transportation

How Does a Scarlet Stream Train Travel the Length of Britain Without Being Seen? • Article

Posted December 21, 2001 by Steve VanderArk in Essays

The Hogwarts Express is not really a steam train. It does look like one and it acts like one in certain key ways, but it isn’t one. It’s a magical device. It borrows its form and its intended function from real steam trains, but not the technology. It’s like the Ministry cars,… Read More

In Search of . . . The Burrow • Article

Posted February 4, 2007 by Ravenclaw Rambler in Canon discussion / Essays

Where is the Burrow—Harry’s second home (his first is Hogwarts, of course, not Privet Drive!)? Ottery St. Catchpole The books give the Burrow’s location as just outside the village of Ottery St. Catchpole, but give no direct clues as to where this is. The similarity of the name to Ottery St. Mary, in Devon has… Read More

How Many Students Are There At Hogwarts? • Article

Posted February 7, 2001 by Steve VanderArk in Essays

There are actually about three hundred, it would seem, although there is plenty of debate on the subject. Here’s the evidence from the books themselves: There are more or less ten students (depending on the vagarities of the Sorting) in each House per year, five boys and five girls. There were twenty broomsticks lying… Read More