>

And why don't some wizards arrive by fireplace at the start of term
This is a friendly reminder to read our rules.
Remember, /r/Showerthoughts is for showerthoughts, not "thoughts had in the shower!"
(For an explanation of what a "showerthought" is, please read this page.)
Rule-breaking posts may result in bans. >

I just assumed that was the closest station for those kids and there were other stops along the way.
That being said, I've never read the books, so I don't know if that was addressed or not. >

Yeah they never say "this is the only train station on this line".  I've always assumed there were more stops. >

I mean Harry and Ron fly there in the car right, so it's not like an alternate dimension only accessible through 9 3/4. >

I mean, it kinda is, magically protected/hidden.  But you can get there by other magical means.
I don't think Voldemort and his army all crammed into the train, with Tokyo porters squeezing them in so the doors can close. >

Anything from the trolley, dea(th eate)rs? >

"Do they have any death?" >

"Or cake? I'd rather have cake, really, especially if it has that nice thick buttercream icing. Oh, and sprinkles! I really ~~love~~ like sprinkles. Almost as much as death, I mean, of course." >

Well, we're out of cake! We only had three bits and we didn't expect such a rush! >

I'll have the chicken, then. >

Tastes of human, sir. >

Saving this because I desperately wanna re-enact it in dark academia style with a ridiculous English accent (with a lot of rolled r's for dramatic and comedic effect) >


with a ridiculous English accent

That would be pretty weird, considering it's supposed to be a Scottish accent >

Well, a ridiculous Scottish accent wouldn't be understood by anyone except the Scots so... >

Irrelevant since even aliens can recognize an obliterating Scottish accent >

Nah, aliens would have speech filters, maybe a tiny fish inserted in the ear or some such. >

I see what you did there.
Grab your towel. >

Make sure you find someone to make you a sandwich >

When I saw this comment in my notifications, from "LadyDicks", my first thought was "oh no, WTF did I say to get that response. Am I cancelled?" >

Imagine getting an owl, entering your train station through a wall, on your way to a magical place and then getting to wait somewhere, because you slow as ass steam train has to let faster muggle trains pass. >

Why don’t the wizards just embrace technology they can have both lmao as they said in Dr. Strange “we’re not savages” >

I think electricity goes haywire around magic >

It goes haywire at Hogwarts because there's so much magic all condensed in one place everything presumably operates normally in the buildings near Diagon Alley >

Then you would think two way magic mirrors like the one sirius gave Harry would be extremely in high demand. Wonder if it could be enchanted to link to other mirrors. >

They seem really easy to forget you have. Like that time Harry could have just used it to say hey to Sirius instead of a the string of events that happened instead. 
Literally the reason he gave it you, Harry. Moron. >

I would imagine they use floo powder to get closer or arrange something with the school >

Floo powder, port keys, aparation, one of the million other methods of teleporting across the UK... >

Muggle-borns tho? I guess Hogwarts could send them a portkey by owl or something lol >

Being teleported would be a pretty intense introduction to magic for a 10 year old >

Tbf, so is running through a brick wall. >

And remember, dear Muggle born, you have to believe you can teleport, or things may go... Awry. >

don’t they have to go to London for school supplies anyway? I mean, aside from muggle borns, and orphans, it doesn’t seem to be much of a trip to get to London. That being said, now I’m curious how those groups got their books, robes, and wands. Was Hagrid escort all of them? Also how many got held back by protective parents? I mean, Buffalo bill shows up at your house, reciting your recent Sunday letter about your kid being special and a magical boarding school… you should be a bit skeptical. >

In the book it’s explained that a teacher goes with the letter to the muggle house and explains, they then escort the muggle family to Diagon alley and help them with their stuff for
School. >

