areas to be in close
proximity and others to be quite far apart (and those would be the most
hidden from each other).

Neil

... suddenly getting verbose and going off at tangents.... oooh a
'tangential plane' - perhaps that's the phrase I'm after?
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