The Marauder’s Map is a powerful tool for sneaking around Hogwarts unseen. You need to know these 7 things about the magical object!
Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban: The Marauder’s Map (Source: Warner Bros. / TMDb.org)
From late autumn onwards it will be “Harry Potter” again on free TV every week: The films return just in time for Christmas! Here you can find out all the broadcast dates of the “Harry Potter” series so that you can enjoy the entire series again. The films are now also available again as a streaming subscription!
Probably the coolest magical tool we’re introduced to in Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban is the Marauder’s Map. Harry (Daniel Radcliffe) receives them from Fred and George (James and Oliver Phelps) to explore the secret paths of Hogwarts and roam the halls unseen.
The map shows every person who walks around Hogwarts and thus the map helps Harry avoid certain people. But what kind of magic was used to tag and track each person?
What spells were used on the card?
So that the Marauder’s Map can track every wizard and every Muggle and display them in a flexible manner on the map, a Homunculus magic used. This can be used for street and building plans so that everyone’s footprints are drawn in a flexible manner, as is the case with the Marauder’s Map.
A spell was also used to insult Severs Snape (Alan Rickman) if he tried to open the card. The spell isn’t particularly tricky or special.
Who are Moony, Padfoot, Wormtail and Prongs?
Of course, fans who have read the books know who Moony, Padfoot, Wormtail and Prongs are. However, the mystery is never solved in the films. They are the nicknames of Remus Lupine (David Thewlis), Sirius Black (Gary Oldman), Peter Pettigrew (Timothy Spall) and James Potter, Harry’s father.
Since Remus is a werewolf, his three best friends decide to become Animagi, who can transform into animals. This way they can spend time together, even if Remus is transformed. They can also explore Hogwarts in their animal forms without the teachers noticing.
The nicknames are derived from their animal forms: Remus, the werewolf, becomes Moony (from the English word Moon), James, who turns into a deer, becomes Krone (from the English word Prongs; antlers), Peter, the a rat is called Wormtail and since Sirius becomes a dog he is called Padfoot.
How were the secret paths discovered?
The map was developed by James Potter, Sirius Black (Gary Oldman), Peter Pettigrew (Timothy Spall) and Remus Lupine (David Thewlis) as they walk through the Hogwarts castle and courtyard in their animal forms without being detected. Because they roam around everywhere, the name of the “Marauder” map comes from.
So they finally gathered enough information to make the map and mark all the secret paths. Further paths could be explored with the help of James’ invisibility cloak, which is passed on to Harry in “Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone”.
How did the map come into the possession of Argus Filch?
The four Marauders keep the map until their seventh and final year of school in 1978. At some point during that year, Argus Filch, who was already the caretaker of Hogwarts, must have discovered them. He must have surrounded them and taken the map from them.
The Marauders wanted to steal the map back, but Filch was always prepared and so it remained in his possession for a long time.
The role of the card in the video game “Harry Potter: Hogwarts Mystery”
Not entirely part of the official canon of the “Harry Potter” series, the Marauder’s Map plays an important role in the video game “Harry Potter: Hogwarts Mystery.” In it, the black magician Patricia Rakepick learns about the Marauder’s Map and asks around to find out more about it.
She wants to use them to search for the “cursed dungeons” while posing as a Defense Against the Dark Arts professor at Hogwarts. She deceives some of her students and tries to get them to find the map for her. Ultimately, Rakepick can be defeated and the Marauder’s Map can be brought back to Filch’s office.
Fred and George steal the card
Fred and George (James and Oliver Phelps) tell Harry that they found the map in the office of the caretaker Argus Filch (David Bradley). They were in their first year at Hogwarts and had to go to Filch’s office because they had set off magical stink bombs.
When they saw a chest in Filch’s office with the inscription “Confiscated and highly dangerous”, they set off a magical stink bomb and took the contents of the chest: the Marauder’s Map.
When Harry and Ron arrive at Hogwarts, Fred and George are already in their third year. In “Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban” they are in their fifth year of school and in “Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix” they are in their seventh and therefore final year of school. However, neither graduates and instead opens a toy store. They receive the starting capital from Harry.
James Sirius steals the card
After Harry’s time at Hogwarts, he keeps the Marauder’s Map in his own desk. JK Rowling has suggested that Harry’s eldest son James Sirius Potter stole the map from Harry’s desk and ended up using it himself at Hogwarts.
Harry Potter quiz: How well do you know Hogwarts and Co?
(Those: tmdb.org)
In which well-known film does Snape actor Alan Rickman also play a shady character?
The “Harry Potter” films are currently broadcast weekly on free TV on Sat.1. We provide you with all the broadcast dates of the “Harry Potter” series! You can also watch the films streamed on RTL+ and Amazon Prime Video with a subscription.
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