Maps
Maps are a diagrammatic representations of an area of land or sea showing physical features, cities, roads, etc.
As the wizarding world and wizarding architecture doesn’t always following Muggle rules, magical maps can be varied and complicated.
Famous Canon Maps
The Marauder’s Map is a map of Hogwarts created by Remus Lupin, Peter Pettigrew, James Potter and Sirius Black in the 1970s. It was in the possession of Fred and George Weasley until it was passed to Harry Potter.
Other maps of Hogwarts do exist, [1] but the accuracy varies due to the difficult magical architecture.
Ministry Controlled Maps
Level 1 Maps
The Minister's office was beginning to look like a war room. There was a map laid out on the desk, someone was tacking things to the wall, and the room was filling with this clerk and that agent. The golden clad Minister of Magic Persepolis Zephyr stood at the desk as if at a ship's helm and called again in urgency.
[…]
"They're heading out to the coast, Ma'am, Inverness half an hour ago. If they find enough to feast on they may subside." He pointed to Inverness on the map with a thick finger.
"We've had warnings out since Hogwarts, but the teams are tracking them at a half-mile distance on brooms. They keep having to circle, drop back to prevent becoming dinner." He gestured with one hand at the circles over the top of the map.
Edwin Glass (at the time, Head of the Department of Magical Accidents and Catastrophes) and Persepolis Zephyr (Minister at the time) consulted a map of dementor movement in Scotland at the time of the dementor attack on Hogwarts [2]
Level 2 Maps
In the Auror Office there is tapestry map of considerable age.
Jonas glanced up at the giant map of the United Kingdom and Ireland that took up most of the wall in the Watch Room. The woven tapestry had been enchanted years ago to show pockets of intense dark magic, but like the coffee pot, Jonas was half-convinced that it didn't work. It certainly seemed to only rarely be of use.
[…]
A small flutter. Jonas's eyes flickered to the map, focusing on the scorched mark where Knockturn ought to be. There had been so much illegal magic cast in the infamous alleyway over the years that that area of the tapestry had been blackened and burnt. Flutters in Knockturn Alley were matter of course; it would probably take something akin to a Runespoor venom explosion to register enough to trigger a response.
Aurors regularly monitor the map, particularly on quieter nights. Aurors Omari Warrington and Jonas Trevelyan do so here [3]
Also mentioned here [4]
Level 4 Maps
Several of the offices have maps indicating the location of different hidden sanctuaries or habitats of the creatures.
Head of the Beast Division, Balfour Spectre has such a map in his office. [5]
A huge map took up the entirety of one wall. Little glowing pins indicated different creature populations at various sanctuaries in the region.
The Werewolf Capture Unit has a similar map to the auror office, carefully supervised by WCU members such as Kurby Bagnold
[Kurby] immediately focused on the magical map on the wall above them. The projection showed an overhead view of the entire United Kingdom, enchanted to indicate any Profound Magical Disturbances or castings of the Red Sparks! spell that might occur within its borders. Tonight, they'd added another enchantment to help them track their teams -- he could see small glowing green lights, showing where each patrol was located.
Level 6 Maps
The Floo Network Authority produces a series of floo network maps, indicating public floo locations.
Level 9 Maps
In the different chambers of Level 9 there are a variety of different ways to represent time and space in map form.
The Time Turner workshop has more than one magical map used to keep track of the heavens and history. [6] [7]
On the far war was pasted a long timeline, a map and different charts about calendars and star alignment.
“We are also assisting colleagues studying time anomalies surrounding tears in realities, to examine possible phenomenon such as time erosion due to the turners.” He gestured to a map on the wall to Morgenthau’s right, detailing pinpoint locations, strung together with delicate silver thread. Some of the points ended up in the sea and others into Europe.
Elsewhere, the location of prophecies is mapped by the Oraculumeter.
When the Oraculumeter detects a prophecy being told, it pinpoints the location on a map. There should be an unspeakable observing the Oraculumeter at all times.
More about it here.
The Head of Department has access to a great variety of maps, but some are a little more low-key than others. [8]
Yav trailed off and gestured at his large blackwood desk. It was clear of its usual clutter and strange apparatus. Instead, rolled out across its length, was a great map of Scotland; severed from the English border as if though the south of this island had been taken by the sea.
A bright red pin marked out Loch Monar in the highlands: it stood out against the rolling green of the countryside, the clustered grey and brown of surrounding towns. […]
He sighed and tapped the enchanted map, causing the area of the loch to suddenly expand as their view zoomed in.
Other Places that have Magical Maps
- National Museum of Wizarding History
- United States Ministry has the USA Spell Contraventions map, and Real-Time Hex Indicator map
Other mentions of magical maps
- Rascal Rosier created an elaborate map for a blind date with Cepheus Gamp. [9]
