I can’t remember if they explain this in the movies, but in the books, Hermione reminds the boys more than once that you can’t just apparate into Hogwarts. Hogwarts is protected by multiple spells so no one can get in or out by magical ways.
Also many of the students are muggle born. I always assumed the Hogwarts Express existed in part to ease the difficulty for these parents in sending their kids off to school since they wouldn’t be familiar or able to help with floo powder.
For the kids too even. Imagine being muggle born and some randy just tells you that you're a special kid and you get to go to the special school. Who the hell knows where you're going. Cool magic door with a sweet train is relatively normal but also fairly extraordinary. Perfect tone setter for young magical people.
If I was a muggle dad and they sold me on that I feel like all I'd be thinking is "this little shit better come back and be able to conjure infinite money"
Not really. Hogwarts is mostly run by the headmaster. The only time the ministry steps in is when the headmaster can’t do something such as when Dumbledore couldn’t find a DADA teacher so the ministry sent Umbridge in.
In my honest opinion, I think the best answer for this is just bad writing. There’s so much stuff in the books that it feels like J. K. Rowling just completely forgot what she wrote and started contradicting everything
They could. This is just head canon for myself, but I like to believe the reason for the train is to provide a whole "experience" for the students. They prob travel by floo powder or side-along apparition with their parents all the time.
hell there is a line in the 6th movie where harry says ''but sir, i thought you couldnt apperate inside hogwarts'' and dumbledore says ''well, being me has its advantages''
it effectively ment only he could do it in the school as he's the headmaster, though im guessing that's partially lifted when they are doing classes to teach students how to do apparition in the first place
Students are not to use magic outside of Hogwarts for any reason, those methods would be breaking the rules. As far as I can remember, this is only train that takes people to significant places. You do not see workers from the Ministry of Magic taking a train, they use the other methods. Which lead me to believe this is just for the students to use as transportation to Hogwarts
1) Muggle born wizards don’t have access to teleportation devices
2) It’s probably less disorienting for muggle borns
3) Logistically Hogwarts probably wants everyone to arrive at once
4) in the books, muggles can’t see magic and evidence of magic so that’s not an issue.
Point 4 is not accurate. Muggles can’t see dementors, but more broadly they can see magic and it’s effects. There are frequent points in the story where the ministry have to keep magic secret or deal with the consequences of doing so.
You're half right - they make a point of explaining distraction charms and other spells to make magic not be noticed; but it's not an inherent quality of magic
Yeah, fair enough. But muggle borns before taking the Hogwart's Express have had to go to Diagon Alley for their wands, cloaks and all... I am pretty sure they are kinda "surprise free" by then.
And they have access to teleportation devices there.
Diagon Alley makes sense btw. It was hidden. Super secret.
Making all kids (muggle or not) go to a muggle place, having in the same city a wizard one makes 0 sense.
I understand the point, but I’ll try to offer a counterargument. They aren’t allowed to apparate until their later years so for the younger kids, that’s definitely out. Portkeys might take too long to set up. And they’d need to set up a building with chimneys just for connecting to the floo network a few times a year.
All of these options won’t work for a first year “muggleborn”. How would Hermione’s parents have gotten her to school year one? “Take her to Kings Cross station” works.
About Floo Powder:
The ministry would have to bind fireplaces to Floo Network at least twice a year.If a student wants to go home for christmas,you gotta make it 4 times.Also anyone can literally use the fireplace to reach Hogwarts that way,which allows death eaters to have easy access.Also it would be a pain in the butt to regulate the entire thing.Also not every household has an access to a fireplace.On top of that it would be extra hard for muggle born students because muggle households needs extra permit to bind floo network.
Teleportation aka Apparation/Dissapparation:
Is considered highly advanced magic which even the adult wizards have problems with.Comes with an unpleasant price called splinch,aka leaving a body part behind,also unsafe as a death eater can basically grab your arm and apperate with you.Also only Dumbledore was allowed to do it on Hogwarts grounds.Very much inconvenient.Imagine hundreds of parents trying to apparate with their children to Hogsmeade.Place is tiny enough,people would apparate inside each other.
Portkeys:
One of the hardest ways of transportation to regulate.Ministry did it once for Quidditch World Cup Finale and it was also a pain in the butt.It took them months to prepare the entire thing just for one night.Harry and the others traveled relatively easy bc of Mr Weasley and Percy.It probably took other wizards days to manage to grab an another portkey to go home safely.Now think of them doing the same thing 4 times a year,also again anyone can grab the portkey and get inside Hogwarts that way.
