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Chapter 227 - Chapter 227: The Marauder's Map

Chapter 227: The Marauder's Map

These two.

Dylan shook his head, then gently hooked his finger under the edge of the burlap, unpeeling the wrapping without haste.

Looking at the Marauder's Map in his hands, Dylan's eyes fell to the parchment, which looked like nothing more than a plain sheet of old paper. There was nothing special about it.

He picked up his wand and tapped the parchment lightly.

"I solemnly swear that I am up to no good."

As the incantation was uttered, ink lines began to spread across the map. The marks gradually revealed the outlines of Hogwarts castle and its many secret passages. Dylan's eyes immediately fell upon a footprint moving along a corridor in the dungeons at a strangely fast but rigid "uniform speed."

"Hmm…"

Dylan averted his gaze. The owner of that footprint was obvious.

He then looked at his own location, where three sets of footprints stood side by side. One pair stood as steady as a mountain, while the other two shuffled back and forth, as if marching in place.

"I say, can you two stand still for a moment? Stop kicking your legs around," Dylan said, looking at the two boys beside him with exasperation.

George shrugged. "If you insist."

Fred let out a hearty laugh. "Isn't it brilliant? The moment George and I figured out what this thing did, I knew it for a fact! This is the ultimate prankster's tool, made by a master! Absolutely incredible!"

Dylan gave a small smirk at that. If they insisted on seeing it that way, then yes, it was true. The Marauder's Map was not only interesting but also a symbol, a testament to the depth of knowledge inherent to pure-blood families.

This depth wasn't about the map being difficult to create. In fact, making such a map was simply a matter of weaving several charms onto a single sheet of parchment.

The first charm was, of course, the Trace Charm. This was the key and most crucial spell for creating the Marauder's Map, as it allowed the map to track the footprints of every single person within the castle and display the whereabouts of everyone within the school grounds. And regardless of whether someone used an Animagus transformation, Polyjuice Potion, or even an Invisibility Cloak, the map could still display their location.

The Trace Charm could be seen as a highly advanced version of the Trace. It wasn't limited to a single target but could cover all individuals within an entire area. The charm could even pierce through concealment magic, which was particularly effective against Invisibility Cloaks. Since the charm worked on a regional basis, even if the cloak made a person invisible to the naked eye, their presence in the charmed area would still be revealed. As for Animagus forms and Polyjuice Potion, they were even easier to track. These transformations only changed one's physical appearance; they didn't make a person truly disappear. As long as a person existed and hadn't turned into thin air, the Marauder's Map would show their location.

The second spell on the map was for activating and deactivating it. This hiding and revealing charm was actually not that complex to cast.

The third charm was a Rejection and Humiliation Charm. As for why the Marauders would cast such a spell… Dylan blinked. It was clear they didn't want Professor Snape to be able to use the map. If Professor Snape ever got his hands on it, the map would only show him a series of vulgar insults. Given Professor Snape's nature, he would surely just assume the parchment was another one of Potter's pranks, designed specifically to humiliate him. Of course, Professor Snape wouldn't even have used the map in the first place if he had known it was created by the Marauders.

Dylan could tell that there were more than just the three spells on the map. He already knew the Trace Charm and how to embed spells into objects. In fact, he had not only mastered the Trace Charm, but had also learned its counter-charm—the Concealment Charm—from Professor Flitwick. Hiding the text on the map and setting a password to activate it was also a simple matter.

Of course, this was only simple for Dylan. To be honest, let alone wizards his age, even students two years older might not have a clue about these spells! Yet the Marauders were only fifth or sixth-year students when they created this map. It was clear that the students of Snape's era were quite formidable.

And what interested Dylan even more was this: The reason the Marauder's Map's true function had remained undiscovered for so long wasn't simply because it could hide its text. After all, Filch had kept the map in the "Confiscated, Highly Dangerous" drawer for a reason. Even if Filch didn't know its specific function, he still took the map seriously because it was a creation of some troublesome students. When it was stolen, he tried to get it back, but after nothing out of the ordinary happened for so long, he could only give up on finding the parchment.

"This ability to hide one's location and track others…"

Dylan turned the map over and over, examining it. Although Animagi could also be tracked by the map, a Patronus was a spell that could even fool a Dementor. Dylan wanted to know if this map tracked all living beings within an area, or if it was only designed for humans.

A few images flashed through his mind. Dylan used divination to recall all the information he knew about the Marauder's Map. The map not only tracked people, but also seemed to be able to track wizarding pets, goblins, and even ghosts.

