The Map, the Diary, the Hat and the Phoenix

[Tabouli]

No: HPFGUIDX 43429

Marcus:
> In the case of the Map's response to our favorite potions professor, 
I think it is the reaction of the creators' 15-year-old-selves to 
one. <

Yes yes, but this does suggest that those 15yo selves are, in fact, "in there" somewhere, in some way, where they are able to "see" who is using the Map, or talking to it, and react to that person.  By editing the display to show people in whom that person might be interested.  Or insulting him, in Snape's case.

Leon:
> The map is a different object. Much more a tool than a repository of
thought. And my personal feeling is that it was imbued with functionality.
That it also took on the *personality* of the inventors seems to be part of
the imbuing process. (...)

The Ford Anglia is an interesting example, but I don't think it's really on a par with the Map and Diary.  Or, for that matter, the Sorting Hat.  In fact, the Sorting Hat is a better example of the sort of magical item I'm talking about - like the Map, it has one primary function, but also seems to have other powers which can be accessed under the right circumstances, such as delivering Gryffindor's sword.

Where does the Hat keep its brain?  Well, from memory, the Hat has had a little of all four founders' brains instilled in it, so they can assess the minds of children at the Sorting Ceremony.  Just as, I presume, the Map has a little of the four Marauders' brains instilled in it.  Yet the Hat speaks with only one voice, whereas the Map speaks with four.  In PS/SS Harry doesn't mention hearing the different voices of Salazar Slytherin and Godric Gryffindor arguing about which house he should go into, he hears one voice speculating (whereas Snape sees all four "voices" from the Map).

Is the Sorting Hat's voice an amalgam of the four Founders' voices?  Is it Godric's voice?  Was it the bit of Godric's brain that delivered the sword to his champion against Tom Riddle?  Had it been Tom Riddle who put on the Hat, would the Hat have delivered him *Salazar's* sword, silver with emeralds, for his champion in the battle against *Godric's* representative?  Or is the Hat intrinsically on Dumbledore's side?

The other thing about the Hat is that it might have all four founders' brains in it, but presumably it actually *belonged* to only one of them (unless it's a Hat like the boot of the Ford Anglia which can magically expand to accommodate four heads).  Something tells me it was probably Gryffindor's, which makes me wonder yet again about the rife housism in the series.  The whole history of the Wizarding world seems to be in some sense a repetition of that first quarrel between Salazar and Godric about Muggles.

Then there's Fawkes.  I *like* this idea that Fawkes is Godric, or belonged to Godric.  Him being red and gold, it seems more likely that he *is* Godric's, or Godric, that the repository of all four founders' brains.  And, assuming he is, that would make *Dumbledore* Gryffindor's heir, wouldn't it?

Hmmm.  How about the heir of Gryffindor being decided not by heredity, but by Fawkes... He Who Owns Fawkes Godric's Mantle Shall Take?

OK, so we've had Fawkes and the Basilisk.  What about Helga's pet, and Rowena's pet?  Is there an enchanted badger lurking somewhere in the series, to be the crucial weapon of the Heir of Hufflepuff?  An enchanted eagle at the side of the Heir of Ravenclaw?  (Why, somehow, do I doubt this?)  I do feel a faint twitch at the general irrelevance of the two female-led Houses.

Back to the Map.

Marcus:
>Now, could Harry talk to James?  Perhaps, but I doubt it would be 
very satisfactory.  It would be Harry talking to a 15-year-old boy 
with three best buds hanging around.  Map James simply is not Harry's 
dad.  Harry would do better looking at his dad's picture in the photo 
album.<

Since the end of PS/SS, Harry has had the opportunity to look at his parents smiling and waving whenever he likes, but that didn't stop him secretly craving their voices in PoA.  Of course there's nothing like the real thing, a live father of fatherly age to talk to, but if my father had died when I was one, I'd want anything of him I could get, however unsatisfactory in comparison with the real thing.  Shadows out of Voldemort's wand I can see and talk to are better than a snapshot of my dad as a cheeky teenager, but that doesn't mean I wouldn't want to meet my father as a teenager.  Wouldn't a lot of kids be curious to read their father's teenage diary, especially if they'd never known their father?  I certainly would, and my father is alive and well (speaking of which, it's Father's Day today!).

Leon>
>I don't think the map or the Anglia can/would/will ever "aspire" to be more
than they are. The map will not seek to join with other maps, or to coax
someone to burn down the library to avoid competition. (...)
>
> The diary (and, I think, the Penseive) would not remain static. They would
(the diary did!) attempt to evolve, progress, and attain. The diary had a
"brain". It showed thought and initiative to launch it beyond it's current
status.<

The Pensieve records the past in a way someone can enter, but it doesn't, so far as we've seen, actively *do* anything of its own accord.  So far as we know it's just a video recorder full of tapes from Dumbledore's life.  The Anglia seems to have taken on the role of feral Weasley family pet.

The Hat, the Diary and the Map, on the other hand, we *have* seeing taking independent action.  They also use *words* to communicate (which the Anglia doesn't).  And the Map, having some of James in it, has the potential to give us some of those long-awaited clues about the Marauder days we're waiting for.  Like why does Snape hate James so much it spills over into Harry (quietly whistles "On the Good Ship LOLLIPOPS").

Leon:
> I believe Dumbledore already has the main "function" of the
map in his office, somewhere. I can't believe, I refuse to believe that
Mooney et al were the first to come up with this kind of functionality. I
mean, come on! Anybody here have kids? This beats those stupid wrist-leash
thingy's hands-down. It's even better than the Weasley's clock. I think
Dumbledore knows where everyone is whenever he wants to, whether in a map in
his head or on the wall. He doesn't show up at the right time by luck. Not
by a longshot.<

Oh, I'm sure Dumbledore has something which provides the *basic function* of the Map, namely, a tracking device.  He certainly seems to keep track of where Harry is, for example.  However, unless he's *really* manipulating events a la conveniently arranging for three first years to get the Stone, he *doesn't* have something which reveals the true identity of someone.  Most of the plot twists would collapse if he did.

Dumbledore would, for example, immediately have figured out that Sirius Black was on the Hogwarts grounds in PoA, and minimal investigation would have established that he was the big black dog wandering around.  He would have known immediately that the man he thought was Moody was a Polyjuiced Barty Junior.  He would, surely, have noticed that Rita Skeeter was snooping around the school.  He might even have been able to identify the Basilisk roaming the pipes, or detect that Voldemort was hiding in Quirrell's turban.  Nope, I don't think he has anything so useful as the Map in that department.

The Map combines several functions in a way which is extremely useful.  It shows the user where significant people to him/her are.  It reveals their true identity if they are in disguise.  It tells its user how to enter secret passages. It insults the user's enemies.  Those Marauder lads were really onto something.  In fact...

...perhaps this gives us a clue to Harry's father's occupation!  We know he inherited wealth, or at least, I seem to remember this from an interview with JKR somewhere.  Could he have been a great inventor of intelligent magical objects?  Did he, perhaps, develop the Foe Glass and the Sneakoscope at a precociously early age, only to have his brilliant career cut short by Voldemort in his early 20s? Is the cash stash in Gringotts that Harry inherited the accumulating proceeds of James' patented anti-enemy magical devices?

Hey, it's a possibility...

Tabouli.


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