- What is the relationship between the carriages, the compartments, and the corridor?
- Where is the luggage kept? Are there specific luggage carriages or compartments, or does everyone keep their luggage with them?
Okay, so that doesn’t seem too confusing, does it? Now let me walk you through the events of a couple of pages in chapter 5. Please turn with me to page 72. The Weaselys, Harry, and Hermione have just reached Platform 9 ¾.
“Harry and Ron led the way to the end of the train, past packed compartments to a carriage that looked quite empty. They loaded the trunks onto it, stowed Hedwig and Crookshanks in the luggage rack, then went outside to say good-bye to Mr. And Mrs. Weasley. (72)â€
Okay, so here, they are in the very last carriage of the train, and they load their luggage and pets into a luggage rack (presumably inside of one of the compartments). Then they go back to the platform to say goodbye to the Weasleys. At this point, Mrs. Weasley hands out sandwiches, and Mr. Weasly pulls Harry aside to warn him about Sirius Black. The other students get back onto the train. As Harry and Mr. Weasley are speaking, the train starts to pull away:
“Steam was billowing from the train; it had started to move. Harry ran to the compartment door and Ron threw it open and stood back to let him on. They leaned out of the window and waved at Mr. And Mrs. Weasley until the train turned a corner and blocked him from view. (73)â€
Ron, Hermione, and Ginny were presumably in the compartment where they had left their luggage. Harry joins them through an outside “compartment door.†Therefore, there must be a door to both the outside of the train and to an inner corridor between the compartments. They are now all in the compartment, waving out the window to the Weasleys. Right? Erm… apparently not.
Ron dismisses Ginny so Harry can tell Ron and Hermione about the situation with Sirius. Instead of sitting down in the compartment and having a conversation, “Harry, Ron, and Hermione set off down the corridor, looking for an empty compartment, but all were full except for the one at the very end of the train. This had only one occupant, a man sitting fast asleep next to the window. (74)â€
But… didn’t Harry enter the train through a compartment door? Wouldn’t he already be inside of a compartment? Also, about the line earlier about them finding a “carriage that looked quite empty.†At first I thought this was foreshadowing about Lupin’s presence in a compartment, but apparently it was just saying they had put their luggage in an empty carriage which, in the space of about five minutes, had suddenly become packed full of students.
You might argue that they had stored their luggage in a separate compartment of the carriage, and Harry had entered through the luggage compartment, forcing them to find a different compartment to sit in. In fact, there is even a bit of evidence to suggest that the luggage was stored separately:
“The train came to a stop with a jolt, and distant thuds and bangs told them that luggage had fallen out of the racks. (81)â€
The fact that there were distant thuds seems to support the idea that the luggage was somewhere else. If it was in fact in their compartment, the thuds wouldn’t exactly be distant, now would they? But, unfortunately, this theory is completely squashed when Harry’s sneakoscope goes off:
“A faint, tinny sort of whistle was coming from somewhere. They looked all around the compartment. ‘It’s coming from your trunk, Harry,’ said Ron, standing up and reaching into the luggage rack. (76)â€
So Harry’s trunk is in the sitting compartment, as well as at least one of the pets:
“[Hermione] was fumbling with the straps of Crookshanks’s basket as she spoke. (78)â€
Okay, well if they put the luggage and pets into that compartment, why on earth did they have to rediscover that particular compartment when they went looking for one? Also, Lupin would have had to have been in the compartment went they put the luggage away, or else he probably couldn’t have snuck into the compartment and lapsed into such a sound sleep during the short time the students were out bidding the Weasleys farewell (thus leading me to believe that the note earlier about the carriage looking quite empty was indeed foreshadowing about Lupin).
Okay, I tried to create an image of my perception of the train, but I’m not sure it will actually show up. I labeled the platform/outside of the train “A,†The last carriage “B,†the last compartment in that carriage “C,†and the corridor “D.â€
Just another quote to back up my perception of the relationship between B, C, and D:
“Harry, who was nearest the door, got up to look into the corridor [D]. All along the carriage , heads were sticking curiously out of their compartments [C]. (81)â€
Okay, the image won't show up on my computer, so just go here to see the train thing I made.
