Hey everyone,
Welcome to another installment of Harry Potter Theory.
Today, we’re going to be discussing the CREATION of the Marauder’s Map.
The Marauders’ Map was one of the most important tools that Harry Potter used to fight against
Voldemort’s forces.
It helped him discover Peter Pettigrew’s true identity, Barty Crouch Jr. 's lies, and
kept him one step ahead of Professor Snape.
But have you ever wondered how the map was created?
And how it was directly related to Potter’s father, James?
Today, we’re going to answer those questions, and more, as we look at the history of the
Marauder’s Map.
History
The Marauder’s Map became one of the most important tools that Harry Potter would use
in the lead-up to the Second Wizarding War.
And that’s more than a little surprising, when you consider who created it.
Because the map’s creators were four young Gryffindor boys known as the Marauders, who
were enrolled at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry in the 1970’s.
Although the four children, Remus Lupin, Peter Pettigrew, Sirius Black, and James Potter,
would go on to play pivotal roles in the first and second Wizarding Wars… you would never
have guessed that based on their behavior at school.
Despite their academic success, they never seemed the type for inventions.
The Creators
Remus Lupin was the son of Lyall Lupin, an influential employee of the Ministry of Magic.
As a young boy, Remus’s father publicly called for the execution of a werewolf named
Fenrir Greyback.
The idea didn’t stick, though, and Fenrir survived… but not without claiming his revenge.
In the middle of the night, he infected Lyall’s boy, Remus, with lycanthropy.
At Hogwarts, the affliction haunted Remus.
Every month he was forced to hide in an abandoned house in Hogsmeade, in order to prevent Remus
from ever attacking his classmates while in wolf-form.
If you looked at the boy’s sad state of affairs at the time, you’d think Remus was
more likely to end up an as outcast, than as an influential professor at Hogwarts.
Another member of the Marauders was the heir of the dwindling Black family: Sirius the
Third.
By the time Sirius enrolled at Hogwarts, the Black family had fallen from one of the most
dominating in Britain, to one of the weakest.
Sirius represented one of only two remaining male heirs.
And thanks to his kind spirit, he wasn’t even liked by the rest of his family.
In fact, the rest of the pure-blood wizarding world, especially those who were in Slytherin,
looked at Sirius as if he was a great disappointment.
And for many years, that suspicion was confirmed, when Black carried out a life sentence in
Azkaban.
Harry Potter’s father, James, was the third member of the group.
Almost the exact opposite of his son, James was born into a rich family, and was spoiled
every day of his life.
Drawing similarities to Draco Malfoy, James wandered the halls of Hogwarts, confident
in his social standing.
Whenever James opened his mouth, and cast a cutting comment in another student’s direction,
they were expected to simply absorb it without standing up for themselves.
If they didn’t, and actually tried to go tit-for-tat with James, then they’d become
the object of the Marauder’s bullying for years to come.
The final member of the group was a mousey boy named Peter Pettigrew.
A bit of a tag-along-friend, Peter didn’t seem to add much to the Marauders.
He wasn’t very courageous, nor very smart.
If the other three boys were any crueler, they would’ve treated Peter as a pest, rather
than a proper friend.
And perhaps that would have been wiser, since, in the end, Peter was responsible for the
death of one of their most courageous members, James Potter.
As you can see, the boys at the time were hardly the type to create one of the most
influential magical artifacts of the Second Wizarding War.
But they did.
The question is, how?
The Spell
Well, it all starts with a spell.
But not something simple, like Ascendio or the Bubble-head charm.
When the four members of the Marauders put their heads together, and worked towards a
common goal of tracking the inhabitants of Hogwarts, they decided that only one spell
could do the trick: the Homonculous Charm.
This advanced spell wasn’t very easy to learn.
Had this been another one of their Potions Professor’s boring assignments, the boys
might have only put in a passing effort.
But the Marauders were eager to explore the castle, and excited to uncover mysteries.
After perfecting the charm, they cast it on a sprawling piece of brown parchment.
In the seconds that followed, they marveled as the footsteps of their classmates and teachers
filled the paper.
The boys had already charted a rough drawing of Hogwarts’ corridors and rooms on the
parchment.
