Marauders Map

## History

### Creation & The Marauders

The Marauders' Map was originally created by The Unspeakables as a means of tracking the friendship group known as The Marauders, a group of friends who often pulled pranks on their fellow Hogwarts students. When the Marauders found out one of their number, Moony, was a werewolf and that he was being researched by the Unspeakables as a part of Project Romulus, the Marauders want to help.

As a part of this, they were often subjected to memory locks, to prevent knowledge of the experiment from being discovered. During one of these memory lock procedures, Sirius Black stole the basic tracking parchment from the Unspeakables, which was later discovered by the group back in their dormitories. After a few months of research, they improved the tracking capabilities of the Map by modifying the charms on the Map to interface with the Hogwarts Wards so it could show everyone inside Hogwarts Castle. The Marauders also used the Homunculus Charm to imprint a copy of their teenage selves onto the Map.

Unfortunately, when Severus Snape attempted to enter the Shrieking Shack on a full moon night, James Potter accidentally revealed the Map to Project Romulus. This led to it being confiscated by Albus Dumbledore who saw it as a massive breach of privacy for everyone in Hogwarts. James' memory was then modified to believe that Mr Filch has confiscated the Map.

The Map then found its way to where every other confiscated item in Hogwarts is sent, Mr. Filch's Office.

### The Weasley Twins/Terrors

In 1989, during their first year at Hogwarts, Fred and George Weasley, came into possession of the Map after they were sent to Mr Filch's Office after getting in trouble with Filch himself and found the Map in a drawer.

Claiming the Map for themselves, they soon were able to open the Map and used to increase the pranking skills, since they could now more easily evade staff, students and prefects.

### Harry Black

In 1991, during Harry Potter's first year of Hogwarts, Harry learnt of the Marauders' Map by way of the Snake Paintings scattered throughout Hogwarts. Although he was unclear of what it was, he was able to use the knowledge to broker a treaty that prevented himself and Theodore Nott from being pranked by the Weasley Twins.

Harry is soon able to barter possession of the map away from the Weasley Twins.

Soon, Harry revealed to the Map was his only connection to his father's teenage years but he would likely confiscate the Map from him should he find out it was in his possession. After a bit of infighting between Map-Prongs and Map-Padfoot, Harry asked if the Map was capable of dragging users into an inner world like Tom Riddle's Diary. Map-Moony said although should be within the Map's parameters, they'd need a few days.

The Map-Marauders were soon able to bring Harry into the Map, with Map-Wormtail being the first to interact with Harry. Whilst learning about their teenage years, Harry discovered that even as a child, Peter Pettigrew was still very observant and intelligent as he was able to determine Harry was a Slytherin. The biggest revelation though was that Augustus Rookwood was a DADA Teacher during the Marauders' time at Hogwarts and was Peter's favourite teacher (a fact he was able to verify by talking with Regulus and Sirius Black).

## Magical Properties

### Live Tracking

This map contains a real time vision of the entire Hogwarts grounds, including the people within it. This can be used to track any individual on the grounds, provided the user knows the legal name of the person they are looking for.

### Sentience

The Marauders' Map contains a copy of the personalities of each Marauders when they originally made the Map. These personalities are referenced only by their nicknames; Moony, Wormtail, Padfoot, and Prongs. These personalities also usually only talk in the third person, so it can be identified which Marauder is talking at any time, though surprising revelations can cause them to talk in first person.

### Concealed Nature

Due to the nature of this map, the Marauders built in several layers of protection to prevent anyone from using it without their permission. This includes saying the activation and deactivation phrases "I solemnly swear that I am up to no good" and "Mischief Managed", respectively. The sentient nature of the map allows it to determine the intent of the person trying to unlock the map though, so should a person wish to use the map for mischief then the Marauders will drip-feed the user clues to the activation phrase.

## Appearance

When not active, the map looks like an ordinary piece of paper.

## References

Book 3 - HP&DEM - Ch. 120 - What's Past is Prologue (Pt 2),

James explains to Project Romulus how the Marauders' Map was made..

 Cite error: Invalid `<ref>` tag; name "Map Creation" defined multiple times with different content
Book 3 - HP&DEM - Ch. 120 - What's Past is Prologue (Pt 2),

Dumbledore confiscates the Map from James..
Book 1 - HP&PoS - Ch. 11 - Halloween 1991 (Pt 1),

Harry uses his knowledge of the Map to stop the Weasley Twins pranks..
Book 3 - HP&DEM - Ch. 88 - Prelude (Harry),

Harry talks to Map-Moony to learn more about entering the map.
Book 3 - HP&DEM - Ch. 94 - Back to School (Pt 1),

Harry enters the Map's memory palace..
Book 3 - HP&DEM - Ch. 95 - Back to School (Pt 2),

Harry discusses the Marauders' past with Map-Wormtail..