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The Hogwarts Express leaves from Platform 9 3/4 at London's King's Cross Station. Its existence was overlapped with the real Muggle parts of the station, as well as Muggle objects, etc. This could only be possible if the Hogwarts Express existed in a parallel dimension.

On the other hand, its destination -- Hogwarts -- was in a real world dimension (it could be reached with flying cars etc). So, for the Hogwarts Express to travel to its destination, it would have to be a dimension-crossing transport vehicle. Am I right? Or have I assumed something wrong?

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Sorry, you're neither right nor wrong in your assumption, but wrong in thinking that you CAN be either right or wrong.

You're trying to find a rational physical explanation for magic. You can not. Potterverse laws are explicitly NOT governed by any physics (or economics, but that's another matter).

So yes, you CAN posit a theory that 9 3/4 is in another dimension, just as uber-large tent insides, or bottomless purse that Hermione has, or the Room of Requirement.

The problem is that, by design, there is absolutely no canonical way to either support or reject that hypothesis, because of the way the world was designed. So it's idle speculation either way.

If you're really interested in that angle, you are better off heading over to wherever "Harry Potter and the Methods of Rationality" fanfic is being published.

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    Good points. I'd speculate that the Express is not in a parallel dimension, but rather (simpler) in a different location. This would allow both the "teleporting wall" that Harry uses and the fact that you can reach Hogwarts anyway by using flying cars. :P
    – Alenanno
    Commented Feb 10, 2012 at 21:55
  • @Alenanno But, there wasn't any other way to reach that platform. 9 3/4 was the platform no. (not entrance of way to that platform)..
    – Doctor Doom
    Commented Feb 10, 2012 at 22:05
  • Since you mention it. :-) "It went entirely without saying that there was no such place in King's Cross Station and no room to hide it. Okay, so either (a) I just teleported somewhere else entirely (b) they can fold space like no one's business or (c) they are simply ignoring all the rules."
    – Harry Johnston
    Commented Jan 6, 2020 at 9:08
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The Hogwarts Express leaves from Platform 9 3/4 at London's King's Cross Station. Its existence was overlapped with the real Muggle parts of the station, as well as Muggle objects, etc. This could only be possible if the Hogwarts Express existed in a parallel dimension.

I don't have the books in front of me to check, but I don't recall any descriptions of the early part of the trip from London to Hogwarts. All the action is on Platform 9 3/4, then on the train itself, then in the countryside on the way to Hogwarts.

So a simpler explanation than transdimensional travel would be that - wherever Platform 9 3/4 is (perhaps farther underground?) - at some point early on in the trip there's a magical congruence between the line the train leaves the station on and normal tracks that lead to Hogwarts, and the Express simply merges onto the normal tracks.

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