Sirius motorbike/Weasley's car

[eloiseherisson at aol.com]

No: HPFGUIDX 95634

Jason:
> I don't know much about British houses, but wouldn't mansions that  
> size have a garage? And didn't Hagrid mention that he had to get  
> Sirius his bike back in PS/SS? Perhaps it's in the garage or shed at  
> Grimmauld Place?
I've never thought of Grimmauld Place as a mansion as such, rather as a  
large town house.
In most London squares, the houses are terraced, all the houses down one  
side of the square attached to each other, so that the only access to the back  
is through the house itself. It's not impossible to get a motorbike through 
one,  it's the sort of thing people do out of necessity (though you migh have a  
problem with a big one!) The grander squares might have a mews, a separate  
street round the back somewhere where the stables and coach houses (and  
accompanying accomodation for grooms, coach-drivers, etc) used to  be located. These 
days these have usually been converted into bijou little  houses. Parking in 
London is a nightmare: most people who live in grand houses  in central London 
park on the street! I suppose if you are lucky enough to live  near one you 
might also pay for a place in a private car park at a high price.  The point of 
all this, which is getting dangerously OT, is that the assumption  that the 
Black house would have a garage is erroneous.
But of course, the Black house occupies a *magical* space, so the above is  
not necessarily relevant. There is no reason at all why there might not also be 
 a separate coach house/garage also occupying a magical space and hiding the  
motor bike. Indeed, thinking about it, it seems very likely that if a house 
was  magically fitted into a terrace of a grand enough square, then a coach 
house  would have been magically slotted into the accompanying mews. If the 
square had  one. I'm not sure whether it's that kind of square, though. Lots of 
houses which  we Brits at least consider large and expensive these days were 
originally  occupied by middle class families who didn't run to keeping a coach 
and  horses.
~Eloise
Waffling


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