Skip to main content

harry potter - What kind of beings are shown by the Marauder's Map?


The map definitely shows people (humans) inside the castle
But I remember reading Harry watching Peeves bouncing around in the trophy room and Peeves is not human
And I don't remember if I had exactly read it or not, but THIS PAGE says that it shows the ghosts as well
So what kind or creatures or beings come under the map's radar? Any living creature? Or humanoids? Or creatures with a significant size or intelligence? Would it show the house elves in the kitchen, centaurs in the forests and the merpeople in the lake as well? What about the giant squid and the thestrals or unicorns? Would it have shown the troll from the Philosopher's stone if they had the map then? What about Quirell/Voldemort? Would he have shown up on the map? And the basilisk from the chamber of secrets (the book)? May be the chamber itself was unplottable but if the map could show the basilisk he would have been visible when he was slithering around in the pipes.



Answer



The Marauder's map showed humans (obviously), Peeves and the other ghosts, and transformed animagi, as well as Mrs. Norris and Crookshanks, but not insects or vermin (other than Pettigrew, of course; if it did show animals to that level, the map would be a complete mess and unreadable). It showed these beings from every inch of the Hogwarts castle and grounds. So it seems to be any living creature of a certain level of intelligence or higher.


The books never mentioned Dobby, Winky, or any of the other house-elves as appearing on the Map, and Harry never looks at it when any forest creatures are in the castle, but it seems (since cats and animagi can be seen) that it would in fact show the troll, as well as the thestrals and unicorns.


As for the Basilisk, it would probably show it when he was in the castle (though Riddle/Voldemort may have charmed him so as to be personally "unplottable"), though the squid probably does appear on the map (although was never mentioned). Interestingly, this means that the Beauxbatons Stagecoach and the Durmstrang Ship should also logically appear on the Marauder's Map when on the grounds.


EDIT: The map was, according to Rowling on Pottermore, made using a Homonculous charm. "Homunculus" is a word that refers to a (small) human or humanoid; so it wouldn't be much of a stretch to say that the map detects anything that is human or humanoid (that is, human-like if not specifically human-shaped).



Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

futurama - How much time is lost in 'Time Keeps on Slippin''

In time Keeps on Slippin' , Farnsworth creates a basketball team which he matures by abusing Chronitons. This leads to time skipping forward by random, but ever increasing amounts. How much time was skipped in this way? Answer Unfortunately, I don't think a good estimate can be made for this, for two reasons: Many of the time skips move forward by an indeterminate amount of time. At one point, the Professor mentions localized regions of space skipping forward much more than others. We then see two young boys on the street below complaining about having to pay social security, only to suddenly become senior citizens and start complaining about wanting their money. Thus, each individual could have experienced a different amount of time skippage.
Post a Comment
Read more

harry potter - How could Expelliarmus beat Avada Kedavra?

I want to be very careful about how I ask this question – I am not asking How did Voldemort die? [CLOSED] Below the text is the relevant passages from Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows if anyone wants to review them (I'm sorry for the amount of text). How did Expelliarmus beat Avada Kedavra and kill Voldemort? I feel the reason Harry's Expelliarmus overpowered Voldemort's Avada Kedavra curse has to do with who was master of the Elder Wand and how the Elder Wand works. I've always had trouble understanding fully how the Elder Wand works, though. How much did the fact that Voldemort never truly won or mastered the Elder Wand factor into how Expelliarmus reacted to Avada Kedavra and caused Avada Kedavra to rebound and kill Voldemort? An answer based in book canon would be especially welcome, but any canon source really is fine. Harry heard the high voice shriek as he, too, yelled his best hope to the heavens, pointing Draco’s wand: ‘ Avada Kedavra !’ ‘ Expelliarmus !...
Post a Comment
Read more

Is there good canon evidence for the "Nightmare Matrix"?

On the Matrix wiki, there's an article about the Nightmare Matrix which says: The Nightmare Matrix was the second prototype Matrix, designed by The Architect after the massive failure of the Paradise Matrix in the hope that human minds would more readily accept an imperfect world with suffering. Unlike the first version, this Matrix instituted a basic cause-and-effect programming and forcibly made those connected to it accept the program. Vamp Prime, a possible remnant of the Nightmare Matrix. It also featured programs that resembled mythical evil creatures in various human mythologies such as vampires, werewolves, zombies, aliens, etc. It also failed, but many of the programs who were designed for it survived deletion in exile. The Merovingian and his wife, Persephone may have had their roots in this version of the Matrix. Upon its failure, the Merovingian started a smuggling ring of programs and information to provide a haven for exiles that would last for 6 cycles in the final ...
Post a Comment
Read more

story identification - Anime with a boy hiring a creature from a stone, meets a man named Dante and starts a journey to collect crystals

I am from India, this anime or animated series (I can't remember this was made by the Japan or other countries) was aired between 2009 and 2012 probably in Jetix/Disney XD (but I'm not sure). This anime starts with a boy (the main character, I forgot his name) who find a stone (or crystal like thing) in his dad's property, his dad was missing that time. Some day he accidentally hire a creature/monster from that stone. Other day some creature attack him and he was saved by his creature and the story begins. In his journey to solve the mystery he meets a middle aged man 'Dante' (probably that was the name; this is the only character name I can remember). He had also some stone. After that they meet with one girl and a women (one of the girls is same age with the main boy character and probably will become his partner as the story goes on). Another women probably Dante's partner. Four of them started their journey to collect all the stone/crystal. They are collecti...
Post a Comment
Read more