Everyday Life of a Top Student at Hogwarts

Chapter 265 Preliminary Study of Marauder's Map

Chapter 265 Preliminary Study of Marauder's Map

Back at the Eagle's Nest, Karen hastily set up stronger protective and shielding spells to ensure he wouldn't be disturbed in any way. The workbench in the center of the workshop was cleared away, leaving only the tattered roll of parchment.

He took a deep breath, drew his wand, and gently tapped it on the blank parchment, whispering, "I solemnly swear that I have done nothing wrong."

It was as if an invisible dip pen had begun to glide from the top of the parchment, and fine ink lines quickly spread out, outlining a detailed floor plan of all the floors of Hogwarts Castle. Countless ink dots marked the room names and stairwell directions. Even more amazingly, countless tiny names written in extremely small characters were slowly moving across the map, representing everyone in the castle.

Even though she was mentally prepared, Karen still couldn't help but whisper in admiration when she witnessed this amazing scene again: "Truly—an incredible magical creation."

His "Eye of Truth" activated almost simultaneously, a barely perceptible glimmer appearing in his grey-blue eyes. In his vision, the flow of magic contained within the parchment became clearly visible.

What he first sensed was the intertwining of several core spells. The "Traces of Humans" spell was undoubtedly the core, responsible for tracking and identifying the location and name of every individual. A complex network of tracking spells covered the entire castle, continuously providing information to the "Traces of Humans" spell. There was also an ingenious display magic system responsible for drawing all this information clearly and in real time.

"Hmm—the variant application of the Tracking Charm, the coverage and persistence of the Tracking Charm, and the magical structure of this information processing and display—" Karen observed carefully while rapidly jotting down the rune combinations and magical nodes she noticed in her notebook. "The concept is ingenious, perfectly blending these spells together in a certain way—but—"

However, as she looked, Karen's brows furrowed slightly.

From his "Eye of Truth," the Marauder's Map's magical structure, while complex and intricate, didn't seem as unfathomable as he'd initially imagined. Each spell that constituted it—whether the Tracking Charm, the Faith Charm, or the Revealing Charm—didn't seem to surpass the level of a typical seventh-year graduate of Hogwarts, or rather, the Marauders' group at that age. In fact, Cullen felt that he was currently far superior to them in some of the rune arrangements and node connections.

"Strange—" Karen muttered to herself, "Can these alone really support such powerful, sustained, and precise monitoring of the entire castle? Especially this Human Signature Charm, which continuously displays everyone's true names—the amount of magic power and precision required for that—"

He always felt something was missing. Like a finely designed machine, every gear and lever was visible, but the engine that provided the initial power could not be found.

Curiosity drove him to try to replicate a simplified version. He took out a blank parchment that had been enchanted and was suitable for holding magic, and recalling the key rune structures and magic nodes he had just recorded, he began to carefully trace and construct them using specially made magical ink.

His chosen target was small; he only tried to replicate the functionality that displayed the "Eagle's Nest" room and the markings of the people inside.

However, no matter how precisely he copied the observed structure, after infusing it with magic, the parchment would at most flash a few glimmers of light and appear a few blurry, fleeting ink dots, unable to display any information stably at all.

"It failed—" Karen put down her quill, staring at the failed prototype, lost in thought. "The structure should be correct; at least the main framework was imitated correctly. Why won't it work?"

He turned his gaze back to the actual Marauder's Map, his Eye of Truth operating at full power. This time, he no longer focused solely on the obvious flow of magic and runic structures, but rather sought to perceive its deeper "foundation" in greater detail.

Gradually, he sensed something amiss. Beneath the magical structures set up by the four raiders, there seemed to exist some ancient, more subtle, and more powerful magical network. Like the "foundation" of a map, it silently provided support and connection, amplifying and refining the magic cast by the four, and deeply linking it to the magical network of Hogwarts Castle itself.

A hypothesis formed in his mind. The Marauders might indeed be geniuses, skillfully combining and utilizing various advanced spells, but the Marauder's Map's incredible capabilities likely stemmed from a degree of "approval" or "authority" granted by Hogwarts Castle. After all, if it were merely a tracking charm, how could Dumbledore not have discovered he was being followed? However, if it might have exploited certain "backdoors" or rules within the castle's ancient magical system, then it could indeed have evaded Dumbledore's detection and allowed him to track and locate the target—at least within the Hogwarts environment.

"I see—" Karen exclaimed in sudden realization, "The raiders' contribution lies in designing and building the application"—that is, this tracking, display, and interactive magic. But they must have "implanted" or "grafted" this program onto an existing, extremely powerful magical platform or carrier!"

This ancient vessel was likely part of the magic of Hogwarts Castle itself, or perhaps an extremely powerful ancient magical artifact. It provided the castle with perceptive abilities and an almost limitless source of magic, enabling the raiders' designs to be realized.

"I knew it. Even if those four were geniuses in their youth, they probably couldn't have independently created a magical artifact of this scale." Karen felt a little better, but at the same time, she became extremely interested in that "ancient vessel." That might be the true core secret of the Marauder's Map.

Although the Marauder's Map cannot be replicated for the time being, this research was not without its rewards. The ingenious design of the "application" section created by the four Marauders, especially the magical logic of information processing, multi-point marking, and centralized display, greatly inspired Karen.

He looked at the "communication quill pen" he had invented on the table next to him, and an idea popped into his head.

"The communication quill pen can only achieve point-to-point synchronous writing now. If—if we could borrow the logic of 'multi-point marking' and 'centralized information processing and display' from Marauder's Map, perhaps we could try to build a small communication network?" Karen's eyes lit up. "It doesn't need to cover the entire castle, just between a few specific people, like our Eagle's Nest group of four, or even with Cedric and the twins, to achieve a communication system that can send information in a targeted manner and perhaps even temporarily store it? In that case, its practicality would be greatly enhanced."

This idea excited him. His research on the Marauder's Map had temporarily hit a bottleneck, but the new ideas it generated might allow his other alchemical research to reach a new level. He immediately and carefully put away the Marauder's Map, then spread out a new parchment and began sketching design drafts based on his new inspiration.