King's Cross Station

From Harry Potter Wiki

King's Cross Station
Location information
Location	London, England
Affiliation	Hogwarts Express
Behind the scenes
First appearance	Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone
Latest appearance	Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows

King's Cross Station is considered one of the main train stations to serve London, England. Students of Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry take the scarlet steam engine named the Hogwarts Express to Hogwarts from Platform 9¾ on September the first at eleven o'clock sharp.

[edit] Locations

[edit] Platforms 9 & 10

Platforms nine and ten are the Muggle platforms on either side of the barrier through which witches and wizards must walk in order to get onto Platform 9¾.

[edit] Platform 9¾

Platform 9¾ is the platform from which the Hogwarts Express may be boarded on September the first. The platform has, on September the first, a sign hanging over the scene reading: Hogwarts Express, eleven o'clock, and there is a wrought iron archway bearing the words Platform Nine and Three Quarters over the entry/exit to the platform. At the conclusion of the school year, the Hogwarts Express returns to King's Cross bearing the students of Hogwarts back for their summer holidays. It can be assumed that the sign over the platform changes on the day the train returns from Hogwarts.

In order for someone to get onto Platform 9¾, they must walk directly at the apparently solid barrier dividing platforms nine and ten. Mrs. Molly Weasley advises that one should "do it at a bit of a run if you're nervous." It is not known exactly how muggles do not, or cannot get onto the platform, however, it can be assumed that powerful magic of some sort is employed in order to keep them ignorant of it's existence.

In 1992, Dobby the House-elf did something to the barrier dividing platforms nine and ten in order to prevent Harry Potter and Ronald Weasley from accessing the platform. All that is known about the magic he used is that it somehow made the barrier which acts as entrance/exit to Platform 9¾ solidify, thus causing Harry and Ron to crash into it as opposed to pass through it as wizards normally do. Consequently, they decided the only way to get to Hogwarts was to steal Arthur Weasley's Flying Ford Anglia and fly it right to the school.

In 1998, Harry Potter was struck with a Killing Curse by Lord Voldemort, and he entered an bodily-unconscious state in which his spirit met with the spirit of Albus Dumbledore at a location that Harry identified as King's Cross Station. The station was, in the unconscious mind of Harry, clean and empty except for something that looked like a small, naked child, curled on the ground, with skin that was raw and rough, as though it had been flayed, which lay under a seat.