The Marauder's Map

Calendar and Dates

The action of the chapter begins the day after Gryffindor play Hufflepuff's Quidditch Team and continues through the afternoon of the day of the second Hogsmeade visit - from November into December.

Interesting facts and notes

This chapter introduces the Marauder's Map.

The most memorable events of this chapter are the twins' early Christmas gift to Harry - the map itself - and the teachers' conversation in the Three Broomsticks about Sirius Black and his supposed involvement in the murder of Harry's parents.

It was a relief to return to the noise and bustle of the main school on Monday...

This the first Monday after the Gryffindor-Hufflepuff match.

...and celebrated having the full use of both arms again by doing spirited imitations of Harry falling off his broom.

Think about that for a moment. Draco Malfoy has been wearing bandages since the first day of term - 1 September - and has been wearing them all the way into November, even though his arm was almost certainly undamaged after his initial visit to Madam Pomfrey.

Malfoy spent much of their next Potions class doing dementor imitations across the dungeon...

Recollect that if it weren't for Dumbledore's timely levitation spell, Harry would've been killed by that fall.

This is clearly on the same day as Lupin's return to DADA. Note that Potions is held before lunch on this day.

Snape is clearly ignoring all this arm-waving and flouncing around by Malfoy. It's a wonder that he manages to control a class with Slytherins in it if he ignores this kind of behaviour.

...Ron finally cracked and flung a large, slippery crocodile heart at Malfoy...

This tells us that crocodile hearts are a potions ingredient.

...which hit him in the face and caused Snape to take fifty points from Gryffindor.

Compare this to a Potions lesson about a year prior to this incident, in which Malfoy was flicking puffer-fish eyes at the Gryffindors and went unpunished (CS11). Granted, a crocodile heart is a much larger object and harder to miss, especially when it hits a student in the face...

Dementors are among the foulest creatures that walk this earth. They infest the darkest, filthiest places, they glory in decay and despair, they drain peace, hope and happiness out of the air around them. Even Muggles feel their presence, though they can't see them. Get too near a Dementor and every good feeling, every happy memory, will be sucked out of you. If it can, the Dementor will feed on you long enough to reduce you to something like itself – soulless and evil. You'll be left with nothing but the worst experiences of your life.

In a June 2000 interview with Ann Treneman of The Times, and again in a BBC programme in 2001 (HPM), J K Rowling has said that the Dementors are her depiction of depression.

Both Ron and Hermione had decided to remain at Hogwarts, and although Ron said it was because he couldn't stand two weeks with Percy...

This tells us that at Hogwarts, the Christmas holidays last for two weeks.

'Oh yes,' said Fred, smirking. 'This little beauty's taught us more than all the teachers in this school.'

Fred and George Weasley's gift to Harry is the Marauder's Map, a piece of magical parchment showing the locations of everyone in Hogwarts. Harry wonders whether it is one of the "dangerous magical objects" that he had been warned against by the twins' father Arthur the previous year.

'Anyway, we know it off by heart,' said George. 'We bequeath it to you. We don't really need it any more.'

There must be an awful lot of moving dots representing wizards on that map. Even though they say they know the map "off by heart", Fred and George will miss knowing where Filch or other teachers are actually located when they are up to something.

There were shelves upon shelves of the most succulent-looking sweets imaginable. Creamy chunks of nougat, shimmering pink squares of coconut ice, fat, honey-colored toffees; hundreds of different kinds of chocolate in neat rows; there was a large barrel of Every Flavor Beans, and another of Fizzing Whizbees...

With all of these sweets available at Honeyduke's in Hogsmeade, it's no wonder it's always crowded. You wonder whether older children buy some to sell to Year 1 and Year 2 students who can't go to Hogsmeade yet.

...the levitating sherbet balls that Ron had mentioned...

Do these only levitate when you are trying to catch and eat them or do they levitate inside your stomach? Or possibly both? 

...along yet another wall were "Special Effects" -- sweets: Droobles Best Blowing Gum (which filled a room with bluebell-colored bubbles that refused to pop for days), the strange, splintery Toothflossing Stringmints, tiny black Pepper Imps ("breathe fire for your friends!"), Ice Mice ("hear your teeth chatter and squeak!"), peppermint creams shaped like toads ("hop realistically in the stomach!"), fragile sugar-spun quills, and exploding bonbons.

Wizard parents must be very confident that they can mitigate any adverse reactions to such an assortment of very active foodstuffs. And, do wizards have dentists or can they just fix the resultant cavities by magic?

"How about these?" said Ron, shoving a jar of Cockroach Clusters under Hermione's nose.

Okay, who in their right mind would want to eat sweets that contain cockroaches? 

...examining a tray of blood-flavoured lollipops. Harry sneaked up behind them. "Ugh, no, Harry won't want one of those, they're for vampires, I expect," Hermione was saying.

Another odd flavour for sweets. No, just no....

Professors McGonagall and Flitwick had just entered the pub in a flurry of snowflakes, shortly followed by Hagrid, who was deep in conversation with a portly man in a lime-green bowler hat and a pinstriped cloak: Cornelius Fudge, Minister for Magic.

We see the teachers "off-duty" and enjoying themselves with a drink and a gossip at the Three Broomsticks. They certainly aren't being very discreet.

Exceptional character moments

Draco Malfoy, wearing bandages on an uninjured arm for over two months just to get Hagrid into trouble.

Harry, who feels that in losing his Nimbus 2000 he's lost one of his best friends.

Lupin's controlled lack of reaction upon finding out that Snape had assigned an essay on werewolves to his third-year students, when the material was being brought up months too early.

Snape, who ignores Malfoy waving his arms around doing falling-off-a-broom and Dementor imitations throughout a Potions lesson.

The Weasley twins, who give Harry their most valuable aid to magical mischief-makers to cheer him up and get him into Hogsmeade, even though they could've just shown him the entrance to the secret passage without ever telling him about the map at all.

Ron and Hermione, opting to spend the Christmas holidays at Hogwarts, even though this is the third year running that Ron has done so and the second year running for Hermione.

The drinks order reflecting personalities and capacities: Hagrid's four pints of mead compared to McGonagall's small Gillywater, Flitwick's decorated non-alcoholic iced drink and Fudge's rum.

Memorable lines

'If Snape’s taking Defence Against the Dark Arts again, I’m going off sick. Check who’s in there, Hermione.'

'When they get near me – , I can hear Voldemort murdering my mum.'

'They’re getting hungry. Dumbledore won’t let them into the school, so their supply of human prey has dried up … I don’t think they could resist the large crowd around the Quidditch pitch. All that excitement … emotions running high … it was their idea of a feast.'

'This, Harry, is the secret of our success.'

'– and we couldn’t help noticing a drawer in one of his filing cabinets marked Confiscated and Highly Dangerous.'

'Noble men, working tirelessly to help a new generation of law-breakers.'

'Did you tell the whole pub, Hagrid.'

'Quite the double act, Sirius Black and James Potter!'

Words and phrases

• Pitch
• Pub
• Holidays

Characters Introduced

• Madam Rosmerta
• Peter Pettigrew’s mother
• Wormtail
• Gunhilda of Gorsemoor
• Davey Gudgeon