Harry is not told where Hogwarts is, only given a ticket for the train at Kings Cross Station. The ticket is for platform 9 ¾ at 11:00 am. If Harry had not run into the Weasley family (regardless of whether you, as a reader, consider this happen stance or Dumbledore’s influence) how on earth was he supposed to get to the train? It’s 10 minutes to 11:00 am when Harry first overhears Mrs. Weasley, which is incredibly tight timing. Does Hogwarts ever lose a first year muggle student to not finding the right platform in time? Or is Harry just “lucky” he got Hagrid as his inductor, and as Harry supposes, Hagrid forgot to tell him the secret? This just screams of bad planning all the way around on the adults’ parts. 

Once Harry is on the correct platform and Fred and George help him get his trunk on the train, the twins realize who they are interacting with. ‘“What’s that?” said one of the twins suddenly, pointing at Harry’s lightning scar. “Blimey,” said the other twin. “Aren you – ?” “He is,” said the first twin. “Aren’t you?” he added to Harry. “What?” said Harry. “Harry Potter,” chorused the twins. “Oh, him,” said Harry. “I mean, yes, I am.”’

While Harry had previously spoken to Hagrid a little bit about how he felt he wasn’t deserving of being famous for something he didn’t remember doing (not to mention the involved death of his parents), this is the first time the reader gets to see his feelings in action. Harry is Harry Potter – that has been his name his whole life and is nothing new to him, despite the newness of this new world and his “history”. The fact that Harry’s first reaction is “oh, him” as if it’s someone else is more telling than just commenting to someone that you don’t feel connected to the person you are supposed to be. This is only the first instance of Harry not associating with the myth of his origin, and is an ongoing aspect of the tale and the character straight through to the end of the last book. 

Fred and George are called away from Harry by their mother, who wants to say goodbye. Here we see the beginnings of the family dynamics, at least between the four youngest sons. Percy, the prefect (which I thought was a spelling mistake the first time I read the title and had to look it up – “in some schools, a senior student authorized to enforce discipline.” per google.com’s dictionary). Fred and George are the pranksters and ickle Ronniekins is the youngest. 

Once everyone is on the train and it takes off, Ron and Harry are in a compartment together. Harry asks if all of Ron’s family are magical and Ron replies “Er – yes, I think so…I think Mum’s got a second cousin who’s an accountant , but we never talk about him.” This just goes to show that outcasts will be outcasts. The “abnormal” must be shunned, whether that is the magical world ignoring the the muggle world, or the other way around (such as the Durseleys). Perhaps it is human nature and magical or normal, we are all humans. Perhaps it is society and culture as much as nature. Or perhaps it is too philisophical a questions to delve into. But that is another adventure, as Dumbledore would say, and one we are not going on as of yet.

Back to the Boy Who Lived (BWL). Whe get our first crumb of information that we need to hold on to for later while the boys are eating snacks from the trolly – Harry’s first chocolate frog card is Albus Dumbledore. We (as readers) have no idea the importance of this card is, and neither do the boys, but the card’s importance will be shown later in the book. Besides showing Harry his first magical picture and what Dumbledore actually looks like, it contains a short bio: ‘Considered by many to be the greatest wizard of modern times, Dumbledore is particularly famous for his defeat of the Dark wizard Grindlewald in 1945, for the discovery of the twelve uses of dragon’s blood, and his work in alchemy with his partner, Nicholas Flamel. Professor Dumbledore enjoys chamber music and tenpin bowling.’

Later in the story, when Hermione and the boys are searching for what might be hidden in the school, it is this one brief reference to Nicholas Flamel from Dumbledore’s chocolate frog that alerts them to the possibility (which turns out to be true) of the object being the Sorcerer’s Stone.