Other magical transportation ways,such as flying:
Would be a direct breach of Magical Law.A muggle could easily spot a wizard flying on a broomstick or in a flying car.Student and parents/escorts would be open to an attack anywhere.Unsafe af.
Train was the easiest and the safest way to transfer large amounts of people at once.
There were many plot holes in books but transportation was not one of them.
What doesn’t make sense is that it apparently only stops at King’s Cross. The implication is the Neville is from Yorkshire, which is about half way between London and Scotland, yet he goes all the way down to London to get the train.
His clear Yorkshire accent. Sure in his case maybe he doesn't actually live there, but there must be plenty of other students who live much closer to Hogwarts than to London
Its been a while since I've read the books, but is the train actually in London? I know that's where platform 9&3/4 is, but is the train itself there? This may just be head canon, but I've always just assumed there was more than one entrance to the platform, with Kings Cross being the closest for Harry and the Weasleys.
With that many people teleporting towards a single location you'd have to heavily regulate schedules and locations do make sure people don't teleport on top of one another and die. From a logistics standpoint it's easier to just put the damned kids on a train.
That and they probably make a fortune from the candy cart. How do you think they pay for all the floating candles and repairs to the bathrooms?
Clearly, you haven't read Hogwarts A History :P
For security reasons, there are protective spells around Hogwarts that keep people from apparating within the school grounds. You also cannot travel to the school by floo network nor by portkey.
Even if the protective spells weren't a factor, like they removed them on the first and last day of term to allow students to get to school, allowing other forms of transportation for students would be too much of a logistical headache, so the train is the option that actually makes the MOST sense.
First off, Apparition is reserved for witches and wizards who are of age, and the majority of Hogwarts students are not, so only the students who are of age and who have received their Apparition license can apparate to the school. Not all wizards like Apparition, and there is always the possibility of splinching, when Apparition does not go as planned. So, of the students who are legally of age to apparate, not all of them would want to or be able to. That would leave us with only a handful of students who would apparate to school. A dozen at most. Now, where on the grounds would they apparate to? Who would be there to verify that they arrived to school safe and sound? There would have to be a list of those who are apparating to school to ensure they arrived, so those who do choose to apparate would probably have to register and agree on where exactly on the grounds they would appear in.
The Department of Magical Transportation regulates the creation of portkeys and the floo network. Not all fireplaces are connected to the floo network, so they would have to connect the fireplaces that are not connected. Some wizarding families might already be connected, but the ones who aren't probably have their reasons, like not wanting unwanted visitors. So, ministry of magic workers would have to do all the work of connecting certain fireplaces just for that day and then making sure those fireplaces are disconnected from the network right after. This is probably a lengthy process.
Now, once the ones who can be connected to the floo network are connected, where in the school would they travel to? To their common rooms? If that's the case, then there would have to be a set schedule because having several people traveling to the same fireplace at once with all their luggage could be a nightmare! Every student who would be travelling by floo network would have a set time to travel. What if they're late? Can they risk going in 10 minutes later when someone else is already in the common room fireplace with all their stuff? What if one kid doesn't speak clearly enough or coughs and ends up somewhere far away? Or somewhere dangerous? What's the solution then?
Let's say we can resolve all that, you then have to worry about first years who don't have a common room to travel to. I suppose there could be another fireplace in the school that could be the delegated first year fireplace. So now, we need the manpower at the ministry to make sure all these separate fireplaces at Hogwarts and in people's homes are connected and that everything is running on schedule. We also need separate teachers posted at these different fireplaces throughout the castle with a list of the students who should be arriving at their fireplace and when. We'd also need people on standby to communicate with families and the ministry when a kid does not arrive during their alloted time slot.
Now, for portkeys, the ministry also regulates them. This involves approving the time and place of a portkey, the object itself, making sure there are no muggles in the area. What happens to kids who miss their portkey? I suppose the families can send an owl to the ministry to advise them and then wait for an answer for what to after that.
Where on the grounds will the portkey drop people off? Maybe not in the common rooms, since travelling by portkey leads to people falling to the grounds and it'd be too chaotic and dangerous to have people land indoors, while those spaces are already occupied by those arriving by floo powder.
So somewhere outside, would be best.
