Overview

The Murderer's map is a magical document that reveals all of Hogwarts showing every aspect of the castle and its grounds as well as the hidden passages and all people up the grounds. The map is capable of accurately identifying every person and their locations and could not be fooled by Animagi, Invisibility Cloaks, Polyjuice Potions. The ghosts of Hogwarts were not excluded from this list, this included peeves as well. The map was flawless in many ways showing even others animals such as Ms. Norris. Even being as defined as it is, the map did have its downfalls such as the inability to differentiate people who shared the same name; such as seniors and juniors. Another area that the map struggled to show was the Room of Requirement and the Chamber of Secrets, this is suspected to be from the lack of the creators knowledge of the rooms or the rooms themselves being unplottable.

History

The Map was created by Remus Lupin, Peter Pettigrew, Sirius Black, and James Potter all going by the names of Moony, Wormtail, Padfoot, and Prongs. The group of friends commonly termed the Maurderes created the map during their time as students at Hogwarts. The map was created around 1974 and was finished between 1975 and 1978. The four created the map with the use of the Homonculous Charm which is a powerful and advanced charm that worked to enchant the map, tracking the movements of everyone in the castle as well as a charm to insult a young Severus Snape. With the use of Animagi as well as Sirius Black's Invisibility Cloak the group was able to explore and map out the grounds. Mapping out the school successfully caused it to be as accurate as it was during the time of Fred and George Weasley's use as well as Harry, Hermione, and Ron's use of the Map.

During Fred and George Weasley's first year at Hogwarts, they successfully stole the Martyrs map from Filche’s offices. The opportunity rose when they were taken to his office for letting a dungbomb off. While in Filter's office, they saw a marked drawer that read Confiscated and Highly Dangerous. George, then. Dropped another dung bomb. While Fred stole the map from the drawer. Over time, the twins began to experiment with the map. Learning how to figure it out to make it work. Over time, the map would give them clues flickering into life here and there when they came close to activating a specific phrase. Once the twins successfully unlocked the map. They were able to memorize the secret passageways of Hogwarts which they then used later for many of their pranks.

During Harry Potter's 3rd year at Hogwarts, Fred and George would then give him the map. Harry used the map throughout his time at Hogwarts. Especially during his 3rd year. The map came in handy. In finding ways into Hogsmeade. As well as. When he used the one eyed witch passage. Which led into the honeyduke cellar. Later in time, Professor Snape would eventually catch Harry with the map interrogating Harry before Professor Lupin intervened. During this time as well. Is when Lupin would realize that Peter Pettigrew was still alive, leading him to the conclusion of who really betrayed Harry's parents, James and Lily Potter.

During Harry's 4th year at Hogwarts. He would use the map again. First, to sneak into the prefix bathroom to work on the second, try Wizard Tournament's clue again, almost having the map confiscated by Professor Snape to only have it intervened with by Barty Crouch Junior, who at the time was disguised as Professor Alistair. Mad Eye Moody. This same year, Mad Eye Moody, also known as Barty Crouch during this time, would ask to borrow the map to keep his master's plans in order as well as tracking his father and their whereabouts. Later the map would be taken back by Harry from the office that Moody-Barty Crouch Jr had used during his time at Hogwarts.

In Harry Potter's 5th year. He. Started teaching defense against the dark art to a variety of different students in Hogwarts. This would later be known as Dumbledore's Army. The organization in itself was illegal and it pushed back against Delores Umbridge rules fully. If caught during the time, the punishment was unavoidable and highly unpleasant. Harry would use the map during the DA meetings as a way of keeping track of the Inquisitorial Squad and Flich.

During Harry's 6th year, he used the map often, spending a great deal of time observing and obsessing over Draco Malfoy daily activities. During this time, Harry did observe Draco disappearing off the map. This later led to Harry using Dobby to find out where Draco was off to.

The map then again would be used during the end of the war, during the Horcrux hunt away for Harry to be able to check in on Jenny Weasley. As she was at Hogwarts still as well as again during the final battle as a way to obtain what the group needed to defeat and fight back against Voldemort and his Death Eaters.

Credits/References

Written by Aleric Selwyn
Base code by Andrew Sutherland, edited by Iselin Merilä and Desmond Gray.