Slumber

So watching the HP movies start to finish beginning with the Christopher Columbus (was that actually his name?) ones yesterday (Side Note: I am so annoyed all over again at the way SS/PS ended--the Slytherins had won the House Cup and were CELEBRATING, the banners ALL OVER THE GREAT HALL, and then their ex-Gryffindor Headmaster starts awarding an INSANE AMOUNT OF POINTS TO GRYFFINDORS TO MAKE THEM WIN. Sorry, that is NO WAY to teach an entire school of impressionable young minds ANYTHING, except that yes, no one likes you if you're in Slytherin and no matter what you do the entire year to earn points, you don't get rewarded if three students decide to go on a rule-breaking lark and defeat evil one of seven times--who decided defeating evil was worth those points anyway? When Harry and Ron did the troll in they got what, five points apiece? That's ridiculous, that is.), and I just started wondering:

How does Platform 9 3/4 work?

We know you basically have to run into a wall and you emerge on the other side on a completely different platform, but the one thing that's always been a hallmark of JKR's world was how so many of the things that Harry experienced at the beginning of the story were later explained in greater detail, to show that they were part of the bigger picture and not just a one-time thing.

The Leaky Cauldron was hidden in the same way Grimmauld Place sort of was (I think)--normal people saw both buildings on either side of it, but those who knew what to look for could see it too. The Floo is obviously one of the more common means of transportation, and the Portkeys were useful as plot device as well. Even Dumbledore's Deluminator made its appearance as early as the first chapter, and the Vanishing Cabinets were another form of magical transportation that we saw on two separate occasions.

Is Platform 9 3/4 a version of the Vanishing Cabinets or is it its own kind of magic? It doesn't seem to be like the Cabinets in that it doesn't exactly pop up in another place altogether--when Harry and Ron took the Ford Anglia to go to Hogwarts, somehow they managed to pick up from King's Cross and onto the Hogwarts Express tracks and caught it in no time. So... how does this magic work? Does it lead to a different location in the same area, like underground, maybe, where wizards can go?

More importantly, is this magic only applicable to Platform 9 3/4? Where else did we see this in HP? What other ways could wizards use it? Getting into the Ministry of Magic involved a variety of clever ways that wizards could cross over from the Muggle world into the magical, but do any of those include whatever was used for Platform 9 3/4?

Also, is that the only way anyone could access the Hogwarts Express? Gotta admit, it's easy enough to believe that Muggles could very easily ignore it when a boy runs straight into the wall and seemingly disappears, but. Can you imagine September 1? How many students at Hogwarts must be at King's Cross that day doing the same thing within a concentrated period of time and not be noticed?

I don't know. What do you think?

but I do realise that yes, most of slash and yaoi and fandom owe their roots to the so-called subtext between Kirk and Spock of the USS Enterprise.

Apparently they're doing an "early years" movie for Christmas 2008.

Primarily for miss_charmed: Guess who's playing Spock?

It's a little sad that primary reason I'm eyeing the Amazon Kindle at all is because it's connected to Wikipedia at all times, and as such, can now be considered Earth's version of The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy.

*wants*

After last week's episode, I have come to the conclusion that Gossip Girl? Is totally the Slytherin House As I Would Like to Know It.

Look:

Blair is Pansy.
Nate is Draco.
Serena is probably Tracey or Daphne, they're interchangeable. :|
Dan? Let's say Ron.
Jenny is, hello? Ginny. :D
Chuck? Theodore.

( Spoilers ahoy, for Gossip Girl, and how it parallels the Lives and Times of our Slytherins )

Y/Y?

For the WIN, folks, for the freaking win!

Drunk guy: Yeah, so all these straight women are totally into this gay Japanese porn. You know, uh, what's it called? Yahweh?

- from Overheard in New York

GUYS.

Are you all sure that Neverland doesn't exist, and that we can't really go there? Did Peter Pan actually grow up after all? WHAT THE FUCK WAS WENDY THINKING, LEAVING?

I want my pixie dust.