King's Cross Station

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. It also serves as a major intercity and commuter rail hub for Muggles going to North London, or Yorkshire and the North East and Scotland.

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.

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 its 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. Dumbledore then revealed to Harry that the form represented one eighth of Tom Riddle, destroyed when he "killed" Harry and thus destroyed the part of his soul which he had unwittingly implanted in him.

Behind the scenes
When writing the Harry Potter books, J.K. Rowling was thinking of Euston train station when she was describing platforms 9 and 10. At King's Cross station, platforms 9 and 10 only offer services on the London commuter rail.

It is possible that King's Cross was the place Harry "chose" to meet Dumbledore because the station symbolized Harry's entrance into the wizarding world, or rather, the border that separates the wizarding and Muggle worlds.

Appearances

 * Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone
 * Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone (film)
 * Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone (video game)
 * Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets
 * Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets (film)
 * Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets (video game)
 * Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban
 * Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban (film)
 * Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire
 * Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix
 * Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix (film)
 * Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince
 * Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows

Voie 9¾ Платформа 9¾ Stacja King's Cross