Hey everyone,
Welcome to another instalment of Harry Potter Theory.
Today, we’ll be discussing why Fred and George Weasley never noticed Peter Pettigrew—aka
Scabbers the rat—on the magically revealing Marauder’s Map.
I suppose to start with, we can address the question of: Why would they?
Well, as we learn near the end of Harry Potter’s third year at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft
and Wizardry, the Marauder’s Map has the capability to reveal each and every person
roaming the hallowed halls of the school, regardless of their form.
It represents witches and wizards with a dot that has a corresponding name—which is ALWAYS
their true identity, again regardless of any magic that may make them appear differently
when confronted in person.
And it is through the Map that Harry discovers a number of unsettling secrets that have to
do with the night his parents were murdered—including the fact that Peter Pettigrew, his father’s
mate who supposedly died that same night, is ALIVE.
How does he discover this?
He sees him on the Marauder’s Map.
But I’m getting ahead of myself…
To rewind a bit, throughout Harry’s third year at school, he initially believes Sirius
Black, an escaped convict from the wizarding prison of Azkaban, to be his father’s disgraced
friend who betrayed Harry’s parents and revealed their secret location to Lord Voldemort,
an act which led to both of their deaths.
But, as more and more secrets come to light, Harry learns that it was actually James and
Sirius’ OTHER friend, Peter Pettigrew, who betrayed them both—sharing James, Lily and
Harry’s hiding place with Voldemort and then framing Sirius for both this betrayal
and the murders of a dozen innocent people, including himself.
In fact, Peter even cut off his own finger, believing this would be enough to convince
the wizarding community that he was dead—which it indeed did—and escaped transformed as
his unregistered Animagus form as a rat.
From there, Peter fled the scene of the crime, scampering away as his rodent self, and went
in search of a wizarding family to take him in.
Sirius later accuses Peter of doing so in order to keep his ear to the ground for news
of Lord Voldemort’s return, which seems to be exactly what he did.
As we know, the wizarding family that Peter ended up with was none other than the Weasleys.
Now, how exactly Peter entered the home of Ron and his family as their pet rat has never
been confirmed, but it seems entirely reasonable to think that Peter made his way to the Burrow—the
home of the Weasleys—knowing of their reputation as good but rather poor people, who had connections
to the Ministry of Magic through Arthur’s job and The Order of the Phoenix through Molly’s
family.
It stands to reason that Peter may have assumed that these compassionate, well-connected people
would be willing to adopt a rat, and so he waited out in their garden for one of the
family’s many children to find him.
Peter’s presence in the Weasley’s yard wouldn’t have been odd at all, considering
he was in his rat form, and his breed is often described throughout the series as being a
common garden rat.
So, I imagine that a young Percy Weasley, who would’ve been around five years old
at the time, came across Peter and asked his parents if he could keep him.
As the Weasley didn’t have much in the way of disposable income, they said yes, and told
Percy that this rat would be his pet when the time came for him to attend Hogwarts,
thereby alleviating the need for them to purchase him an animal familiar later on.
From there, Peter was taken in as a pet of the Weasley family and went on to live with
them for more than 10 years as Scabbers the rat— until he was discovered on the Marauder’s
Map in Harry’s third year at school—NOT by Fred and George, I might add, but by Harry
and later Remus Lupin.
It’s also worth mentioning that Harry only noticed Peter on the Map during that school
year, since it was then that he acquired the Marauder’s Map—a gift given to him by
the Weasley twins, Fred and George.
This brings us to the fact that the twins weren’t the first owners of the magical
Marauder’s Map, which showed a detailed blueprint of Hogwarts’ castle and the surrounding
grounds.
It was originally created by Harry’s own father, James—as well as his three closest
mates, Sirius Black, Remus Lupin, and PETER PETTIGREW.
How Fred and George got their hands on the map seems to have been the result of these
two setting off a dungbomb in the school, which landed them in the caretaker, Filch’s,
office.
