answer - Viewing the Map.

[Steve]

No: HPFGUIDX 60693

--- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, "Linda" <linlou43 at y...> wrote:
> Ramyarak wrote:
> 
> 
>  Fred and George never noticed Peter Pettigrew on the marauder's
>  map, ...edited... Because, otherwise the map would get too 
> cluttered-up.
>  
>  
>  "Ramyarak"
>  
>  
>  srb replied:
> 
> 
>         < snipping madly away>
> 
>  
>  The only thing you see clearly is the thing you are intensely 
> concentrating on. 
>  
>  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>
> 

 
> 
> Me(Linda):
>  
> .... I would accept them (the theory re: the Map) as they are but 
> there is one incident that hasn't been considered ..... ...., Harry 
> does use it in GOF and ... 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.
> 
> ...edited...
> 
> 
>  Just my two knuts, Linda

bboy_mn:

Perhaps...

Barty would not be of interest to Harry in that he would never think
to look for Barty on the map, and it may have been the movement that
caught his eye, but I don't think that shoots down the original theory.

They key is not Barty or Snape, but Snape's office. Snape's office is
an area that Harry would routinely and habitually be concerned with.
It would be an area of interest to him on the map. So, I think it is
safe to assume that this would be part of a default set of areas that
would show up on the map. Snape's office, Filch's office, Dumbledore's
office, as well as their quarters, and the hallways would all be
area's of concern to any rule breaker because these represent some of
the people most likely to be out trying to catch rule breakers.

You are right, it was movement that caught Harry's eye, but more than
that it was movement in Snape's office, and Harry would certainly be
interested in any activity in there. 

As far as the map being selective, there are many different ways in
which it could be selective. We know that the map has 'dead' spot.
Harry doesn't see himself until he exits the classroom. Lupin doesn't
see Harry/Ron/Hermione/Scabbers until they exit Hagrid's cabin. In
addition, it would seem that Scabbers has been hiding out in Hagrid's
cabin for a while, and Lupin never saw him. It could very well be that
Wormtail knew that the cabin was a 'dead' spot and that's why he
choose it. It also possible that it doesn't show extremely crowded
areas at all; like the common rooms. Most mischief makers would need
to know what was going on inside the common rooms. Showing the common
rooms would be especially ineffetive at certain times of the day when
most of the student are there studying.

Or it could be very finely attuned to the mind, intent, and concerns
of the user, and could adjust what it shows based on the slightest
shift in the perception, mental state, or concerns of that user.

And many other possible modes of selective operation.

So I don't see an inconsistence here, but that's just my opinion.

bboy_mn