For example, I have a hard time imagining Lucius and Narcissa loading Draco’s things into a car and driving two hours to the station (we know Malfoy manor is somewhere in Wiltshire, which is roughly two hours outside London). And anti-Muggle prejudice in the wizarding world runs much deeper than just the Malfoys at this point.

I think its safe to assume that parents apparate their children in or, in the case of Muggleborns from the north or from Wales, maybe they Floo to the station from home?

The “small mousy-haired boy” called during the sorting ceremony couldn’t have been Colin Creevey, could it? :)

Regarding the Evening Prophet, I rather thought that the newspaper was updating itself magically, much like the book Hermione used to read about Nicolas Flamel on PS. What do you guys think?

I wonder if it slipped Rowling’s attention because she always has Harry go to King’s Cross Platform 9 3/4 from a location in southern England. The Dursleys’ home, in Surrey, in the first book, the Weasleys’ home (which we know is in southern England), in the second, fourth, and sixth books, Diagon Alley (in London) in the third book, and 12 Grimmauld Place (also in London) in the fifth book.

Maybe if Rowling had given Harry a summer holiday in northern England or Scotland, she’d have spotted that problem.

In other words, the journey from London takes about eight hours. In this time it covers a distance of about 375 miles as the crow flies, but perhaps closer to 400 miles if we allow for a realistic railway track. So the train must be travelling at about 50mph. This would have been well within the capacity of a Muggle loco by the year 1870 (although Queen Victoria forbade her drivers to go faster than 40mph). I imagine that a magical train would not be any slower than its Muggle counterpart, so the Hogwarts Express must have been designed before 1870, and possibly as early as 1825, around the time when steam rail first became common.

It’s quite a telling moment isn’t it when Ginny “shrieked” that she left the diary at home. She must have been quite panicked about it, because I know my parents likely wouldn’t have turned the car around to retrieve a diary (especially, as you say, when Molly oculd have easily sent it to her at school!). It’s also scary to think that the piece of Tom Riddle in the diary must have already gained a hold on her… and that her initial discovery of what lay in the diary happened at the Burrow before school even started. I can just picture Ginny now, pouring out her heart in the diary, and writing about Harry (the boy she adores) being in her house!

And I also have always wondered why so many students board Hogwarts Express at London. Surely, wizarding families live all over Britain, and you would think some students would board at different stops or for some it would make better geographical sense to take their children to school directly.