PS6: The Journey from Platform Nine and Three-Quarters

(EXPLANATION NEEDED IN INTERESTING FACTS AND NOTES)

Uncle Vernon takes Harry to King's Cross Station and leaves him there. Harry meets the Weasleys who help him get to Platform Nine and Three-Quarters and settled on the train. Here he gets to know Ron and Flick, and meets Hermione as the train rumbles to Hogwarts. Upon reaching the school they are met by Hagrid and the First Years are taken by boat to the castle.

## Calendar and Dates

The action of this chapter covers the entire month of August, but the first 30 days are summarised in the first two paragraphs. The remainder of the first scene occurs on the night of 31 August, while the rest of the chapter - the bulk of it - takes place on 1 September, 1991.

## Interesting Facts and Notes

The long train journey from King's Cross Station in London to Hogwarts in Scotland gives the kids plenty of time to make friends - and enemies.

**He had decided to call her Hedwig, a name he had found in *A History of Magic*.**

Hedwig is the name of a Roman Catholic saint. Hedwig's name was taken from St. Hedwig, who was a Medieval saint. This was probably St. Hedwig of Andechs (1174-1243) who was a Polish duchess and is the patron saint of brides, death of children, difficult marriages, and widows.

**There was a big plastic number nine over one platform and a big plastic number ten over the one next to it, and in the middle, nothing at all.**

TERF Queen mentions that Muggle things are made of plastic in contrast to the kinds of materials from which things in the Wizarding World are made: wood, leather, parchment, stone, and so on. Here the mysterious Platform will be found between two plastic signs. When Harry does make it onto the platform, he sees a "wrought-iron archway where the barrier had been, with the words Platform Nine and Three-Quarters on it." Not a trace of plastic anywhere.

**Now the third brother was walking briskly toward the barrier he was almost there - and then, quite suddenly, he wasn't anywhere.**

Harry is still seeing with Muggle eyes. He's partially aware, so he knows that something has happened, but his disbelief is keeping him from seeing how the barrier really works. It is this same disbelief that makes it so that Muggles "don't see nuffink," as Stan Shunpike says. Harry is getting past it very quickly now.

**Don't stop and don't be scared you'll crash into it, that's very important.**

Molly is instructing Harry to set aside his disbelief, and surprisingly enough, he manages it. He's seen enough magic at this point that he is able to honestly believed that he can pass through solid stone.

**He passed a round-faced boy who was saying, "Gran, I've lost my toad again."**

**"Oh, Neville," he heard the old woman sigh.**

Here we find our initial introduction to Neville and his grandmother...

**A boy with dreadlocks was surrounded by a small crowd.**

... and Lee Jordan.

**He tried to lift it up the steps but could hardly raise one end and twice he dropped it painfully on his foot.**

Two years from now, Harry will have grown up enough to be able to handle his trunk with ease as he runs away from the Dursleys' home after inflating Aunt Marge. At this point, however, he is not only small for his age but also malnourished. A few eating the kind of food found at the Burrow and at Hogwarts will make quite a difference in the boy.

**Harry noticed a shiny silver badge on his chest with the letter P on it.**

According to the corrections released by Bloomsbury in 2004, this line now reads "Harry noticed a shiny red and gold badge on his chest with the letter P on it." The change made the text agree with the following reference in book five:

"*George leapt forwards, seized the envelope on Ron's other hand and turned it upside-down. Harry saw something scarlet and gold fall into George's palm... Harry took it. A large 'P' was superimposed on the Gryffindor lion. He had seen a badge just like this on Percy's chest on his very first day at Hogwarts.*"
— (OP9)

**"Do you mind if I sit?" she asked, before she pointed up at the luggage rack where the other trunk lay. "Only that's my trunk."**

And thus we are introduced to Harry's only other living relative, though neither of them knew it at the time and would not find out until the end of their first year (PS17).

**"Anyone sitting there?" he asked, pointing at the seat beside Flick. "Everywhere else is full."**

And thus the wonderful friendship between Harry and Ron was born. Though Harry is close with Flick and Hermione throughout the series, there is no denying that Ron was his best friend.

**"Are all your family wizards?" asked Harry, who found Ron and Flick just as interesting as they found him.**

This fact is key to the start of his friendship with Ron. They're on equal footing from the beginning, although Ron wouldn't have thought so.