Man imagine how much it sucks. You are a kid and you have dreams and aspirations if being something like a scientist or a pilot or your family wants to induct you to the famioy business then a LARPer comes at your doorstep and basically forces you to drop everything and change your life because you are going to become a wizard now. Get used to a whole new world that absolutely loathsome you exist and plops you into a school for years only letting you go home on holidays. A world that is not only hostile to you culturally but also physically in that you can die just from practicing your homework wrong.
Although because this takes place in the late 90s I can just imagine the fun exchanges.
"Heh you freak, you don't belong around here mudblood."
"Yeah but when I go home for summer I have a computer that can run DOOM and watch Die Hard again and again on VHS. What do you do you in your spare time, medieval peasant?" >

Are they forced? I imagine they don’t kidnap them if the parents/guardians and/or kids say no. Unless they are clearly abusive like the Dursleys >

I would imagine they are pretty heavily persuaded as if children don’t learn to control their magic they can become Obscurials. >


Obscurials

Thought that was from supressing the magic (via abuse), not from not honing it. >

According to Wiki -

Obscurials are magical children who attempt to repress their magical abilities. If kept unchecked, this repression corrupts the user's magic, creating a dark parasite force known as an obscurus. >

They did take the car in the 2nd book so why assume that the train is the only way to hogwarts? >

I was just thinking, they flew the car to school when they missed the train. Hogwarts , is just unfindable to muggles >

Their parents just bring them to the Hogsmeade train station and they take the Thestral carriages from there. First years take Hagrid's boats, of course. >

Every time someone makes an observation about the Harry Potter world, they generally forget a very key detail: Wizards are weird as hell >

Arkham's Razor is in full effect when discussing Harry Potter >

Ah yes Arkham's Razor. All things being equal, the most insane and convoluted plan that has a single point of failure most likely to be thwarted, is the one we're going with. >

Exactly. Instead of having, say, a series of Portkeys designed to take the students to and from Hogwarts every break, let's add a secret platform through an illusory wall to what's probably the busiest train station in all of London. Let's also make sure there are no backups, so anyone who misses the train misses a term >

Efficiency is not the point. Tradition is. If I had to schlep from Glasgow to London, back to Scotland, then so does my kid. >

When schlepping is stepping through your fireplace it's not much of a hassle lol. It'd be quicker to get to London than it was to get dressed for the trip. My corner shop is further away when you factor in the travel options 
As for why a train in pretty sure the books explain the logistic reasoning somewhere but it's also a great first networking event for wizarding kids and muggleborns.
A steam train isn't quite as jarring to the muggle parents as seeing their kid spaghettified away by an old boot too haha >

Isn’t it a fun social right of passage thing? 
Do you want to be the kid who’s dad drops them off at the front gate while all the other kids have had fun eating sweets and gossiping? >

Yea it’s fun the first time. When you’re doing it 4 times a year for 6 years it can get a little tedious >

Right because the last thing a bunch of teens want is a bit of time to reconnect with friends before classes start. >

The train was always described as very full. I assumed this was deliberate, to force kids to socialize >

Other than the fantasy aspect,  probably was better to teleport to the town that was nearby and walk to hogwarts than taking the train. >

Hog warts is in the highlands it’s more or less impossible to walk there but they can use boats and flying carreges >

I think he meant use a teletab to hogsmeed or whatever that place where Aberforths pub is. 
Sorry for spelling, I haven't read HP in ages so dunno how to spell the dumb ass names JK rolling came up with >

It's like flying Delta.  You're gonna have to go through Cincinnati >

Atlanta for me. >

Yeah, Atlanta is the main hub for Delta. >

No! Ancient Atlanta was more than just a Delta hub. It was a vibrant metropolis, the equal of Paris or New York! ...Turner Field, the Coca-Cola bottling plant, the, uh, the airport. >

But tell us, how could a city with such a ... fabulous airport end up underwater? >

Surprised no one has mentioned the wizard cup visiting schools all arrived in their own cool way via ships and what not. >

There isn't really amy requirement to take the train, it's just the most convenient option for most folks and allows the kids time to socialise. Nothing is stopping the kids from just being taken to hogsmede and catching up with the rest of the students when they arrive via the train. >

there are alternate routes

Harry and Ron fly a car there
The Nightbus takes Harry to Hogsmeade
the foreign students arrive via different magical methods in the 4th book
The Floo Network was connected to Hogwarts for at least some (if not all) of the books
You can apparate into Hogsmeade >