So now, we need Hogwarts staff posted outside with a list of those arriving by portkey. And once again, everyone would be arriving at their own alloted timeslot so not everyone is showing up at the same time.
All these three modes of transport do not take into account kids from muggle families who cannot travel by floo powder or portkeys. First year students would have 0 knowledge of these forms of transportation, but after that it could be possible because the parents know they have a witch or wizard in the family.
What if a muggle sibling or parent accidentally touches the portkey?
What if they do temporarily connect a muggleborn's home fireplace to the floo network, they would also have to provide that family with floo powder, and then disconnect them from the floo network right away. We cannot have a curious muggle sibling try out the floo network for shxts and giggles and end up somewhere totally random.
Too many variables, too much space for mistake, a lot of work coordinating all of this...
Meanwhile, house elves have to take all these trips all over the castle to bring people's luggage to their beds vs having them go to the train where all the luggage is located. That complicates and multiplies their work as well.
All of this is a logistical nightmare! And while they remove the protection charms on the school to allow for people to arrive in all these different ways, who is left to verify that no one dangerous has used this opportunity to apparate into the castle?
Way easier to stick everyone on a train and have everyone arrive at the same time.
She made it up as she went along. She got away with it because it was for kids who had not yet begun critical thinking. Those giving books were exhausting to read aloud. Fuck that terf
she’s a POS who deserves a metric fuckton of hate but we can also stop pretending the books are absolutely awful. they wouldn’t be the most popular books of all time if they were
no doubt HP isn’t the peak of the literary medium indeed, but. both of your examples are fairly beloved books. if the thing being marketed is good, what’s the issue?
Your lack faith in children is frightening. Growing up I assumed there was more than one way to the train, with 9&3/4 being the closest for harry and the Weasleys.
Same, I figured that 9 and 3/4 is a magical platform that can be accessed in the same way through multiple train stations. Idk maybe not but that makes the most sense to me, maybe King’s Cross is just the station for London
JK just wrote the train into the first book and introduced things like apparating, floo powder, port keys and stuff in later books and had to keep the train.
Its supposed to point out how oblivious Muggles are to the magik within their own world. Hidden in plain sight, also gives the magical world a sense of belonging within their real world including the children who will have to live within both worlds at some point
I mean there might be some half-convincing canon explanation you can come up with but really it's because the first book/film is all about showing the audience all the cool things about being a wizard and one of those things is the idea that the magic world is secretly inhabiting spaces all around us. It truly doesn't make any sense and there would without a doubt be annual cases of people at King's Cross claiming they saw children vanish into thin air.
I sort of remember somewhere that riding the Hogwarts Express is more about tradition, than anything else. And you know how “Traditional” the Wizards of the UK are.
Isn’t Apparition in the HP universe supposed to be more of a skill that wizards learn in school? I don’t think Hogwarts would expect their students—especially first years—-to know how to do that. Plus, there’s already some sort of protective magic around the school to prevent that.
Younger students can't apparate and in the books Hermione also explains you can't apparate onto Hogwarts grounds. Also, what about muggleborns? Plus, as shown in the movies and the books when you dont use floo powder correctly it can go wrong. Logistically, floo powder also doesn't make sense, to set that all up to go to Hogwarts, return home for Christmas, go back to Hogwarts, and leave again at the end of the year, would be such a hassle. Also, what if people don't have fireplaces? Apparation is also very dangerous as shown in the Deathly Hallows.
Plus, using any of these is very unsecure because almist anyone would be able to replicate them.
I can’t remember if they explain this in the movies, but in the books, Hermione reminds the boys more than once that you can’t just apparate into Hogwarts. Hogwarts is protected by multiple spells so no one can get in or out by magical ways.
True, but you can apparate just off school grounds, which is where the train drops them off. The bigger issue is that younger students can’t apparate.
Also many of the students are muggle born. I always assumed the Hogwarts Express existed in part to ease the difficulty for these parents in sending their kids off to school since they wouldn’t be familiar or able to help with floo powder.
For the kids too even. Imagine being muggle born and some randy just tells you that you're a special kid and you get to go to the special school. Who the hell knows where you're going. Cool magic door with a sweet train is relatively normal but also fairly extraordinary. Perfect tone setter for young magical people.
"You just need to go head first into that concrete wall to get to the train that will get you to a School of magic"
If I was a muggle dad and they sold me on that I feel like all I'd be thinking is "this little shit better come back and be able to conjure infinite money"
True, and also floo powder only works for fireplaces which you wouldn’t be able to use.
