King's Cross Station Platform 8 3/4

Year 2050 London

"This is so inconvenient, they should just have a direct line from the airport".

A lanky yet somewhat nerdy teenager who was still in the awkward stage of puberty lamented as he stepped out of the hovercraft. Despite the improvements in transportation, it still took him over three whole hours to get from his home in Beijing to King's Cross Station in London.

He was Wu Mao, one of the top students of the world's leading technology school, SparkTech. Even though he was only 13 years old, he was one of the founders of a billion dollar startup specialising in robotics.

"I can't believe they are still using such ancient items"

Wu Mao muttered under his breath as he fished out the paper ticket from his pocket. It only stated: "Platform 8 3/4", along with some gold etchings on the side.

Adjusting his glasses, which were built with the latest artificial intelligence and optical sensing technology, he was quickly directed to shortest route to his destination. Most of such functions already existed in the form of contact lenses. However, Wu Mao still preferred using glasses as it made him look more intelligent.

"Come on Peggy let's go!" Using his mobile device, he tapped into the gantry to King's Cross Station. Following behind him was his favourite owl-shaped robot pulling his luggage along as it flew. It was voice sensitive and would be able to fly to him as long as it was within a certain distance. Following the signs, he quickly found his way to the area between platform 8 and 9.

About a hundred metres away across the tracks, he could see a bunch of tourists taking pictures with the famed half-entered trolley on platform 9 3/4. Shaking his head, he stifled a chuckle as he thought how foolish they were - obviously the platform would change since the information was leaked out.

However, his expression turned into a frown as he stared at the wall in front of him.

'Hogwarts sure likes to make this difficult for everyone', he silently berated the stubbornness of the school to insist that every student still needed to walk through a wall to get to the main train. Even though Wu Mao knew nothing would happen to him, it was still daunting and embarrassing to walk straight into a wall. Thankfully technology had improved tremendously, saving him from stares.

"Here goes nothing", activating Peggy's invisibility barrier while making sure no one was looking, he headed straight towards the wall.