A Map of very little Brain?

[Tabouli]

No: HPFGUIDX 43372

Eloise quoting Elkins:
>> So the implication to my mind is that insulting Snape *is* in some
>> sense a part of the Map's function.
>
>Which is highly likely, as I'm sure it was rigged in case Snape ever found
it in his snoopings.<

Ahaaa.  Map musings!  Nothing like a few Map musings.  The more I think about that Map, the more I wonder about the level of magic required to develop it.  I suppose the Gryffindor inventors of the current Hogwarts generation are Fred and George, who'd rather concoct magic tricks than incredibly useful magical devices, but I still struggle to see the Trio inventing something like that in their next year at Hogwarts.  Sure, Hermione's good at remembering and executing obscure useful spells she's read about, but they really don't seem to be into *making* things.  However.

The more I think about this Map, the more questions I think of.  Harry identifies the Map as of the same category of object as Riddle's diary, that is, an object that thinks for itself.  As Elkins said, it does seem to be semi-sentient: it told Harry how to get into the statue, appears to be able to tell who the significant people are for the person using it (hence Harry turns up when he is given the Map where he wasn't on it before), and when prodded by Snape it clearly recognises him and is preprogrammed to insult him.

All very interesting, especially when you consider that JKR never *really* resolves for the Map the warning Mrs Weasley gave Ginny, namely where *does* the Map keep its brain??

OK, so our comparison object is Riddle's diary, right?  What Tom did was preserve his 16yo self in the pages of the diary, so that "one day, with luck (he) would be able to lead another in (his) footsteps".  Sounds fairly similar to what the Marauders could have done, doesn't it?  In the absence of any further information, we could assume that what *they* have done is preserve something of *their* 15yo selves in the Map so that one day, with luck, *they* could lead another generation of rulebreakers into mischief.  The Diary found its way to the vulnerable Ginny, the Map found its way to vulnerable (in the sense of being miserable about being forbidden from going to Hogsmeade) Harry.

Of course, we know exactly how this happened in both cases.  Lucius happened to see an opportunity to give Arthus Weasley a comeuppance, and slipped the diary in Ginny's textbook.  Fred and George happened to find it in Filch's extensive collection of confiscated objects and happened to decide to donate it to Harry.  Nothing to do with the objects themselves, right? Or was it?

I'm suspicious, you know.  There's plenty of evidence that the pet chooses the wizard: Crookshanks and Hermione, Scabbers and Ron, even (for the TOADKEEPERs among us) Trevor and Neville, perhaps.  Just how animate are intelligent magical objects?  Could they, like Tolkien's ring, have some say in their fate?  Can they rig things so that they go to the person for whom they're destined?  What were the real chances that Lucius would find Arthur Weasley and Ginny, post buying textbooks, shopping on the same day, and get the opportunity to slip her the Diary?  What were the real chances of Fred and George stumbling on so helpful an object in Filch's no doubt huge filing cabinet collection, especially when it looked like an old piece of parchment (compared with, I imagine, a *host* of more interesting looking things Filch might have taken from erring students).  And conveniently deciding that despite its extreme usefulness in their rulebreaking pastimes, that they would give it to Harry?

Let's look at the Diary some more and think about the implications.  Tom Riddle instilled himself into the Diary and fed on Ginny's secrets to grow strong enough to emerge from the Diary.  Interesting.  What if Voldemort had been killed before he got the chance? Would the spell have been broken, and the Diary emptied?  Or would there still have been a 16yo Riddle waiting to be unleashed?  Does the keeper of the object's brain, so to speak, have to be alive for the object to stay intelligent?

Then let's look at the Map.  Now, it's entirely likely that its different function means this comparison is tenuous, but it's interesting, isn't it?  There were four manufacturers, of which one (James) is now dead.  One of the keeper brains is out of action.  Does this mean that the Map is only working at 75% of optimum capacity?  Or that it steered itself deliberately towards James' son, whose input can "recharge" it?

