• Trivia How did Hagrid travel to the Hut on the Rock? With this passage in OP21, fans guessed that Hagrid might have come to the Hut by riding a thestral: “… they aren’ unlucky, they’re dead clever an’ useful! Course, this lot don’ get a lot o’ work, it’s mainly… Read More
• Churches and graveyards After Voldemort killed his father and paternal grandparents, they were buried in the graveyard by the church in Little Hangleton (GF1). This, then, is also where Harry was taken by Portkey, saw Cedric Diggory killed and Voldemort reborn, and duelled Voldemort in 1995 (GF34). Read More
• Event After the Dursleys leave Harry near the clearly marked Platforms 9 and 10, he decides to ask the guard about the train to Hogwarts but refrains from asking about the apparently absent Platform 9 3/4. The guard gets annoyed with Harry when it turns out he doesn’t even know where… Read More
• Event After Voldemort struck him down with the Killing Curse in the Forbidden Forest (DH33), Harry finds himself lying naked and without his glasses on a sort of floor surrounded by a bright white mist. Slowly his surroundings take on the shape of King’s Cross Station in London, and when… Read More
• Event As Voldemort and Harry duel in front of the Death Eaters, the twin phoenix feather cores of their wands create a “Reverse Spell Effect” known as Priori Incantatem, and shades of Voldemort’s previous victims come out of his yew wand and protect Harry, including… Read More
• Source Before the Hogwarts Express leaves, Tonks rescues Harry from the Full-Body Bind Curse put on him by Malfoy. She escorts him to the castle, but Snape come to collect him and he leads Harry into the feast, criticizing Harry all the way.  Once inside, Harry discusses his… Read More
• Source HogEx refers to a series of essays written by Rowling about the Hogwarts Express and Platform 9 and 3/4. The essays first appeared on Pottermore. Hogwarts Express King’s Cross Station Platform Nine and Three-Quarters… Read More
• Wizarding villages Hogsmeade is the only entirely wizarding village in Britain (PA5). According to tradition it was founded over a thousand years ago, around the same time as Hogwarts, by Hengist of Woodcroft as he was fleeing persecution by Muggles (FW, Pm). It’s a picturesque little village of thatched cottages and… Read More
• Public places • Railway places • Wizarding places The railway station that serves both the town of Hogsmeade and Hogwarts School. A “tiny, dark platform” where the Hogwarts Express ends its journey north from Platform Nine-And-Three-Quarters (PS6). The station is located near the lake, and from there a road extends around the lake to Hogwarts Castle (PA5,… Read More
• Hogwarts • Transportation The arriving first-years travel across the Lake to the castle in a flotilla of small boats, propelled by magic and escorted by Hagrid (PS6).  … Read More
• Article
Posted by in Canon discussion / Essays
The Hogwarts Express has been the subject of various essays exploring its nature and function. As has been plausibly noted elsewhere on this site, it isn’t really a steam engine, but rather a magical transportation device that mimics a Muggle equivalent in external form and function. This is consistent with the general trend in Wizard “technology,” which seems… Read More
• Transportation The Hogwarts Express is a passenger train which makes a run between King’s Cross Station, London, and Hogsmeade Station, taking students to and from Hogwarts. The train makes this run at least four times a year, and probably more often than that, as needed. It does leave without… Read More
• Article
Posted by in Essays
A number of questions are often asked about the Hogwarts Express—how can it be hidden at King’s Cross so effectively?—why is there always just one compartment left? how can it travel around without being seen? The Hogwarts Express—Muggle features Muggles, it is suggested in OP7, developed technology because they don’t have magic, so… Read More
• Spells A nasty kind of hex that can be placed on a broom. The effect is presumably to make the target broom attempt to hurl its rider off. Read More