HP has officially become one of those things that is too popular so now people know about without having actually read the books or has just seen the movies on a Megabus.... There are constantly post "is X dumb in Harry Potter" then the vast majority of people agree, when really there is an explanation within the canon itself but 90% of people now know 30% of the canon lol >

Of course it's London-centric. Hogwarts is governed by the Ministry of Magic, which albeit is kept very secret, is still officially a branch of the UK govt, who have an unequivocally london-based public spending regime. Of COURSE the train only goes from London. >

As someone who is not very into HP and simply watched the movies, is this cannon? Did the muggle gvt know about it? >

Yeah it is. It's the first chapter of Book 6. The Minister of Magic goes and pays a visit to the new Prime Minister, but it's really the only time it comes up IIRC. It has been a loooooooong time since I read the books.
Definitely would have been hilarious if pre-movies Rowling could have written a scene there with all the Brexit shenanigans and like Boris Johnson getting told that he cannot visit the place >

In universe, the series ended around 1997. Harry's about 36 years old when Brexit happens.
Ron voted leave. It was the yearly rift in the main trio's friendship for that year. >

I disagree that Ron would have voted leave. I get where you are (likely) coming from, Ron came from poverty and may have therefore been a bit more akin to the red wall voters who voted leave, but I think realistically Ron would have been a non-voter. He wouldn't have seen the point of voting either way, as Brexit wouldn't really impact the Wizarding World. Hermione would have definitely voted Remain on an anti- anti-immigration stance mainly (Krum was European after all and she would still likely have kept in touch - any bad blood between Ron and Krum was water under the bridge now and laughed about as adults), and would have probably also badgered the other two about it, Ron being married to her for many years by this point would be able to find a way to say no and for Hermione to accept his apathy, Harry would probably have just voted anyway for remain but only because Hermione seemed to care so much about it, but also be seemingly as not-bothered as Ron.
Don't get me wrong, despite being a remainer myself, I'm very deliberately not trying to say that "brexiters are evil", as  think the argument for and against Brexit was much more nuanced - I think you would have got several "good" witches and wizards voting for Brexit too - probably quite a few of the teachers actually, and certainly a lot at the ministry. I actually think Luna could potentially have been a Brexit voter, from a libertarian perspective of wanting to maintain freedom from any organisations seeming to be overreaching - but that could depend on where she would get her sources from about how the EU governed. It would be interesting to see how the Quibbler would have reported on Brexit, if at all. >

Nah all the main characters voted stay after Hermione explained it to them. With the exception of Seamus, whose Mum read all the dodgy pro-brexit write ups in the daily prophet. >

The half-blood Irish Seamus Finnigan definitely did not vote Brexit... For that matter, might not have even been eligible to vote at all depending on where he lived after hogwarts.
Which also begs the question - if Irish students are eligible for Hogwarts, would Brexit have hampered their eligibility for Hogwarts due to the stopping of freedom of movement from the EU into the UK? >

there's a hogwarts school in america and every few months some quiet angsty kid goes avada kedavra all over the place >

I feel like the killing curse is just the lazy and bloodless way to kill someone with magic 
If you turned someone's heart into stone it would probably fuck em up real quick, or turn them inside out or inflate them til they pop idk it's magic it could get so gnarly >

Canonically they already have sectumsempra which slices you up real nice >

Oh yea the spell invented by a literal incel >

It has an incel-y vibe to it >

While you were talking to mudblood girls I was studying the blade magic >

We are not the same. >

The reality of this is the bane of my existence. I live in St. John’s, Newfoundland. Canada’s easternmost city. Closer to Rome than Canada’s west coast. I’m going to Dublin next month. I have to fly four hours west to Toronto. Stay there a couple of hours. Then fly back, directly over my city where I started, and only then begin the four hours flying it would take to go direct from St. John’s to Dublin lol. Kills me every time. More than triples the travel time because Canada’s airlines use a hub and spoke system as opposed to offering a milk run option. >

