Location from Harry Potter by J.K. Rowling
A hidden railway platform at King's Cross Station in London, accessed by walking through the barrier between platforms nine and ten, where the Hogwarts Express departs every September 1st.
Platform Nine and Three-Quarters is a threshold. On one side, the Muggle world — King's Cross Station, taxis, the noise of ordinary London. On the other, a scarlet steam engine and the beginning of everything. For Harry, the moment Hagrid told him to walk at a solid brick wall was the first real test of whether this whole wizard thing was true. For every Muggle-born child since the Hogwarts Express began running in 1830, the platform is proof that the impossible is real. The Hogwarts Express departs at exactly eleven o'clock, and tradition holds that you board or you miss the year. Ron and Harry famously missed it in their second year and flew an enchanted Ford Anglia to school instead, nearly getting expelled. The barrier can be sealed — Dobby did it — which is the wizarding equivalent of canceling someone's flight.
A bustling platform wreathed in scarlet steam from the gleaming Hogwarts Express. Families in robes and Muggle clothes crowd the platform, loading trunks and owl cages. The scarlet steam engine idles at the platform edge, its compartments filling with students. The barrier from the Muggle side looks like a solid brick pillar between platforms nine and ten — you walk straight at it and pass through. A wrought-iron archway marks the platform entrance on the magical side.
Also known as: Platform Nine and Three-Quarters, Platform 9 3/4, King's Cross, the platform