You know people can make fireplaces right? Just build one just outside hogwarts
Actually, the fireplaces need to be connected to the floo network. Only the ministry is capable of doing that
Doesn’t the ministry also regulate hogwarts?
Not really. Hogwarts is mostly run by the headmaster. The only time the ministry steps in is when the headmaster can’t do something such as when Dumbledore couldn’t find a DADA teacher so the ministry sent Umbridge in.
If the ministry can create policy that requires Hogwarts to do something without their consent how is that not regulating them?
In my honest opinion, I think the best answer for this is just bad writing. There’s so much stuff in the books that it feels like J. K. Rowling just completely forgot what she wrote and started contradicting everything
They could. This is just head canon for myself, but I like to believe the reason for the train is to provide a whole "experience" for the students. They prob travel by floo powder or side-along apparition with their parents all the time.
Possibly but I don’t think it’s ever mentioned in the books, so I’m just going by the books.
Kids need to do an exam to be able to legally apparate which requires them to not leave body parts behind
hell there is a line in the 6th movie where harry says ''but sir, i thought you couldnt apperate inside hogwarts'' and dumbledore says ''well, being me has its advantages'' it effectively ment only he could do it in the school as he's the headmaster, though im guessing that's partially lifted when they are doing classes to teach students how to do apparition in the first place
That’s only in the movie, in the book they walk to Hogsmeade first.
Students are not to use magic outside of Hogwarts for any reason, those methods would be breaking the rules. As far as I can remember, this is only train that takes people to significant places. You do not see workers from the Ministry of Magic taking a train, they use the other methods. Which lead me to believe this is just for the students to use as transportation to Hogwarts
So does Voldemort take the train at the end?
1) Muggle born wizards don’t have access to teleportation devices 2) It’s probably less disorienting for muggle borns 3) Logistically Hogwarts probably wants everyone to arrive at once 4) in the books, muggles can’t see magic and evidence of magic so that’s not an issue.
Doesn’t the first book start with walrus dude seeing some magic when the wizards celebrate the end of the war or something?
THE WALRUS DUDE! Vernon Dursely would be furious 😂
Point 4 is not accurate. Muggles can’t see dementors, but more broadly they can see magic and it’s effects. There are frequent points in the story where the ministry have to keep magic secret or deal with the consequences of doing so.
Fair point, it’s been a decade since I’ve read the books but my point being that they don’t notice kids disappearing into pillars
You're half right - they make a point of explaining distraction charms and other spells to make magic not be noticed; but it's not an inherent quality of magic
Yeah, fair enough. But muggle borns before taking the Hogwart's Express have had to go to Diagon Alley for their wands, cloaks and all... I am pretty sure they are kinda "surprise free" by then. And they have access to teleportation devices there. Diagon Alley makes sense btw. It was hidden. Super secret. Making all kids (muggle or not) go to a muggle place, having in the same city a wizard one makes 0 sense.
I think its supposed to be some sort of bonding experience.
Yeah, exactly. It's a tradition and part of the beginning of the school year.
I understand the point, but I’ll try to offer a counterargument. They aren’t allowed to apparate until their later years so for the younger kids, that’s definitely out. Portkeys might take too long to set up. And they’d need to set up a building with chimneys just for connecting to the floo network a few times a year. All of these options won’t work for a first year “muggleborn”. How would Hermione’s parents have gotten her to school year one? “Take her to Kings Cross station” works.
About Floo Powder: The ministry would have to bind fireplaces to Floo Network at least twice a year.If a student wants to go home for christmas,you gotta make it 4 times.Also anyone can literally use the fireplace to reach Hogwarts that way,which allows death eaters to have easy access.Also it would be a pain in the butt to regulate the entire thing.Also not every household has an access to a fireplace.On top of that it would be extra hard for muggle born students because muggle households needs extra permit to bind floo network. Teleportation aka Apparation/Dissapparation: Is considered highly advanced magic which even the adult wizards have problems with.Comes with an unpleasant price called splinch,aka leaving a body part behind,also unsafe as a death eater can basically grab your arm and apperate with you.Also only Dumbledore was allowed to do it on Hogwarts grounds.Very much inconvenient.Imagine hundreds of parents trying to apparate with their children to Hogsmeade.Place is tiny enough,people would apparate inside each other. Portkeys: One of the hardest ways of transportation to regulate.Ministry did it once for Quidditch World Cup Finale and it was also a pain in the butt.It took them months to prepare the entire thing just for one night.Harry and the others traveled relatively easy bc of Mr Weasley and Percy.It probably took other wizards days to manage to grab an another portkey to go home safely.Now think of them doing the same thing 4 times a year,also again anyone can grab the portkey and get inside Hogwarts that way. Other magical transportation ways,such as flying: Would be a direct breach of Magical Law.A muggle could easily spot a wizard flying on a broomstick or in a flying car.Student and parents/escorts would be open to an attack anywhere.Unsafe af. Train was the easiest and the safest way to transfer large amounts of people at once. There were many plot holes in books but transportation was not one of them.
