It's time for another year at Hogwarts, and danger is stiring...
On the Hogwarts Express
...However, you have always been comfortable in the plush, welcoming interior of the Hogwarts Express. Something on the air does feel strange, and you and your friends find yourselves speaking little and staring out at the storm more. Is something moving out there, or is it just your imagination...?
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"The Hogwarts Express is a 4-6-0 Hall Class steam locomotive model number GWR 5900. It is quite impressive."
—Hogwarts Express conductor.
The Hogwarts Express was originally built by the Muggle engineers at Crewe, in Cheshire, England, in the early-to-mid 19th century.
Sometime in between 1819 and 1849, Ottaline Gambol rose to the office of Minister for Magic, and she made a daring and controversial suggestion to solve the ages-old problem of how to transport hundreds of students to and from Hogwarts Castle every school year without attracting the Muggles' attention: intrigued by the Muggle technology, the Minister saw the potential of using a train as a secure and comfortable alternative to Portkeys or to unregulated means of travel. The Ministry of Magic conducted a large-scale operation involving one hundred and sixty-seven Memory Charms, as well as the biggest Concealment Charm ever performed in Britain, in order to acquire the locomotive. The morning after this operation, the residents of Hogsmeade awoke to find the gleaming red Hogwarts Express and a railway station that had not been there previously, and the Muggle railway employees in Crewe had the feeling they had misplaced something, which stayed with them for the rest of the year. There was initial resistance from pure-blood families against using a Muggle-built device for wizard transportation (which, they claimed, was "unsafe, insanitary and demeaning"), until the Ministry decreed that students would arrive to school on the train or not attend at all.
Comments for "On the Hogwarts Express"
License details for "On the Hogwarts Express"
Creative Commons Sampling Plus 1.0 License.
List of audio files used:
- thunder by Erdie from http://freesound.org +)
- ambience_wind_eerie by Evilface38 +)
- train wheels by funsoundtube +)
- Train Ambience by Geissler from http://freesound.org +)
- Brown Noise by reaktorplayer from http://www.freesound.org/ +)
- Distant rolling thunder by RHumphries from http://freesound.org +)
- Pre thunderstorm by RHumphries from http://freesound.org +)
- Rain on a tin roof by Virtual Sound Company +)