The Weasley Twins' Mystery Solved: This Is How They Activated the Marauder's Map

The Marauder’s Map is a phenomenal artifact and it was a great asset for at least two generations of Hogwarts troublemakers.

Initially created by the Marauders themselves, many years later, this unique marvel of magical thought found its way into the hands of the new pranksters — the Weasley twins, Fred and George.

Later, of course, they gave it to Harry Potter, and the rest is history. But the real question still stands: how in the world did the Weasley twins even figure out the incantation that activates the Map?

“I solemnly swear that I am up to no good” is a very, very specific and fairly long combination of words. There’s no way anyone could’ve just picked it, even the twins.

If you remember, the Marauder’s Map had something of a conscience of its own — or, rather, the combined conscience of the four young troublemakers who created it.

The Map clearly realized who Professor Snape was and reacted accordingly, addressing their good old rival Snivellus exactly like the Marauders would have.

This implies that the Map was an even more complex artifact than just a magical GPS and was borderline on par with the Sorting Hat as it could analyze the people interacting with it.

With this revelation, it becomes easier to determine how the Weasley twins got to learn the incantation: most likely, the Marauders told them!

Most likely, the Map sensed fellow pranksters in Fred and George Weasley and decided to serve them.

After a quick chat with the twins, the Map could’ve revealed its secrets to them — or, perhaps, sent them on a bit of a guessing or even real-life quest to find out the correct incantation. This is what the Marauders would’ve done.

Maybe, the Marauders even purposely allowed for their Map’s confiscation when they were close to graduating.

This would’ve been even more of a James-and-Sirius move: making sure that the next person to hold the Map would be someone brave enough to steal from the Hogwarts’ caretaker! Then, it was chatting time.

While this theory holds all the water in the world on its own, it was virtually confirmed by J.K. Rowling herself during one of the interviews.

According to JKR, the twins and the Map were joking with each other, and “the Map was flickering into life here and there when they got closer and closer, and finally, they hit upon the exact right word combination and it just erupted.”

So there’s no coincidence in the fact that the Marauder’s Map ended up with Fred and George; it was ensured by the last greatest Hogwarts pranksters that only their devoted and like-minded successors would be able to use their most genius creation…

To wreak havoc in the school and do a bit of trolling, of course!