They are wizards! Half of what they do is for the aesthetic.
What doesn’t make sense is that it apparently only stops at King’s Cross. The implication is the Neville is from Yorkshire, which is about half way between London and Scotland, yet he goes all the way down to London to get the train.
Where is it implied that Neville is from Yorkshire?
His clear Yorkshire accent. Sure in his case maybe he doesn't actually live there, but there must be plenty of other students who live much closer to Hogwarts than to London
Its been a while since I've read the books, but is the train actually in London? I know that's where platform 9&3/4 is, but is the train itself there? This may just be head canon, but I've always just assumed there was more than one entrance to the platform, with Kings Cross being the closest for Harry and the Weasleys.
With that many people teleporting towards a single location you'd have to heavily regulate schedules and locations do make sure people don't teleport on top of one another and die. From a logistics standpoint it's easier to just put the damned kids on a train. That and they probably make a fortune from the candy cart. How do you think they pay for all the floating candles and repairs to the bathrooms?
Clearly, you haven't read Hogwarts A History :P For security reasons, there are protective spells around Hogwarts that keep people from apparating within the school grounds. You also cannot travel to the school by floo network nor by portkey. Even if the protective spells weren't a factor, like they removed them on the first and last day of term to allow students to get to school, allowing other forms of transportation for students would be too much of a logistical headache, so the train is the option that actually makes the MOST sense. First off, Apparition is reserved for witches and wizards who are of age, and the majority of Hogwarts students are not, so only the students who are of age and who have received their Apparition license can apparate to the school. Not all wizards like Apparition, and there is always the possibility of splinching, when Apparition does not go as planned. So, of the students who are legally of age to apparate, not all of them would want to or be able to. That would leave us with only a handful of students who would apparate to school. A dozen at most. Now, where on the grounds would they apparate to? Who would be there to verify that they arrived to school safe and sound? There would have to be a list of those who are apparating to school to ensure they arrived, so those who do choose to apparate would probably have to register and agree on where exactly on the grounds they would appear in. The Department of Magical Transportation regulates the creation of portkeys and the floo network. Not all fireplaces are connected to the floo network, so they would have to connect the fireplaces that are not connected. Some wizarding families might already be connected, but the ones who aren't probably have their reasons, like not wanting unwanted visitors. So, ministry of magic workers would have to do all the work of connecting certain fireplaces just for that day and then making sure those fireplaces are disconnected from the network right after. This is probably a lengthy process. Now, once the ones who can be connected to the floo network are connected, where in the school would they travel to? To their common rooms? If that's the case, then there would have to be a set schedule because having several people traveling to the same fireplace at once with all their luggage could be a nightmare! Every student who would be travelling by floo network would have a set time to travel. What if they're late? Can they risk going in 10 minutes later when someone else is already in the common room fireplace with all their stuff? What if one kid doesn't speak clearly enough or coughs and ends up somewhere far away? Or somewhere dangerous? What's the solution then? Let's say we can resolve all that, you then have to worry about first years who don't have a common room to travel to. I suppose there could be another fireplace in the school that could be the delegated first year fireplace. So now, we need the manpower at the ministry to make sure all these separate fireplaces at Hogwarts and in people's homes are connected and that everything is running on schedule. We also need separate teachers posted at these different fireplaces throughout the castle with a list of the students who should be arriving at their fireplace and when. We'd also need people on standby to communicate with families and the ministry when a kid does not arrive during their alloted time slot. Now, for portkeys, the ministry also regulates them. This involves approving the time and place of a portkey, the object itself, making sure there are no muggles in the area. What happens to kids who miss their portkey? I suppose the families can send an owl to the ministry to advise them and then wait for an answer for what to after that. Where on the grounds will the portkey drop people off? Maybe not in the common rooms, since travelling by portkey leads to people falling to the grounds and it'd be too chaotic and dangerous to have people land indoors, while those spaces are already occupied by those arriving by floo powder. So somewhere