Pettigrew in Hagrid's hut - an answer

[Steve]

No: HPFGUIDX 113525

--- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, "scoutmom21113"
<navarro198 at h...> wrote:
> Susana da Cunha wrote:
> Ok. Someone is bound to have come out with this, but I was annoyed 
> at the posts suggesting the Marauders Map didn't show inside of 
> Hagrid's hut and only then it stroke me.
> 
> From PoA chap. 17, Lupin says:
> 
> ""The point is, even if you're wearing an Invisibility Cloak, you 
> still show up on the Marauder's Map. I watched you cross the grounds 
> and enter Hagrid's hut. Twenty minutes later, you left Hagrid, and 
> set off back to the castle. But you were now accompanied by someone 
> else.""
> 
> My point is, either way, as soon as Ron/Harry/Hermione arrived at 
> Hagrid's, Lupin would have seen the Harry/Hermione in the forest, 
> deleted the map, tossed it in his pocket and run to Dumbledore's 
> office.
> 
> Bookworm:
> ...  But it doesn't answer your original question of why 
> Pettigrew didn't show up on the map.  If the occupants of
> Hagrid's hut were visible on the Map, then Pettigrew's name
> would have been right there ....  
> 
> Pettigrew had been missing for several days, and as a Marauder he 
> would have know that the inside Hagrid's hut was a safe place to 
> hide.  
> 
> Ravenclaw Bookworm


bboyminn:

Some points I've made on this issue before.

1.) Think about the nature of the map itself. First, it's for mischief
making. It's purpose is to allow the Marauders to roam the school and
the grounds without detection. Therefore, hallways, primary areas, and
teacher offices are most important. In this context, the gamekeepers
house is not very important; the gamekeeper is not a very
authoritarian figure, gamekeeper's house is away from the castle and a
significantly safe distance from the Whomping Willow, gamekeepers
house is not in a location that would prevent the Marauders from
moving about freely, etc....

2.) Next, in the same vein, consider the size of the school relative
to the size of the map. 

When Harry says things on the map are miniscule, minute, and tiny, he
is not kidding. Based on my research, no castle anywhere in the muggle
world even comes remotely close to the magnitude of Hogwarts Castle.
Today, Winsor Castle is the largest working (lived in, non-museum)
castle in the world. It is positively dwarfed by the size of Hogwarts.
Many castles may have reach the height of 7 stories, but none that I
have been able to find ever had main buildings that had 7 floors. The
old Keep-style castles may have reached 90 feet but rarely had more
than 3 or 4 floors.

Hogwarts with 7 full floors and mutliple wings with its many towers
which are at least twice as high as the main buildings, would be
easily over 100 feet high, and that's conservative. That would make
the towers 200 feet. This assumes 15 foot ceilings which is actually a
very low estimate for buildings of this type and magnitude. 

Although height isn't my real point, it size, number of rooms, and
complexity of layout. Remember that this 7 floor multi-winged
many-towered castle is laid out on one small piece of parchment.If
this were done in standard architectual daft/drawing format, it would
take a 3 or 4 inch thick stack of 18" x 24" inch sheets. 

This point? When Harry says the writing is tiny, minute, and miniscule
that is an extreme understatement. Many times Harry has to put his
face right up to the map to be able to read it-- tiny, tiny, tiny. And
that more than anything explains why you don't see anything other than
what you are specifically looking for. 

Lupin was specifically watching for Harry/Ron/Hermione, and was
specifically watching for them to go to Hagrids. Therefore, any of the
near microscopic writing that was not in his immediate field of vision
would have been visual background noise. 

Which means if he could have seen Peter, he would have because he was
specifically focused on Hagrid's hut. But, it means he would not have
see time traveling Harry and Hermione because they were out of his
focal field near the edge of the map. Also, hiding in the woods, at
times, may have put them off the edge of the Map.

So, in summary, the map has a context, it is an Aid to Michief Making,
and is selective to that purpose. Which means one could conclude that
there is no reason for the interior of the Gamekeep's hut to show on
the map. I feel the context of the story also points toward this
conclusion. Although, I admit, it's not a crystal clear fact.

Second, the content of the map is not tiny or miniscule but must be
near microscopic when you consider the amount of information it
contains. Therefore, peripheral things are not easily noticed. To read
the Map takes a very tight and narrow field of focus. Anything outside
that narrow field is a blur.

Conclusion, Peter would have been seen if he could have been seen, and
it's not likely that the second TT!Harry/Hermione would have been noticed.

I will admit that there was one time when it was possible to see all
four (Har/Herm and TT!Har/Herm) and that was when they were all four
in the entrance hall right before H/H/R went down to Hagrid's. That
would have put all of them in the same field of focus. However, Lupin
implies that he first sees them when they are walking down to
Hagrid's. So, he missed his one chance to see them all together.

Just a thought.

Steve/bboyminn (was bboy_mn)