Pettigrew as Auror?

[Zarleycat at aol.com]

No: HPFGUIDX 30509

--- In HPforGrownups at y..., "Cindy C." <cindysphynx at h...> wrote:
> We've talked recently about whether Lupin, Black, James or Lily 
might 
> have worked as an auror before Voldemort fell.  I am starting to 
> wonder if Pettigrew is the most likely candidate to have worked as 
an 
> auror, for these reasons:
> 
> 1.  If Peter were an auror, it makes a bit of sense that Black 
would 
> trust him enough to make him secret-keeper.  

I don't think Peter's position had anything to do with it.  I think, 
at this point, Sirius was unwilling to trust Remus, so he turned to 
the remaining Marauder, instead.  


> 2.  To the extent wizards seemed so willing to believe in Sirius' 
> guilt, it could be because Peter was an auror and therefore 
believed to be unlikely to be the spy.

That would assume that aurors would be a class unto themselves of 
wizards who would never become Voldemort supporters.  I'm sure that 
in order to be an auror you'd undergo pretty rigorous screening and 
training, but I don't think that means that no auror would fall 
victim to V's enticements.
 
 
> 4.  If Peter were an auror, he would come into contact with dark 
> wizards and could be recruited.  He also would be a valuable 
recruit 
> for Voldemort because the quality of his information would be so 
> good.  

Well, you can't have it both ways. If, in point 4, Peter could be 
recruited by V because of his contacts with dark wizards, then point 
2 is negated.  


> 5.  If Peter were an auror, he probably ought to know that Snape 
was 
> a DE, because Moody knew it.  I'm not sure which way that cuts, 
> though, so maybe someone can finish that thought.

I'm not convinvced that all the DEs knew one another.  I see their 
organization as being set up in cells where some people know others, 
but only the highest level know lots of DEs.  No canon support for 
that, it's just my opinion.


> 6.  Another thought is that Peter outsmarts Sirius in their duel, 
> having planned the whole thing out quite brilliantly.  It sounds 
like 
> something a cagey auror would think of.  

"Duel" is stretching the case just a bit.  I'm sure that Sirius was 
hot on the trail of Peter, but since Peter already had a plan and 
Sirius was operating under a state of shock at the betrayal and 
deaths of his closest friends, Peter had the advantage.  ANd how did 
Sirius find Peter, anyway, unless Peter left some clues to draw 
Sirius to the crowded street, where he was already prepared to make 
sure Sirius took the fall?

> 7.  Peter knows how to perform Avada Kedavra, which is something 
> Crouch Sr. authorized the aurors to use.  According to 
Crouch/Moody, 
> Avada Kedavra requires "a powerful bit of magic behind it," so 
> a "talentless" thing like Peter might not be able to perform it 
> absent training that aurors might receive.

Or absent DE training.  I'm of the opinion that Peter was not as 
hopeless a wizard as people thought.  I think he was content to ride 
along on James' and Sirius' coattails as a student and use them for 
help.  Maybe he figured out that he didn't have to put out a lot of 
effort to do things - by playing helpless, he could get James and 
Sirius to do things for him.  This, of course, worked to reinforce 
the opinion that professors had of him, and also that Sirius had of 
him, that he was talentless.  I'm beginning to think that his talent 
was that he was the perfect parasite.  

One final thought, if Peter was an auror, Sirius and James would 
probably have known. Aurors have to have some skill as wizards.  If 
that was the case, then the basis of Sirius' plan on switching Secret 
Keepers, depending, as he said, that no one would think of a weak, 
talentless thing like Peter being the Secret Keeper, doesn't work. 
That it didn't work anyway was due to Peter's treachery.  Perhaps one 
of the hard lessons Sirius had to learn in Azkaban was that you can't 
always take people at face value, along with the fact that you can be 
too clever for your own good...

Marianne