[HPforGrownups] Re: Do All Students Travel to Hogwarts by the HE?

[eloiseherisson at aol.com]

No: HPFGUIDX 45955

Bess:
> I wonder, with no evidence from canon, that once you enter a platform 
> in the Dublin, Manchester, or the Edinburgh train station, you end up 
> on the Hogwarts Express platform.  I'm reminded of my Anthropology 
> 101 class - transitions and rites of passage are important.  By 
> having all the students come together, and travel together, they are 
> collectively moving from one state of being to another. 

I think you're spot on about the transitions and rites of passage.
The train journey is after all, for the first years, followed by two more 
rites of passage: the literal one across the lake and the Sorting ceremony.

Harry was after all conceived (in a literary sense) on a train and JKR has 
said that it was important to her that he travelled to school by train. So 
whether it's logical or not, I believe that all students travel to Hogwarts 
via the Hogwarts Express, from Kings Cross. A bit of a bummer if you live in 
Hogsmeade, but there you are. The train journey is the first day of term and 
a transition into the fully magical world.

Also, we don't know that you can get your school equipment in Hogsmeade (the 
only other likely place), so perhaps everyone ends up having to visit Diagon 
Alley in preparation for the new school year anyway. Then the children are 
put on the train and the parents disapparate or Floo home. Given the Floo 
network and the existence of Port Keys, it shouldn't be too much of an 
imposition to *get* to London. (Although this makes me wonder why the 
Weasleys didn't Floo to Diagon Alley and get a taxi from there, rather than 
all the way from Ottery St Catchpole.) 

Eloise


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