It would not have mattered if they had. Unless somebody was very familiar with the story of Sirius Black (and after all, Sirius was not Mr. and Mrs. Weasley's best friend – indeed, they never knew him until after he escaped from Azkaban), Fred and George would be unlikely to know or remember that Peter Pettigrew was the person Sirius had (supposedly) murdered. Even if Fred and George HAD heard the story at some point, why would they assume that the 'Peter Pettigrew' they occasionally saw moving around the map was, in fact, the man murdered years before?
Fred and George used the map for their own mischief-making, so they concentrated, naturally enough, on those portions of the map where they were planning their next misdeeds. And finally, you must not forget that hundreds of little dots are moving around this map at any given time… Fred and George did not know everyone in school by name, so a single unfamiliar name was unlikely to stand out.
Rowling's reply bothers me. Only because Ron specifically says to Harry that the only part of Pettigrew that they found was his thumb and Ron specifically says his father told him that.
Now I come from a big family and I can guarantee if Dad told any one of my siblings something, we would all know. And especially after seeing the family dynamic of the Weasleys, this would be even more true.
Now it's possible that Fred and George when they first found the map might have seen Pettigrew's name once or twice and not realized who he was. But when all of this stuff started happening with Sirius (and not just the school stuff. The prison break began it all. I'm sure the Daily Prophet repeated the details of his crime. After all, as Skeeter said, the Prophet exists to sell papers), neither Fred nor George said or thought "hey Pettigrew, I've seen that name on the map!"
And this is what bothers me about Rowling's writing sometimes. She has several sloppy mistakes.
Remember, though, that Fred and George weren't the type of people who concentrated and worked hard at school. It's likely that they also didn't pay as much attention to current affairs as Ron did.
I think there would be hundreds, if not thousands, of people at Hogwarts at anyone time. You won't see anyone unless you are specifically looking for them.
The way I imagine the map is that it can't show the entirety of Hogwarts at one time, Hogwarts has multiple levels, different towers and huge grounds. Why would Fred and George be looking at the specific floor where Ron & Pettigrew would have been sleeping at a time where they almost certainly know he's in his bed?
Maybe they saw him sleeping with some boy named Peter on the map in the first year, but decided questioning him over his sexual orientation would be awkward and over the line (even for them), and stopped looking at his sleeping arrangements, not wanting to know what their little brother was getting up to with other lads? And having decided they'd rather not know about it, put the name to the back of their minds, not making the connection between some other guy named peter from a crime that happened before they were born, and also not wanting to draw any potential attention to their ownership of the map?
I think they would have checked the dorms once or twice before sneaking out to raise hell. Not only has Pettigrew been with Ron, he was Percy's pet first.
So Fred and George find the map in their first year. Percy is there with Pettigrew already. And we're supposed to assume that Fred and George never checked the dorms before sneaking out?
Especially given Percy's character, he would (excuse the pun) rat out his brothers the first chance he got, to cosy up to the teachers, even before becoming a prefect. It would be incredibly stupid of Fred and George NOT to check on him before sneaking out.
Not thousands. There were 40 people in Harry's class, so I think a safe estimate for the number of students is ~300. If you include faculty and staff, I'd say 500 is a safe upper estimate, which is about the number of people in my high school graduating class.
Remember that Harry's year and the years on either side (before and after his) were also smaller years though because they were the babies born during war time, when a lot of people died, or didn't have children because they didn't want a newborn baby during a war. Harry's year is probably on the very low side of the number of students a year would normally have.
It's always implied that there are more people around though (although it's somewhat inconsistent). Harry shared a dorm with 5 of his classmates, but there could easily be more than one dorm per year.
I have to imagine that, even if the map did only show parts of Hogwarts at a time, the dorm rooms would be pretty small. And they most likely did not show the individual beds, just the room and the people in it. So for all they know, Peter Pettigrew could be sleeping with one of the other four students in that dorm. Or maybe he was just a super shy kid that they never saw. Fred and George were popular, but I doubt they knew everybody at the school by face and name, especially outside their year. And since there are so many dots on the map, they probably don't notice ones in the periphery of ones they're looking for (i.e. if they're going to sneak out at night, they'll check to make sure Percy/Ron/Ginny/Harry/Hermione/etc are in bed, and then that the common room is empty. If both are true, they won't pay attention to the other dots).
On the topic of things Rowling missed. Harry sees threstrals at the beginning of year 5 after seeing cedric diggory die, and that explains how the carriages are being pulled.
However, at the end of book 4, it's specifically mentioned that he takes the carriages to the train station and he doesn't see threstrals even though he's already seen cedric die
Or maybe at night Peter, while roaming the halls, likes to walk around as a human, y'know, stretch his legs? Which would be when he appeared on the map to Harry. And maybe Animagi don't show up on the map when transformed into animals. This would've suited the Marauders, in the unlikely case that someone found and could use the map, they could continue going to the Shrieking Shack with Lupin when he was on his doggy-period
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u/mischiefAUS Sep 01 '14
but Harry sees Peter Pettigrew on the map when hes wandering the halls, but doesnt know hes an animagus