Marauder's Map

> "*Messrs Moony, Wormtail, Padfoot, and Prongs
> Purveyors of Aids to Magical Mischief-Makers
> are proud to present
> THE MARAUDER'S MAP*"
> ― The Marauder's Map[source]
>
>

The **Marauder's Map** was a magical document that revealed all of Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. Not only did it show every classroom, every hallway, and every corner of the castle, but it also showed every inch of the grounds, as well as all the secret passages that were hidden within its walls and the location of every person in the grounds, portrayed by a dot. It was also capable of accurately identifying each person, and was not fooled by animagi, Polyjuice Potions, or invisibility cloaks; even the Hogwarts ghosts were not exempt.

One of the map's possible flaws was that it did not differentiate people who had matching names (the shared names were not given a Junior or Senior at the end). Also, it did not seem to show unplottable rooms, as it was Dobby and not the map that revealed the existence and location of the Room of Requirement.

The Chamber of Secrets never appeared on the map either because the creators never knew of it or it was unplottable as well, since when Ron and Hermione were in it collecting basilisk fangs, they did not appear on the map similar to the Room of Requirement.

## History

### Creation

> "*The magic used in the map's creation is advanced and impressive; it includes the Homonculous Charm, enabling the possessor of the map to track the movements of every person in the castle, and it was also enchanted to forever repel (as insultingly as possible) the curiosity of their nemesis, Severus Snape.*"
> ― Description of the magic involved in the map's creation[source]
>
>

The Marauder's Map was created by Remus Lupin (Moony), Peter Pettigrew (Wormtail), Sirius Black (Padfoot), and James Potter (Prongs) while they were attending Hogwarts. The creation of the map started by 1971 and was finished by 1974, because the titles on the map refer to the nicknames of these men in their Animagus forms, and, in Lupin's case, werewolf form. The four created the map via the usage of the Homonculous Charm, a powerful and advanced charm that enchanted the map to track the movements of everyone in the castle, as well as a charm to insult Severus Snape. The ability of Sirius, Peter, and James to become Animagi enabled them to explore the castle grounds by night undetected. The interior of the castle, meanwhile, was mapped over time with the help of James's Invisibility cloak.

This artefact proved quite useful to the foursome (commonly termed "the Marauders") through the years, until it was confiscated by Argus Filch. Although the precise circumstances surrounding the makers' loss of their map is mostly unknown, it is easy to conclude that they eventually over-reached themselves and were cornered by Filch, probably on a tip-off from Snape, whose obsession it had become to expose his arch-rival, James Potter, in wrongdoing. The masterpiece of a map was confiscated in Sirius, James, Remus and Peter's final year and none of them were able to steal it back from a well-prepared and suspicious Filch.

### Fred and George Weasley

> "*This little beauty's taught us more than all the teachers in this school.*"
> ― Fred Weasley regarding the Marauder's Map[source]
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Fred and George Weasley stole the map from Filch's office in their first year at Hogwarts. They had been taken to his office for letting off a Dungbomb and saw a drawer marked "*Confiscated and Highly Dangerous*". George dropped another Dungbomb, while Fred stole the map from the drawer. They had to experiment with it in order to learn how to get it to work, but it gave them clues, "*flickering into life here and there*" when they came close to the activating phrase, until finally they got it exactly. Because of this map, the twins memorised the secret passageways of Hogwarts, which they used for quite a few of their many pranks.

In Harry Potter's third year at Hogwarts Fred and George gave him the map. It was a mark of their high esteem for Harry, and their belief that he stood in need of assistance with a destiny none of them yet fully understood, that they later gifted the map to him, unwittingly passing it on to the child of one of the creators.

### Harry Potter's usage of the map

**George Weasley**: "*This, Harry, is the secret of our success.*"
**Fred Weasley**: "*It’s a wrench, giving it to you, but we decided last night, your need’s greater than ours.*"
**George Weasley**: "*Anyway, we know it by heart. We bequeath it to you. We don’t really need it anymore.*"
**Harry Potter**: "*And what do I need with a bit of old parchment?*"
— Fred and George Weasley giving Harry Potter the map[src]

Harry used the map throughout his time as a student at Hogwarts, especially during his third year, when he tried to find his way into Hogsmeade. Then, he used the One-Eyed Witch Passage which led into Honeydukes cellar. Professor Remus Lupin caught Harry with the map (after Snape found it while interrogating Harry), and subsequently confiscated it, surprising the younger wizard with his knowledge of how to activate it. The map was the real reason Professor Lupin discovered Peter Pettigrew was still alive, leading him to conclude it was indeed the latter that had betrayed Harry's parents, in the process framing their old friend Sirius Black for the crime. This would go a long way towards repairing the rift between the two co-creators of the map. He would return the map to Harry before leaving Hogwarts at the end of the year, seeing no regret in doing so since he is no longer a teacher, and that he has no further use for the map himself.

