I was thinking of how Barty Crouch Sr. was killed. After that was he (and other bodies) visible on the map?
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Barty Crouch Sr was buried in the Forbidden Forest and I don't think that was mapped in much (any?) detail so he probably wouldn't have been on it. But in general, I think probably not because I believe I read that the map uses (among other things) Homenum Revelio and it would make little sense for that spell to pick up the dead, but there's a reason I'm leaving this as a comment and it's that I've got no proof :P– Au101Aug 16, 2018 at 1:37
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Crouch's body was transfigured into a bone, so even if the map does generally show dead people it still might not show Crouch.– AlexAug 16, 2018 at 1:43
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Peeves appears on the map, and while he is not dead I don't think he is quite "alive".– AlexAug 16, 2018 at 1:57
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1Animagi are transfigured people and the map can deal with them. So if the map does show dead people I would expect it also shows transfigured dead people. (That being said, presumably there's a limit to how dead someone can be. Hogwarts has been around for a thousand years; if the map really showed all the locations of a millennium of corpses, it'd be useless for anything else.)– MicahAug 16, 2018 at 1:59
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1 Answer
It’s never specified, but the map likely won’t show dead bodies.
The Marauder’s Map was created so that James Potter and his friends could sneak around the castle without being caught. Having it still showing people’s corpses after they’re already dead wouldn’t be very useful to them, since dead bodies wouldn’t stop them from doing mischief. Its main purpose is to show the movement of every person in Hogwarts. (It shows ghosts as well, who are all ‘dead’ but still moving, able to speak, and capable of disrupting their plans.)
“It was a map showing every detail of the Hogwarts castle and grounds. But the truly remarkable thing was the tiny ink dots moving around it, each labelled with a name in minuscule writing. Astounded, Harry bent over it. A labelled dot in the top left corner showed that Professor Dumbledore was pacing his study; the caretaker’s cat, Mrs Norris, was prowling the second floor, and Peeves the poltergeist was currently bouncing around the trophy room.”
- Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban, Chapter 10 (The Marauder’s Map)
The J.K. Rowling Pottermore writing on the Marauder’s Map goes into further details on how it was created, and the charm they used for that was intended to allow them to track the movements of everyone in Hogwarts. This probably wouldn’t apply once they’re dead and no longer moving.
The magic used in the map’s creation is advanced and impressive; it includes the Homonculous Charm, enabling the possessor of the map to track the movements of every person in the castle, and it was also enchanted to forever repel (as insultingly as possible) the curiosity of their nemesis, Severus Snape.
- The Marauder’s Map (Pottermore)
Though we don’t know for sure, it seems unlikely that the Marauder’s Map would show corpses.
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2@SQB, poltergeists and ghosts aren't really the same thing, are they? Aug 16, 2018 at 10:20
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1@SQB, "My dear Friar, haven't we given Peeves all the chances he deserves? He gives us all a bad name and you know, he's not really even a ghost." See also scifi.stackexchange.com/a/114447/5930 Aug 16, 2018 at 10:28
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3Harry uses the map during the Battle of Hogwarts to check if Ginny is alright. If the map showed dead people, it would be pointless Aug 16, 2018 at 11:33