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

[joym999 at aol.com]

No: HPFGUIDX 14528

--- In HPforGrownups at y..., "Neil Ward" <neilward at d...> wrote:
> 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 have the impression that the HE does not stop between Platform 9 
3/4 and Hogsmeade station.  Anyway, there would not be any room for 
additional passengers; in both PS/SS and PoA Harry gets on the train 
so late that he has to sit in the last remaining empty compartment.

I see 2 possibilities:

1) The Hogwarts Express leaves from Platform 9 3/4, which is not 
necessarily in London.  The gateway to/from Platform 9 3/4 leads to 
whichever train station is closest to where you live -- London, 
Dublin, Edinburgh, Belfast, Liverpool, etc.  The problem with this 
theory is that the train journey does seem to take all day; about the 
right amount of time for a train journey from London to north 
Scotland, I believe.  And also if you could magically connect a train 
station in, say, Dublin, with a train station somewhere in England, 
why not just connect it directly to Hogsmeade?

2) There is more than one Hogwarts Express, they all converge on 
Hogsmeade station at about the same time.  There is nothing in the 
books to suggest that all 300 (or 500 or 1000) students are on the 
same train that Harry is on.  There is no evidence in the books to 
contradict the existence of more than one train, so I think this is 
the more likely explanation.

Of course, the most likely explanation is that JKR just didnt think 
about it, but personally I reject all explanations that might 
indicate that the HP books are works of fiction.


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  "How come the Muggles don't hear the bus?" said Harry.
  "Them!" said Stan contemptuously.  "Don't listen properly, do 
they?  Don't look properly either.  Never notice nuffink, they don'."

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