We should also remember the insulting Snape function.  This, I think, is evidence that the 15yo Marauders have indeed stored their 15yo selves in there.  And, given that Mr Prongs contributed to the insulting of Snape:

> 'Mr Prongs agrees with Mr Moony, and would like to add that Professor Snape is an ugly git'

...suggests that the storage of a younger self in an intelligent magical object can indeed outlive the death of the person whose self is in it (which suggests that Tom Riddle might indeed have been able to resurrect himself had Voldemort died before Ginny rejuvenated himself), unless, of course, the other three living Marauders' magic contributions are maintaining 15yo James.

In which case, might there be some way for Harry to access his 15yo father through the Map, in the same way Snape did (and Ginny did Tom)?  Could he, if he thought of it, talk to James Potter, Quidditch star and charismatic star student if he hit the Map with his wand and said "Harry Potter, son of your manufacturer James, commands that he come out and have a father to son talk!" ?  Hmmm...

You see, whenever I read this scene (c/o Elkins' post):

***
As though an invisible hand was writing upon it, words appeared on the smooth surface of the map.
    "'Mr Moony presents his compliments to Professor Snape, and begs him 
    to keep his abnormally large nose out of other people's business'
Snape froze.  Harry stared, dumbstruck, at the message.  But the map 
didn't stop there.  More writing was appearing beneath the first.
    "'Mr Prongs agrees with Mr Moony, and would like to add that 
    Professor Snape is an ugly git'
It would have been very funny if the situation hadn't been so 
serious.  And there was more...
    "'Mr Padfoot would like to register his astonishment that an idiot 
    like that ever became a Professor.'
Harry closed his eyes in horror.  When he'd opened them, the map had 
had its last word.
    "'Mr Wormtail bids Professor Snape good day, and advises him to wash 
    his hair, the slimeball.'"
***

...I can't help wondering where those insults are coming from.  Was it specifically programmed for Snape?  Clearly it can recognise people: it recognised Harry, it recognised Snape, and understood what he said to it.  And connected him with who he was at the age of 15.  It reveals everyone's true nature - it identified Scabbers as Peter, exposed the Polyjuiced Barty-Moody.  That is indeed an intelligent magic object.  If it had been McGonagall who demanded that it reveal its secrets, would the stored Marauders have recognised and insulted her too?  What if it had been Dumbledore?

*Is* it the stored 15yo Marauders living in the Map who independently came up with the insults?  If so, were those insults *really* in character for their respective insulters, even in their mid-teens?  *Would* Lupin have told 15yo Snape to keep his abnormally large nose out of other people's business at 15?  Would James Potter have called Snape an ugly git?  Would 15yo Sirius really have described the (undoubtedly talented, at least at Potions) Snape as an idiot who could never have become a Professor?  Would 15yo Wormtail *really* have been brave enough to sneer at Snape's greasy hair and patronisingly suggest he wash it under Sirius and James' protection?

Er, it's not really much credit to them if so.  Even at 15.

OK, so maybe the insults are just an automatic function.  Maybe the Marauders snickered over it and programmed in all the schoolboy insults they could think of, and set it to "random assignment" to decide which of them said what.  Maybe they chose one each and set it so that it would use them on Snape specifically, or any prying person in general.  Maybe Sirius thought up all of them and assigned them one each.  But I still want to know where they came from.  Where the insulting voice of the Map keeps its brain.

I also wonder other things about it - if it can embody the memory of four 15yo schoolboys, does it also "remember" anything in the way the Diary did?  Could it show "movies" of long ago events on the Hogwarts grounds?  Could Harry enter it the way he entered the Diary, and find out some crucial truths about what happened in his father's day?  What exactly can it do?

There's plenty more musing to be done on this Map, I say.  It is so incredibly useful that if I were Dumbledore, I'd have a "sentry" or someone continually keeping an eye on it, have an in-depth discussion with Lupin and Sirius about everything it can do, and get a skilled wizard to study what else it might be able to do...

Tabouli.


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