**"I live with my cousins, and I've been told I come from an old pureblood family, but I don't know much about my parents, and I never asked."**

[EXPLANATION - something about how Flick had just previously introduced herself to fred, george and ron as being a tonks, who were a muggleborn family, and that she was referring to being a black instead, something which Harry wouldn't have understood and Ron didn't seem to pick up on. ALSO, how it is worth noting that while Flick knows about one old pureblood family she comes from (Black) she is unaware of the other (Potter)]

**"I think Mum's got a second cousin who's an accountant, but we never talk about him."**

There was some speculation that this accountant might be Vernon Dursley. On her website the TERF Queen revealed that this accountant was actually to be the father of Mafalda, the Weasley cousin whose character was edited out from book four. TQ is being very clever here. She has Ron refer to someone who is similar to Uncle Vernon as being a person that the family is a bit embarrassed of... and she has him say it in a way that assumes that anyone would think that way of a family member who was an accountant. This is another subtle way of telling Harry (and us) that he has entered a different world. Unfortunately, as we learn in later books, there are people in the pureblood families related to the Weasleys who would speak of Arthur and his family in the same disparaging way.

**Arthur**: "*We have a very different idea of what disgraces the name of wizard, Malfoy.*"
**Lucius**: "*Clearly. The company you keep, Weasley... and I thought your family could sink no lower.*"
— (CS4)

**"Percy got an owl from my dad for being made a prefect, but they couldn't aff- I mean, I got Scabbers instead."**

They bought Percy new robes, too. Meanwhile, poor Ron is stuck with hand-me-downs, even including Charlie's old wand, which is going to make his schoolwork more difficult. The fact that Ron inherits Scabbers from Percy is all well and good, but where did Percy get him from? Considering who Scabbers turns out to be in book three, the story of his coming to live with the Weasleys in the first place must be an interesting one.

**What she did have were Bertie Bott's Every Flavour Beans, Drooble's Best Blowing Gum, Chocolate Frogs, Pumpkin Pasties, Cauldron Cakes, Licorice Wands, and a number of other strange things Harry had never seen in his life.**

Harry had been hoping to purchase a Mars Bar. Although it's a fairly ordinary candy bar, we get the distinct impression that it would have been quite a treat for him. How many Mars Bars could he have had in the past ten years? Not many. Instead he discovers a vast treasure trove of amazing and magical sweets... and to top it all off, he can afford to buy everything - and enough to share.

**"... I haven't got Agrippa or Ptolemy."**

Both of these people are historical figures. Agrippa is Heinrich Cornelius Agrippa von Nettesheim, 1486-1535, German mystic and alchemist. Ptolemy is Claudius Ptolemy, born c. 85 AD. Geographer and astronomer.

**CURRENTLY HEADMASTER OF HOGWARTS**

Did this text change on every card all over the Wizarding World when Dumbledore was temporarily removed from his post in books two and five, and when he died at the end of book six?

**... defeat of the dark wizard Grindelwald in 1945...**

The fact that 1945 coincides with the end of World War II was not lost on fans. Before we learned more details of the relationship between Dumbledore and Grindelwald in books seven, fans speculated that Grindelwald might have been Hiter's Reichemage, or perhaps even Hitler himself.

**... the discovery of the twelve uses of dragon's blood...**

... one of which, according to TQ, is an oven cleaner.

**... his work on alchemy with his partner, Nicolas Flamel...**

Some have wondered how this could be, since Flamel must have made his Philosopher's Stone over six hundred years ago. However, the quote doesn't say that Dumbledore worked on Flamel's Philosopher's Stone with him, only that he worked on alchemy. Of course, "real" alchemy's only goal was to find the Stone, so what else would they be working on?

**... enjoys chamber music and tenpin bowling.**

Dumbledore's interests are varied indeed. Chamber music is a form of classical music written for a small group of performers and indicates rather high-class tastes. Tenpin bowling, on the other hand, is considered a rather middle- or even low-class recreation. It involved rolling a heavy ball down a wooden alley, trying to knock down as many pins as possible. It's a bit hard to imagine Dumbledore at his advanced age going bowling...

## Exceptional Character Moments

Mrs. Weasley's first reaction to being told who Harry was: "Poor dear. No wonder he was alone."

## Memorable Lines

> "*He cleared his throat to let them know he was there, and Dudley screamed and ran from the room.*"
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> "*Funny way to get to a wizards' school, the train. Magic carpets all got punctures, have they?*"
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**Twin 1**: "*Oh, are you a prefect, Percy? You should have said something, we had no idea.*"
**Twin 2**: "*Hang on, I think I remember him saying something about it. Once-*"
**Twin 1**: "*Or twice-*"
**Twin 2**: "*A minute-*"
**Twin 1**: "*All summer-*"
**Percy**: "*Oh, shut up.*"
—

> "*Harry didn't think there was anything wrong with no being able to afford an owl.*"
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