[HPforGrownups] Re: Marauder's map question, prior to PoA

[Bart Lidofsky]

No: HPFGUIDX 191969

Re: Why the twins never noticed that Peter Pettigrew was sleeping with 
their brother...

Given what we know about portraits and photos in the WW, and the size of 
Hogwarts, and the detail that has been said to be viewable on the 
Marauder's Map, I think a solution can be reached.

If it showed everything at once, it would be so huge as to be unwieldy. 
And folding it to the right place would take forever. But Harry has been 
described walking while looking at the map. Therefore, it would make 
sense that the map is not static, but dynamic. In other words, there's a 
zoom factor, not unlike what we see in pad computers. From the 
description, I envision it being about a 2-3 feet square unfolded, but 
you can see all of Hogwarts, or the parts in which you are interested. 
If you look at all of Hogwarts at once, you can see aggregates of 
people, but individuals are difficult to make out. Given the reasons the 
Twins used the map (side question: has anybody here noticed any behavior 
that distinguishes Fred from George?) they probably had little or no 
reason to zoom in on Ron.

Certainly, there is nothing in canon that says that the map could do 
this, but it would explain a number of puzzles about the map.

Bart