Theory on the Marauder's Map

[Serena R. Snape]

Hey guys, I just thought of something and wanted to know your theories.

Why was it that the twins never saw Peter Pettigrew's name on the map?

[Ithiarel]

Well, I already posed my theory in the Marauder's thread. So, I'll just copy/paste it for now:

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I always thought that the map only shows parts of the castle. How would the entire castle (plus grounds) fit onto it otherwise? Not only is Hogwarts incredibly big, but it is three dimensional. The map can't possible show all floors at the same time.

I figured that the map only shows a section of the whole thing. This would incidentally also explain why the twins never noticed Peter (why would they look at their own dorm? There are more important parts of the castle to look at...) and how Lupin noticed Peter (He was probably checking the secret passageways he knew about, and saw the name "Sirius Black". And then checked who else was near Sirius...)

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See, if the map only shows small sections of the actual groundfloor plans (e.g. the area around the Great Hall, a corridor on the fifth floor, etc.), then it would be easy for the twins to miss Pettigrew altogether. Because:
- Peter would spend most his time in the Gryffindor dorm. (He's a pet after all) And
- the twins would have no reason to look at their own dorm. As pranksters, their use of the map would have most likely consisted of checking hallways, classrooms, and teacher's offices; or following specific persons (and what's the likelyhood of Filch snooping around in the Gryffindor dorms?)

[lucyolsen]

I was under the impression that it only showed the dots of people who were moving. And given Scabbers' favorite pastime (ie, sleeping), he would never have moved around very much, and would have spent most of his time being completely motionless not only in the tower, where the twins wouldn't not have focused on, but specifically in Ron's room, where they would look even less (the twins would at least look in the common room to see who was there if they wanted to sneak out).

During third year, where the rat might have actually moved around, they gave the map to Harry, who very used it very specifically to sneak out of the school, and he would have been so focused on this task that he would have ignored any dots that weren't around him or on the path he wanted to take.

[sherza]

Actually, you'd think the twins would be checking the dorms the most ... after all, the rooms would be the easiest places to set up pranks on their fellow Gryffindors when they were in first and second year, and if you think for even a *second* they didn't prank the other Gryffindors, you're outta your mind.

That said, the map probably *does* only show one floor at a time, because yeah, showing a three-dimensional structure on a flat piece of paper wouldn't work too well, even with magic to help.

Personally, I just think it's another massive plothole of JKR's. She wanted to introduce the neato map and the whole Peter thing, and didn't stop to think of the implications.

[Kitty279]

Jun 24, 2012 4:03:33 GMT -5 sherza said:

Personally, I just think it's another massive plothole of JKR's. She wanted to introduce the neato map and the whole Peter thing, and didn't stop to think of the implications.

Very likely. There are too many of them, so I think that's sadly the most likely answer. And 'it's magic' isn't the excuse for me - even magic has to follow some logic, after all

[G. Novella]

Are you positive? This is the same women who says abuse is not classified by a boy being used to death threats. Are you sure she follows logic in any of her story?

[Kitty279]

LOL - when you put it like that ... I guess I just find it annoying when nothing makes sense and am trying to find the red threat, so to speak. So I hope to find some logic, even if there is none.