Hogwart's Express Space

[Grey Wolf]

No: HPFGUIDX 43889

Acire wrote:
> Okay, I'm positive that magical space vs. real space was debated 
> before, BUT as I was driving about aimlessly at work last night, I 
> was wondering if anybody had anything to offer to my question.
> 
> Okay, if Harry and Co. need to go through the wall to get to 
> Platform 9 3/4, wouldn't that mean that Hogwart's Express has its 
> own magical space? And, if it does, how is it, then, that Harry and 
> Ron were able to take a car (enchanted, but a Muggle car, 
> nonetheless) parked in a non-magical parking lot, make it invisible 
> and fly it upward, spot Hogwart's Express pulling out of the train 
> station, and follow it from London? Is there some dimension or 
> invisible line that they crossed, to get to magical space?
> 
> -Acire

To answer thi question, consider the extension of the magical spaces 
(or pockets, as I prefer to call them). These spaces are always 
relatively small compared to were they are hidden (two/three alleys in 
the whole of London), with the possible exception of the Forbidden 
Forest, which seems to stretch for miles and some listees have 
hypothesied that it occupies a space of its own. So, how big is the 
pocket inside a Station? It wouldn't stretch all the way to Hogwarts, 
for one thing. If it did, it would have to stretch all the way to all 
the possible destinations of wizard trains, and that doesn't look 
probable. 

Thus, the logical conclusion is that the pocket is inside the station, 
and that when the train leaves, it goes through another of those 
illusion walls and travels over rails. It doesn't really need the 
rails, possibly, just like the knight bus doesn't need roads, but while 
the knight bus has little muggle public since it works in the little 
hours, the train operates during the day, and the risk of muggle seing 
a train go thruogh spaces normally ocupied by houese *who have let it 
pass* would be to big. Whether the train uses normal rails (which means 
that there should be trouble when crossing with muggle trains) or 
whether it uses abandoned rails is open to discussion. I mysef tend 
towards the normal rails, but there are problems with both ideas.

Of course, when Harry and Ron took the car, they only had to wait for 
the train to get out of the station (becoming visible not only to them 
but to the entire muggle population) and follow it all the way to 
Hogsmeade and then to Hogwarts.

Hope that helps,

Grey Wolf