Where's the brain?

[spicoli323]

Original Yahoo! HPFG Header:
No: HPFGUIDX C7118
From: spicoli323
Subject: Where's the brain?
Date: 8/17/00 7:33 pm  (ET)

At the end of CoS, Mrs. Weasley told Ginny that she should have been
suspicious of Tom Riddle's diary from the beginning. "What have I always
told you? Never trust anything that can think for itself if you can't
see where it keeps its brain?"
Um, what about all the portraits in Hogwarts? I don't suppose they have
any place to "keep" a brain, but they are certainly not evil. Same thing
with the Marauder's Map--while I don't think the map is quite sentient,
it comes pretty close to having a mind of its own, but again, no actual
brain. Snape seems sure that it must be an object of powerful Dark Magic,
at least until he discovers who created it. Then again, he might have
been exaggerating. Still, how can these examples be explained against
what Mrs. Weasley said?
Speaking of the Marauder's Map, was I just not reading carefully enough,
or did it just mysteriously drop out the story in GoF? Last I remember
hearing of it, Harry gave it to Moody/Crouch, but I don't believe it
was found when they searched Moody's trunk, and I don't think anything
was said about what might have happened to it.