"I wonder, if I were inside my suitcase, would the map still be able to detect my location?"

If it could, that would be truly astounding. Dylan found it hard to imagine that a fifth or sixth-year student could have figured out a way to create such a powerful tracking method. This was one of the reasons Dylan believed there was a true depth of knowledge in pure-blood families.

However, whether the map tracked all living beings in a large area, or just the creatures that had been transformed into an Animagus form, wasn't too important.

"I'll have to go back and test whether the Fidelius Charm is affected by this map."

Dylan hadn't considered the map's purpose before. Even now, holding it in his hands, he was just interested in studying it and seeing what inspiration he could get from it. He certainly didn't want to be found out when he snuck into the Forbidden Forest at night to meet with Hagrid and check on their baby, Norberta.

Speaking of which...

Dylan looked up, his gaze falling coolly upon the two Weasley brothers.

The twins, who had been grinning happily, suddenly felt a bad premonition when Dylan looked at them.

"Have either of you tried using this map to check my location?"

George and Fred's expressions froze. They began to stutter.

"Uh…"

"We don't usually use the map."

"Yeah, yeah, we spend almost every day working on new products."

"So we don't have time to play with the map!"

"Besides, the map isn't that fun; it just shows where people are."

Dylan narrowed his eyes and stared at them. Fred and George lowered their heads, wanting to bury their faces in their chests.

Dylan gave a cold sniff. "Since you've already checked my location, I don't need to waste time experimenting."

"Tell me, when you did check my location, were you always able to see where I was?"

Fred and George exchanged a look. Fred swallowed and then said, "Actually, we sometimes thought it was a bit odd."

George nodded cautiously. "Fred and I noticed that your footprints would sometimes suddenly vanish from the map."

Dylan's eyes remained half-closed, but he said nothing.

Vanished from the map?

After a moment of thought, Dylan spoke.

"About what time was this, and for how long?"

"Uh, the time varied, and the duration wasn't fixed, but most of the time it was at night—"

"So, you were checking my location almost every day?" Dylan's voice was icy.

George: |;) Fred: (ω`丨

The two of them began to cough uncontrollably. "Cough, cough! Dylan, believe me, I swear I wasn't!"

"I swear too! I swear on Merlin's pants! I absolutely did not check on you every day!"

"It was just… an occasional curiosity about what you were doing…"

"Right, it was definitely just occasional—"

Fred and George explained, one after the other, but the more they said, the quieter their voices became, and the less confident they sounded.

George suddenly remembered something and, with a jolt, quickly spoke up. "We really didn't look at the map every day, so we aren't sure how long your location was gone from the map."

Fred nodded in agreement. "Right! One time we wanted to time it, but it got so late we fell asleep without seeing you reappear."

George rubbed the back of his head. "The fastest it happened was probably just for a little over ten minutes."

At that, both of them fell silent, looking timidly at Dylan. They didn't ask what Dylan was doing during that time, but a hint of curiosity was still visible in their eyes.

Dylan rubbed his chin and glanced at the Marauder's Map in his hand.

It seemed that after he entered his suitcase, not even the Marauder's Map could detect his location. It made sense. His suitcase space was practically another world now. As crazy as the map was, could it really break through a spatial barrier?

Dylan thought for a moment. He planned to study the spells on the map for the next couple of days, then completely erase his own location from it before handing it over to Harry. After all, the map wasn't of much use to him.

He looked up at the two brothers, who were now trembling slightly, and his face darkened.

"Why are you two looking so scared? It's not like I'm going to eat you."

He softened his tone a little. "You were willing to give this to me, so I knew you wouldn't use it carelessly just to snoop on me."

"Since your consciences are clear, what's there to be nervous about?"

The Weasley twins were stunned. "You mean, you're not mad that we checked your movements?"

"We truly swear that we never just randomly peeked at your location to keep tabs on you!"

"And…"

Dylan waved a hand, cutting off their rambling.

"I'm not angry. The places I go aren't a secret anyway."

Fred seemed to agree with this.

"Exactly! When we first knew you, we wanted to see where you were—"

"And it turns out you were either in Professor Snape's office, or Professor McGonagall's office, or Professor Flitwick's office…"

"After that, we didn't really spy on you anymore."

"Wait, that's not spying! We just wanted to know where Dylan was, so it would be convenient to find him to hang out."

The two brothers started bickering with each other.

Dylan rolled his eyes.

"I'll take this gift for now. Thank you, I really like it."

Dylan's words of thanks stopped the twins' argument. They both looked over at him, their eyes shining brightly.

"Dylan, you really like it?"

....

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