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In the book "Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire", Mad-eye Moody
(actually an impostor to Barty Crouch Jr)
borrows Harry Marauder's Map and it seems nowhere in the book it's mentioned that Harry got it back from him.
Yet, in "Harry Potter and The Order of Phoenix", Harry suddenly has it and uses while conducting DA lessons. Am I missing something?
You're not mistaken:
On the prop version of the map made for the films, the lines are made up of what at first glance are just random letters, but upon closer inspection are Latin words. The series makes no mention of Harry recovering the map from Moody's office, even though he continued to use it in later books; when asked about this discrepancy, Rowling answered that Harry had indeed sneaked into the office and recovered it in the days following the Third Task, and that she had forgotten to include this detail in the book. When asked during an online question session, "What child did Harry give the Marauder's Map to, if any?" (after his school years), Rowling responded, "I've got a feeling he didn't give it to any of them, but that James (Harry's eldest son) sneaked it out of his father's desk one day."[3]
J.K. Rowling admits it as being a bit of a mistake not to include it, as indicated on the writeup on Pottermore.
The Marauder’s Map subsequently became something of a bane to its true originator (me), because it allowed Harry a little too much freedom of information. I never showed Harry taking the map back from the empty office of (the supposed) Mad-Eye Moody, and I sometimes regretted that I had not capitalised on this mistake to leave it there. However, I like the moment when Harry watches Ginny’s dot moving around the school in Deathly Hallows, so on balance I am glad I let Harry reclaim his rightful property.