But armed with the exact whereabouts of the schools’ faculty… and their tattle-telling
peers… the boys could continue to explore all of its secrets.
As an extra insult, the four Marauders added an extra charm to their map.
By that point in their studies at Hogwarts, the four of them had already found enough
common enemies to fill a book.
As Gryffindors, they let their house pride guide them into an age-old rivalry against
Slytherin students.
That, in turn, led them to naturally despise Severus Snape, who wasn’t one to turn a
blind eye to the hurtful comments that others tossed his way.
Adding fuel to this fire, the Marauders enchanted their map, so that if Snape ever tried to
use it, the ink would form extremely distasteful barbs about Snape’s appearance or intellect.
In all other cases, the map was available for anyone to use… provided they knew how
to unlock it.
All a wizard or witch had to do was hold the tip of their wand onto the map, then say “I
solemnly swear that I am up to no good.”
With that simple incantation, the map would come to life, and fill its pages with every
nook and cranny within the castle.
The map even had a special feature.
If you ever encountered a password-protected threshold or door, the map would reveal the
password within its pages.
Limitations
Now, this might surprise you, but the Marauders’ map wasn’t perfect.
Although it's often flaunted as the end-all-be-all device for trekking your way around Hogwarts,
it didn’t show its users everything.
The map only showed what the original Marauders were able to discover.
But even this was limited.
There were places within Hogwarts that were enchanted, so that they couldn’t be placed
on a map.
Salazar Slytherin’s infamous Chamber of Secrets, which was one of his many unknown
creations, never appeared on the map.
And the Room of Requirement, the place where Harry Potter trained Dumbledore’s Army in
the mid 1990’s, was another place that would never appear on the map.
But that wasn’t all.
These unmapped rooms added an additional wrinkle into the Marauder’s original plan of tracking
the whereabouts of everyone at Hogwarts.
Whenever someone was within them, they would disappear off of the map.
That must have added an extra layer of chaos, whenever James, Sirius, Peter, and Remus wandered
around the halls at night, worried about who they might encounter.
When it came to the escalation of conflict in the years preceding the Second Wizarding
war, the limitations of the Marauders’ Map revealed themselves more and more.
At one point, Barty Crouch Jnr consumed Polyjuice Potion to disguise himself as Hogwarts’
new Defense Against the Dark Arts professor.
Acting on behalf of Lord Voldemort, Crouch Jr. worked tirelessly to ensure that Harry
would be available for the Dark Lord’s resurrection scheme.
Although Harry Potter wasn’t overly obsessed with tracking the whereabouts of Barty Crouch
Jnr, if the name ever appeared on the map, he surely would have noticed.
But that’s where one of the map’s weaknesses ultimately revealed itself.
Even though Barty Crouch Jr had consumed polyjuice potion, the map would reveal his true name.
Just like it did when Peter Pettigrew was hidden in his animagus form, Scabbers.
And it did.
But not just the full name.
Instead, it simply inked ‘Barty Crouch’ on its pages, and Harry wrongly assumed that
the Dark Wizard’s father, the well-meaning employee of the Ministry of Magic, was within
Hogwarts for some reason.
Had the Marauders charmed the map to reveal a person’s full name, then perhaps Harry
would have never fallen for the TriWizard scheme.
Map’s Fate
The original Marauders’ only had a short time with the map, before Hogwarts groundskeeper
Argus Filch snatched it away.
The boys and Filch had been at odds throughout their time at Hogwarts, and Filch was beaming
with pride when he finally put an end to their mischief, and got his hands on the parchment.
Through the years, the Map remained in Filch’s office.
For a brief time in the late 80’s, the map was stolen, and used by Mundungus Fletcher.
But eventually, it found its way back to Filch, until Fred and George Weasley got their hands
on it.
Together, the boys used it to sneak back and forth between Hogwarts and Hogsmeade.
After Harry enrolled in Hogwarts, the twins passed the parchment to him.
It stayed with Potter through the years that followed, until his own son, James Potter
II, stole it.
And that’s it for this video!
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Until next time
Remember
It does not do to dwell on dreams and forget to live