During his fourth year, Harry used the map to help him as he sneaked into the prefects' bathroom to work on his clue for the Second Task of the Triwizard Tournament. On his way back, he dropped the map, and it was almost taken by Severus Snape. Harry was saved by Barty Crouch Jnr, disguised as Professor Alastor "Mad-Eye" Moody, who pretended it was his. Due to the map's flaw, it could not differentiate between the Junior and Senior Crouches. Crouch later asked to borrow the map from a reluctant Harry, but after Crouch was unmasked, he reclaimed it. Crouch noted that the map nearly ruined his master's plan, but managed to turn it into an advantage by keeping track of his father's arrival.

In Harry's fifth year he started teaching Defence Against the Dark Arts to a verity of students, some students even older then him. This organisation was illegal, as it went directly against Dolores Umbridge's rules and if caught punishment was unavoidable. As such, Harry would often use the map during D.A. meetings as a means of keeping track of the Inquisitorial Squad and Filch. Nigel Wolpert (who liked to stay next to Harry during meetings) also assisted him by acting as a look-out as the students left the Room of Requirement at the end of the meetings using the map. Nigel was very committed to this task. The map played an instrumental role in keeping the members of the D.A. from getting caught by Umbridge, Filch, and her Squad of Slytherin students.

During Harry's sixth year, he used the map often when he spent a great deal of time obsessing over Draco Malfoy's daily activities. When monitoring Draco Malfoy, Harry found he often disappeared off the map. The cause of this was not revealed until after he asked Dobby to trail Draco to find out what he was doing when he disappeared off the map. Dobby discovered that Draco was disappearing into the Room of Requirement, which was not on the Marauder's Map. Whether because it was Unplottable or the Marauders never found the room is unspecified.

While on the run in looking for Horcruxes, Harry would often look at the map to see what Ginny Weasley, his love interest, was doing, which would hint that the map works from any location.

Moments before the start of the Battle of Hogwarts, Harry briefly used the map to search for Ron and Hermione but he did not find them as they were, at the time, in the Chamber of Secrets collecting Basilisk fangs with which they could destroy the last of Lord Voldemort's Horcruxes.

### Harry Potter's legacy

After Harry Potter's defeat of Lord Voldemort during the Battle of Hogwarts, the map would not have been used for many years. Eventually, James Sirius Potter probably stole the map from his father's desk.

## Usage

The map is normally disguised as a blank piece of parchment. To view the map, one must tap it with one's wand and recite, "*I solemnly swear that I am up to no good.*" The content of the map will then reveal itself.

To hide the contents of the map so the parchment appears blank again, one must again tap it and recite, "*Mischief managed.*"

An added bonus is that if the bearer of the map approaches the entrance to a secret passage protected by a password, the password will appear on the map (usually as a speech bubble that appears close to the dot representing the Map's holder).

### Exceptions to use

> "*I solemnly swear that I am up to no good.*"
> ― The words to reveal the map[source]
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In some rare cases, the map may not be used to the best of its ability. Heading out through the secret passage from the Whomping Willow to the Shrieking Shack will make the person disappear, as Snape mentions in the spring of 1994, so the Shrieking Shack is not included on the map because it goes off the edge of the map. It also does not show any person that may be inside the Room of Requirement, as the Room of Requirement is unplottable and it itself does not show up on the map, or the Chamber of Secrets, as it is very unlikely that any of the creators of the map knew of its existence at the time that the map was made.

Additionally, the map does not differentiate between two people with the same name. This was the case with Barty Crouch Jnr, who was simply shown as "Bartemius Crouch" on the map (instead of "Bartemius Crouch Jr"). This led Harry Potter to believe that Barty Crouch Snr was in Hogwarts, when he was actually at his own home at the time and under the Imperius Curse.

    Similarly, it identifies animagi by their actual name even when they are in their transformed state. It was by this mechanism that Lupin was able to identify Peter Pettigrew's presence at Hogwarts despite being presumed dead.

### Special abilities of the map

The map is enchanted to insult Severus Snape if he should ever come into possession of it and attempt to use it. It did this when Snape confiscated it from Harry Potter and attempted to discover what information it contains, but it simply insulted him as an ugly git. Snape is able to make use of the map later during the 1993–1994 school year after finding it abandoned in its activated state on the desk of Remus Lupin, who had left it upon spotting Peter Pettigrew in the Shrieking Shack. It is not clear if Snape would have been able to activate the map himself, had he known how.

The map also shows how to access the sealed passages by showing the password required to unseal it (displayed as a minuscule speech balloon shown close to the dot representing the user of the map that appears when the map's holder comes close to the available passages). More importantly, the map shows the name and location of every person within the Hogwarts grounds, even if they are wearing an Invisibility cloak (as demonstrated when Remus Lupin saw Harry Potter, Ron Weasley, and Hermione Granger sneaking to Rubeus Hagrid's cabin under Harry's Invisibility cloak), transformed animagi (evidenced by Lupin seeing Peter Pettigrew return to the school grounds from Hagrid's, despite being disguised as the rat Scabbers at the time), or under the influence of the Polyjuice Potion (as demonstrated when Harry saw Barty Crouch Jnr, at the time disguised as Alastor Moody, ransacking Snape's office for more Polyjuice ingredients).