St. John's International Airport has multiple runways, but the longest runway, runway 11 has a length just a hair over 8500 feet.
Now I can't find an official spec sheet, and in practice this depends on a variety of factors including load factor, altitude, and air temperature, but I see multiple unsourced statements that the smallest 787 variant, the - 8, has a minimum runway length requirement of 8500 feet.
Comparable aircraft like the A330-200 have a minimum takeoff distance of 9000 feet, though similarly unsourced. The 777 is similar to the 787. The A350 is right in the middle.
So basically, we see that it is likely impossible to highly unlikely to operate widebody flights out of St. John's.
This means to operate a milk run service from Toronto to Dublin via St. John's, Air Canada would have to operate narrow body aircraft like the 737, 757, or A320. The cost to operate the flight could swing anywhere from cheaper, due to less crew and fuel costs, to more expensive, due to landing and slot fees for an extra airport, but raw revenue would likely be lower, as in addition to the reduced price they'd be able to get away with charging vs a nonstop flight for Toronto originating passengers, the majority of their demand, they also would not be able to sell their big money making premium seats since most narrowbodies are only outfitted with domestic first class seats, which are often essentially just premium economy seats in a long haul international widebody.
Then consider the need to hire ground staff, customer service, etc. gate space, etc. at St. John's and we see that Air Canada doesn't really have a reason to do all that to fly a very low demand route.
Your best bet for a direct flight would be a low cost carrier that doesn't want to compete with Air Canada directly flying a 5th freedom flight through Dublin.
Alternatively, there may be less out of the way connections offered by carriers like Icelandair.
Issue is, there just aren't that many long haul low cost airlines. Transatlantic service is just a lot harder to be profitable for a low cost airline compared to an intra Europe or domestic North American airline. >

I mean, flue-powder kind of means where the train station is means nothing. Just flue on in and send off the kid.
Just London has enough bustle that you can hide one set of tracks.
Edit: means nothing for the parents. The kids still get a 12 hour fuck off train ride. >

Didn't they allow students to arrive by the floo network? I coulda sworn it was mentioned students coming or going by floo network either on holidays or maybe it was a specific year?
It's been almost a decade since my last reread so I'm probably wrong >

Honestly, the reliability of the train networks is the most unrealistic part of the Harry Potter universe for me. >

"We're sorry but the - ELEVEN HUNDRED - service to - HOGWARTS SCHOOL OF WITCHCRAFT AND WIZARDRY - is delayed. This is due to - LEPRECHAUNS ON THE LINE." >

Well they would need to travel to London anyway to get their school supplies in Diagon Alley . >

That was the best place to get them.  Not the only place.  There are Wizard Wal-marts out there too. >

Not as much as them struggling to pronounce the spells correctly >

You mean to tell me that JK just threw in some magical whimsy without considering the actual systems in her world and how they might realistically function?
I'm shocked. >

They could travel almost instantaneously via fire places. Probably not a problem. >

You could just travel to Hogsmeade by some other method and meet the train there. >

I'm fairly certain the train isn't the only way to get to the school... I think magical families can go directly to hogsmeade to drop them off. >

There's more than one way to get to Hogwarts. There's nothing in the books that says they can only get there by train. Hell, the train doesn't even take them all the way to school, but just to Hogsmeade. So, assuming the school is indeed in Scotland (though never confirmed explicitly in the books, it is widely agreed upon that's where it is), then a Scottish cold would likely just show up at Hogsmeade and fall in with the other kids getting off the train. >

Apparition. Portkeys. Floo. All three of these things mean the trip from Scotland to London to Hogwarts is no longer than the trip from any other place in the world to London to Hogwarts. Or at least any other place in the Isles >

Why do they even take the train when fucking teleportation exists? >

It's almost like the world building in HP was shoddy at best and extremely inconvenient and lazy at worst. >