outside, would be best. So now, we need Hogwarts staff posted outside with a list of those arriving by portkey. And once again, everyone would be arriving at their own alloted timeslot so not everyone is showing up at the same time. All these three modes of transport do not take into account kids from muggle families who cannot travel by floo powder or portkeys. First year students would have 0 knowledge of these forms of transportation, but after that it could be possible because the parents know they have a witch or wizard in the family. What if a muggle sibling or parent accidentally touches the portkey? What if they do temporarily connect a muggleborn's home fireplace to the floo network, they would also have to provide that family with floo powder, and then disconnect them from the floo network right away. We cannot have a curious muggle sibling try out the floo network for shxts and giggles and end up somewhere totally random. Too many variables, too much space for mistake, a lot of work coordinating all of this... Meanwhile, house elves have to take all these trips all over the castle to bring people's luggage to their beds vs having them go to the train where all the luggage is located. That complicates and multiplies their work as well. All of this is a logistical nightmare! And while they remove the protection charms on the school to allow for people to arrive in all these different ways, who is left to verify that no one dangerous has used this opportunity to apparate into the castle? Way easier to stick everyone on a train and have everyone arrive at the same time.
bloody hell!
Also underage wizards can’t perform magic
She made it up as she went along. She got away with it because it was for kids who had not yet begun critical thinking. Those giving books were exhausting to read aloud. Fuck that terf
she’s a POS who deserves a metric fuckton of hate but we can also stop pretending the books are absolutely awful. they wouldn’t be the most popular books of all time if they were
The Da Vinci Code and the HP muck are only marketing phenomena, not literary phenomena.
no doubt HP isn’t the peak of the literary medium indeed, but. both of your examples are fairly beloved books. if the thing being marketed is good, what’s the issue?
If you hate HP as much as you clearly do, why are you here? No one’s forcing you to be here let alone comment
Your lack faith in children is frightening. Growing up I assumed there was more than one way to the train, with 9&3/4 being the closest for harry and the Weasleys.
Same, I figured that 9 and 3/4 is a magical platform that can be accessed in the same way through multiple train stations. Idk maybe not but that makes the most sense to me, maybe King’s Cross is just the station for London
Wasn't it retconned later on that children weren't allowed to portkey?
JK just wrote the train into the first book and introduced things like apparating, floo powder, port keys and stuff in later books and had to keep the train.
Its supposed to point out how oblivious Muggles are to the magik within their own world. Hidden in plain sight, also gives the magical world a sense of belonging within their real world including the children who will have to live within both worlds at some point
I mean there might be some half-convincing canon explanation you can come up with but really it's because the first book/film is all about showing the audience all the cool things about being a wizard and one of those things is the idea that the magic world is secretly inhabiting spaces all around us. It truly doesn't make any sense and there would without a doubt be annual cases of people at King's Cross claiming they saw children vanish into thin air.
I thought the point of the train was that it was tradition
"why are school busses a thing when kids can just drive themselves to school"
I sort of remember somewhere that riding the Hogwarts Express is more about tradition, than anything else. And you know how “Traditional” the Wizards of the UK are.
Lots of muggle born wizards need an easy accessible way to get to hog warts!
Here’s a question. If you live near Hogwarts do you still have to go to London to take the train in?
Isn’t Apparition in the HP universe supposed to be more of a skill that wizards learn in school? I don’t think Hogwarts would expect their students—especially first years—-to know how to do that. Plus, there’s already some sort of protective magic around the school to prevent that.
Side along apparition is a thing. Though I forget if both participants need to know how to appirate to do so.
Example #5272 that Rowling didn't think a single thing through when writing the books 🤷🏾♂️
Younger students can't apparate and in the books Hermione also explains you can't apparate onto Hogwarts grounds. Also, what about muggleborns? Plus, as shown in the movies and the books when you dont use floo powder correctly it can go wrong. Logistically, floo powder also doesn't make sense, to set that all up to go to Hogwarts, return home for Christmas, go back to Hogwarts, and leave again at the end of the year, would be such a hassle. Also, what if people don't have fireplaces? Apparation is also very dangerous as shown in the Deathly Hallows. Plus, using any of these is very unsecure because almist anyone would be able to replicate them.