Point of Order: "The Marauders"

[pippin_999]

No: HPFGUIDX 53407

--- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, GulPlum <hp at p...> 
wrote:

> What I'm talking about is collectively calling James Potter, 
Sirius Black,  Peter Pettigrew and Remus Lupin "The 
Marauders", and I am seriously,  honestly, curious why anyone 
would want to call them that. I get a bit of a  nervous twitch every 
time I see the term and I'd like to explain why.
> 
> OK, the reason I can imagine most people would want to do so 
is because of  the name of "The Marauder's Map". I really, really, 
don't want to repeat  the rant about apostrophe abuse in general 
which started off a huge debate on the OT-Chatter list recently, 
but there is an apostrophe in "Marauder's", and its meaning is 
clear: there is *one* "Marauder". <<

It seems to me you undermine your own argument here. Since 
Apostrophe Abuse is so common, couldn't the, er, parties in 
question have perpetrated some themselves? It's clear they did 
want to think of themselves as bad boys. The incantation which 
activates the Map is, "I solemnly swear that I am up to no good."   

According to Dumbledore, James did indulge in some 
plundering: "your father used [the invisibility cloak] mainly for 
sneaking off to the kitchens to steal food when he was here."

Pippin