You'd think it's ridiculous but I did the same with my school trip during elementary : Spend 20m going to school, then take the school bus to go on the trip - which is a park right next to my house 💁‍♀️ >

"So.. uhhhh... where were you guys during the whole holocaust and blitz thing?" >

Yeah? Do you think young people in Scotland wouldn't beg for the chance to get out of Scotland and spend time in London, even for the short time it takes to get on the train?
Look who's never been a young 'un in Scotland. Especially in the boonies. >

The most unrealistic part of the whole series is that there's never any congestion at the entrance to 9^3/4 even though the whole fucking school is going through it to catch the same train.
Also, Molly has had kids go to that station for ten years and still has to take time to remember what the platform was in the first book lol. >

My guess is that there are other ways to platform 9 3/4 besides the wall the Weasleys use.  Maybe kids in Scotland go to their own local train station and run through a wall there and wind up at Kings Cross. >

Was it ever explicitly mentioned that there were no other entrances? If it's a magic portal why not have one in every major city :p >

Yes, the young wizards who usually have access to instantaneous teleportation >

Yeah, travelling all the way down there, it's not like there are several methods of instantaneous transport in the HP universe, like Portkeys and Floo powder. >

Most students have to go to London anyway to visit Diagon Alley to get their school supplies. >

Are people seriously forgetting that Harry and Ron went there on a car?????? >

Well there's the nearby town of Hogsmeade which, if I remember correctly, is where the Hogwarts express stops and the students take carriages to the school itself. Maybe Scottish students go directly there instead? >

Wizards have nothing to do with Harry Poophead. They have pointy hats, often carry a staff, wear long robes, and arrive precisely when they mean to. >

Nope. You obviously didn’t pay any attention. Every movie had harry getting there a different way and the train was never the only option. >

You can just take your kids to Hogwarts, you just have to be expected in order to get in. I'm sure they also have access to the flue network. >

I feel like it's mentioned in the books somewhere that students could be dropped off at hogsmeade by other travel means with their parents. >

Hogwarts is only Scot-ish. My friend George Santos is an alumni >

Are there wizards who walk to school from a nearby Scottish castle, or are they required to live on site, even if they live right there?
Like do Hogsmead kids live at the school or commute everyday? >

Are you aware you're talking about a place that doesn't exist and fantasy people, right?
There's no such thing as "Scotland" >

Can confirm, Scotland's national animal is a unicorn, so it is definitely a fantasy place that doesn't exist. Also, Wales has  a dragon on its flag so it is also a fantasy and doesn't exist. >

Particularly after the inevitable independence from the UK. You need to pack your passport to go 2 miles down the road. >

They can apparate with their parents or use the floo network or a port key. Many ways to instantly get from point A to B. >

Reminds me of scots having to travel to heathrow to get flights abroad >

They surely will have arranged alternate modes of transportation or some other train may run >

Didn’t Harry and Ron drive to school once? It’s not like they have to get on the train >

The other schools arrived by other routes for the Tri Wizard cup. Ron and Harry took the car there. I think you just have to use magic transportation to get to Hogwarts. >

I figured those kids just, traveled by carriages or something >

Wait until you hear about skiers that live in Wyoming and want to travel to Targhee Ski Resort. >

I'll wait >

Imagine being late at a school because the train you didn't even needed was late >

And all the while they got to wizard the shit in their pants. >

nah, floo powder travel from anywhere in Scotland to London is a piece of cake. >

I don't think students had to ride the Hogwarts Express. I think you could make your own way to Hogsmeade >

You’re looking at travel wrong, as a muggle. Thinking of distance as absolute. They can travel - basically teleport - easily, by several means. They could take a flue to the train station.  Maybe the point isn’t how they get to Hogwarts, but that they travel there together as a class. >

Fun fact: I’m pretty sure you can go from Scotland to London in about 5 hours(depending on where I Scotland) public transportation to and from large cities I Europe is pretty robust👍
Jk its not that fun >

The train ride is crucial. It’s when you meet your life long friends. >

The kids flew the car to Hogwarts, so I’d assume the train was merely transportation.