While being detained, the twins noticed a drawer marked "Confiscated and Highly Dangerous"—they
broke into it, of course, found the Marauder’s Map, stole it and managed to figure out how
to operate it.
In terms of how they achieved this last part—there’s been a bit of contentious debate around this
topic by fans.
However, considering the response J.K.
Rowling provided in an interview some years ago, it seems rather likely that the twins
achieved access to the Map by trying different phrases in an effort to get the Map to reveal
itself.
Rowling suggested that perhaps the Map itself helped them out, flickering to life here and
there with phrases that were close to the actual passcode.
In any case, Fred and George DID manage to get the Marauder’s Map to reveal itself
to them—perhaps it could just tell that they wanted to get up to mischief, which,
of course, was what the Map had been originally created to do.
This means that they then would’ve been able to see EVERYONE listed on the map who
was present at Hogwarts.
And as we covered earlier, the Marauder’s Map names ALL people roaming the grounds of
the school by their true identities.
So, how is it that Fred and George never noticed Peter Pettigrew on the map?
He would’ve been there right from the time they learned how to work the Map, as he was
originally Percy’s pet, and Percy was a couple years ahead of the twins.
And, as we’ve discussed, the Map couldn’t be fooled by Animagi, Polyjuice Potions, or
even invisibility cloaks.
So, Peter’s real name—NOT Scabbers—would’ve shown up every year that he was brought to
Hogwarts.
Wouldn’t they have thought it strange for this Peter person to always be essentially
on top of Percy—then Ron—sleeping in their beds and attending all the exact same classes
as their two brothers?
How is it possible that the twins never noticed him?
Well, despite this appearing to be a glaring plot hole, I think there’s actually a rather
reasonable explanation.
For starters, Peter Pettigrew’s name wouldn’t have meant much to Fred and George because—well,
why would it?
Relative to the Weasley family, Peter would’ve just been a wizard who perished at the hands
of Voldemort and his Death Eaters.
And think about it.
Even if Molly and Arthur had known exactly what supposedly had taken place between Sirius
and Peter that fateful night in which the Potters were killed—why would they share
that horrific tale with their children?
And so, again, the name Peter Pettigrew wouldn’t have meant anything to any of the Weasley
children, including Fred and George.
And even if it had, there very well could’ve been some random student at Hogwarts with
the same name as a wizard who had supposedly died more than a decade ago.
No need for the twins to question its presence on the Map or even think twice about it.
In terms of Peter’s constant proximity to Percy and then Ron, there are two possible
explanations for this, in my opinion.
One: people were displayed as little moving dots on the Marauder’s Map.
In the Gryffindor dorms and common room, there would’ve been so many dots clustered together
representing all of the students who roomed there, that it would’ve been quite difficult
to discern exactly how close Percy/Ron and Peter were.
Then there’s the fact that Fred and George said that they primarily used the Map when
they first uncovered it, but by the time they handed it over to Harry in his—and Ron’s—third
year, they had it so memorised, they barely looked at it anymore.
This would account for why they wouldn’t have noticed that Peter Pettigrew was initially
always with Percy—before Peter was handed down to Ron—only to then always be with
Ron once he started at school.
It’s also incredibly reasonable to assume that the twins weren’t overly focused on
the areas of the castle that Peter would have been residing in—that is, Gryffindor Tower
and the classrooms that Percy and Ron attended with “Scabbers” in tow.
It seems altogether more likely that they would’ve been much more focused on seeking
out the hidden tunnels and passageways, as well as keeping a look out for Filch and professors
as they snuck around getting up to mischief around the school.
And, with that, we’ve come to the end of another video!
What did you think?
Why do you think Fred and George never noticed Peter Pettigrew on the Marauder’s Map?
Please share your thoughts in the comments below!
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Until next time…remember…
"It does not do to dwell on dreams and forget to live."