Travel During the School Year

Hogwarts Express

The Hogwarts Express is the main means of travel to Hogwarts. The Hogwarts Express leaves Kings Cross station at 11 am and arrives in Hogsmeade Station several times a year.

Mystic Pullman

The other main means of travel to Hogsmeade includes the Mystic Pullman, or "The Pullman" for short. The Pullman is a luxury train inspired by the Orient Express that travels throughout Europe. The Pullman has a weekly trip from King's Cross to Hogsmeade, an infrequent vacation destination for wizards as well as parents visiting their child on the weekend.
In addition to transporting vacationers, parents and the sparse students traveling to Hogsmeade out of season also use The Pullman. This train also carries supplies and parcels too large for owls to carry on a weekly cadence and serves as Hogsmeade's link to the outside world.

Traveling to and from Hogwarts

During normal Hogwarts vacations, students leave and return on the Hogsmeade Express. Professors and staff escort students to and from Hogsmeade station at the appointed time and day to make sure that the students safely board the train and leave Hogsmeade Station.

Students on occasion will be pulled from school due to illness of themselves or some other family members, family drama or need, or some other reason that a parent would logically withdraw their child from school. If this is near normal vacation times, students would leave on the Hogwarts Express with their peers, but if this is outside of normal vacation periods then the parents would submit a letter of permission to the Hogwarts staff (off-screen) and purchase their child a ticket on the Mystic Pullman, a weekly train that has a stop at Hogsmeade Station. Like during vacation times, a professor will escort the student(s) to Hogsmeade and send the parents a confirmation letter that they had received the permission letter and again after their child has boarded the train.

This system places the onus of responsibility on the player as a writer OC and on the player's parent's capacity to reason IC. As a writer you will need to consider if it would be logical for a parent to permit an absence, for what reason and how you made-up the missed classes on return. Please remember, your parents cannot be neglectful and please be responsible with the reasoning you create because if you lack solid reasoning you will likely become dissatisfied with your character.

There is no OC application that needs to be written for this system.

The student will return on a future Saturday via train (either the pullman or the Hogwarts Express depending on the date) to Hogsmeade.

It is expected that users keep track of when they have left Hogwarts and when they have returned. Please note, if you have left Hogwarts at the same time as an event, a sport, an errand, or an adventure, you will not be able to participate because you were not there.

Time-Sensitive Travel

Emergency situations, such as a deathly ill family member or an acute personal injury is considered to be a Time-Sensitive Matter. A time-sensitive matter is defined as an emergency where a student needs to travel to St. Mungos, home, etc. immediately or they risk a loss of life or limb to themselves or another person in their immediate family (not their second cousin once removed) such as their parent, grandparent or sibling. Additionally, parental request to send their injured child to St. Mungos for the treatment of an acute injury, this being again defined as an injury that would or has resulted in permanent injury would also be defined as a time-sensitive matter despite the fact that this travel would be happening post-stabilization.

A time-sensitive, emergency situation cannot wait for a train ride and in these rare, unique situations, students will be allowed to leave Hogwarts via the floo network in the Headmaster's office to their intended destination. This is not used for normal travel outside of Hogwarts for students and the floo network does not accept incoming floo travel with the exception of high-ranking Ministry (NPC) officials. This allowance can be considered to have happened off-screen.