*★* WATTPAD FRIENDS AND FAMILY, WATTPAD FEATURED STORY & 2017 WATTYS WINNER!! *★* Preceded by rumors of their prophetic birth, pure-blood twins, Fred and George Weasley, follow in the footsteps of their three older brothers by attending a school for...
As you read during Chapter 15, Fred and George played a once rumored (now legendary) prank on Scabbers, the family rat — using magic to turn him yellow. In order to pull this off while under the watchful eye of their brother, Percy, the twins had to call upon the support of their trusty Marauder's Map. This very act inevitably points to a plothole in the canon that can't be dismissed:
If Peter Pettigrew (Scabbers) was visible on the parchment, how did this not raise flags for the Weasley twins?
The Marauder's Map plays such a big role in my series, and especially in the first book, so I feel it's important for me to provide a definitive answer to this inconsistency.
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I know I'm asking for trouble by just mentioning this. It's one of the biggest points of contention with the fans. Some of these questions will resolve themselves throughout my series, so I want to be careful about spoilers, but an example is my treatment of the twins unlocking the map in the first half of this book (which was another question lingering in the Potterhead ether). This brings up an important point, which is that, although we *love* us some JKR, we can't just take her at her word when she answers these complex questions from the fandom. The world she created is so large, with so many intricacies and rules, that I guarantee you she didn't realize the magnitude of the magical plot devices she had created (like the map or the Time-Turner) until fans started challenging the logic of her storylines with all elements considered. She has said as much, over the years. This is the very reason she destroyed all the Time-Turners in Order of the Phoenix, and why she considered ditching the map in Goblet of Fire.
Let's use her answer to how Fred and George learned to unlock the map as an illustration of my point. When asked, JKR said something to the effect of, "Wouldn't it be just like the twins to pummel the map with a hundred different sayings until they randomly stumbled onto the right incantation?" Hmm...not buying it. Sorry, but as a fan of the Weasley twins, that's a cop out. The same could be said of the main question I'm asking here:
How is it that Fred and George never noticed Peter Pettigrew on the map?
According to JKR, the twins were only using it for mischief and, basically, wouldn't have paid too much attention to anything else, so they wouldn't have given a moment's thought to some ink dot labeled 'Peter Pettigrew'. No matter how much I want to suspend my disbelief (because I adore Jo, and it feels so good to imagine that she'd thought through every minor detail ahead of time), I'm an author and I know that's not how this works. Complicated books are complicated, and plot devices are often not considered from multiple angles. Your readers will inevitably find the one chink in your logical armor that was overlooked during the long process of plotting, writing, and editing. And there's nothing wrong with that. But it doesn't mean that fans shouldn't have fun imagining a solution — so let's give it a whirl!
Here's a few guaranteed truths: Fred and George went to school with Percy. The moment they learned the powers of the map in their first year, they would have used it to prank him. And Percy had Scabbers in his possession every day. It seems irrefutable that they would have noticed Pettigrew, were his name visible on the map.
