TBAY: the Marauder's Map

[joeblackish]

No: HPFGUIDX 39942

In message 39876, random monkey said:

How on earth could they have come up  with the phrase, "I 
solemly swear I am up to no good?" Consider how  many 
possible combinations of words there are in the English 
language,  compounded by the fact that it would have been 
much more secure for the Marauders to come up with a string of 
gibberish or foreign words, instead of an actual phrase. Granted, 
they might have used a real sentence for the ease of memory 
(this *is* a group with Peter Pettigrew in it, after all), but that's still 
a lot of phrases to go through. 

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I don't think the Marauders made the map solely for themselves. 
In fact, I think they probably created it in hopes that it might be 
passed on and aid future troublemakers like the Weasley twins. 

I could imagine the map being set up so than when Fred and 
George are trying to figure out how to work it, Mssrs. MWPP give 
them a little bit of trouble, but teasingly help them along the way 
to the right phrase.

Imagine: 
Map: Mssr. Padfoot is curious about your intentions.
Fred: We want to have some fun.
Map: What kind of fun?
Fred: Mischeivous fun!
Map: So, you're up to no good, you say?
George: No! None at all. We promise we're total troublemakers. 
We stole this map from Filch's office.
Map: Do you promise?
Fred: We swear!
George: We solemnly swear!
Map: You solemny swear what?
Fred and George together: We solemnly swear we're up to no 
good!

And boom! There's the map.

Of course the exercise would take a little longer and involve 
considerably more teasing on MWPP's part.

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In message 39881, violetbaudelaire2002 said:

I am happy this subject was brought up, though as I am new  
here, this could all be previously hashed material. I had a slight 
revelation (not the right word...) upon my last reading of SS- Fred 
and George could not have had (or at least been using) the 
Marauder's Map at the time of SS. Somewhere in ch. 11 or 12 of  
the US version, they say that they are going to check out a 
passage that Lee Jordan discovered, though they think it was 
the one they found in their first year. If they were using the map 
(they say in PoA that they got it first year), then they wouldn't have 
to check out this passage- they would know of its existence or 
lack thereof. 

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I imagine that Fred and George wanted to check out the 
passage in the event that it wasn't on the Marauder's Map. I think 
they definitely imply they have been using it for a while now, not 
just for the past year. 


As for the perennial "why doesn't  x see y on the map" dilemma, 
I'll throw my two knuts in since I'm talking about the thing already. 
I think the map, with its oh-so-well-hidden brain, sense who it 
needs to show you. Who you're looking for, who might mangle 
your mischief, who's in your path, etc. 

So if the map doesn't think Harry needs to see Pettigrew, or 
doesn't think two Hermione's are any of his business, it will just 
choose not to show them to him.

Imagine what kind of pickle it could create for somebody it 
decided it didn't like. What if it turned on Harry, and just 
neglected to mention that Snape was right around the corner. 
Quite the predicament for our hero. Well, that's what you get for 
trusting something when you can't see where it keeps its brain.

Joe, who wishes he had a map like that when he was in school