answer - Viewing the Map.

[Linda]

No: HPFGUIDX 60660

Ramyarak wrote:


 Fred and George never noticed Peter Pettigrew on the marauder's map,
 ...edited... Because, otherwise the map would get too cluttered-up.
 
 For example, Harry sees Dumbledore pacing his study and Mrs.Norris,
 because he would not want to get caught by either of them while
 sneaking out to Hogsmeade.
 
 "Ramyarak"
 
 
 srb replied:


        < snipping madly away>

 
   The only thing you see
 clearly is the thing you are intensely concentrating on. Everything
 else fades to a miniscule blur. Harry constantly refers to 
everything
 on the map as minute (as in tiny, not 60 seconds).
 
 Next, many have speculated that in order to keep the map from being
 too cluttered to even use, it is selective in what it shows. 

   <snip,snip,snip>


> Reading the map takes effort and concentration, anything you are 
not
> concentrating on and making an effort to see, fades into the 
background.


   Me(Linda):
 
              Well thought out and well put srb. Your arguments make 
a lot of sense and I would accept them as they are but there is one 
incident that hasn't been considered in any of the posts I have read 
on this thread as of yet. We tend to concentrate on PoA when 
discussing the marauder's map and understandably so as it is 
intrigal to the plot of that book. However, Harry does use it in GOF 
and that one time, IMHO, puts a hole in the above theory. Harry is 
using the map to aid in his excursion to the prefect's bathroom.
                     
                 "A single dot was flitting around a room in the 
bottom left corner---Snape's office. But the dot wasn't 
labled 'Severus Snape'...it was Barty Crouch." (pg 466 GOF US HC)

                  Harry would have no reason to be looking for Barty 
Crouch. He thinks he is at home, too ill to even go to work. He 
wasn't looking to see if Snape was in his office because the 
preceding text line simply says that the movement caught his eye, 
not that he checked to see if Snape was in his office. Which leads 
me to:


Elizabeth wrote:

 I also believe the Marauder's Map only shows people who are moving.

          <snip>

 The only problem is that when Harry was trapped on the stairs in 
GoF, he 
 was afraid Snape would look at the map and see him standing there, 
 suggesting that people standing still would show up. On the other 
hand, Harry 
 wasn't looking at the map, so he couldn't be sure he would show up. 



Linda again:

     This is also a possibility. However, canon does not say yes or 
no on this pov either. In the above descibed scene we are told that 
when Harry checks the map prior to returning to the common 
room "Filch and Mrs Norris are safely in their office". There is no 
mention of their movement or lack thereof so it's inconclusive at 
best. As far as Harry's perception, he doesn't know exactly how the 
map works himself so his fear could be justified- or not.




 Just my two knuts, Linda