Scabber's first appearance

[dsslouisville at yahoo.com]

No: HPFGUIDX 30640

Hi all.  Let me start by saying that I honestly tried to research 
whether or not this question had been posed previously, but it is v. 
hard to research Scabbers as he has more identities than any other 
character so far!  Anyway here goes...

I had picked up SS/PS again this weekend and in the course of 
rereading, I noticed something that I thought was odd.  When we first 
meet Scabbers, all we know of him is that he is the downtrodden pet 
of Ron, so when Ron and Harry are confronted by Draco, Crabbe and 
Goyle on the Hogwarts Express and a scuffle ensues, it does not seem 
odd that the loyal Weasley family pet would bite the offending future 
slytherins...however, given that he is actually Peter Pettigrew, 
nothing if not a lackey to Lord Voldemort, I find it strange that he 
would attack the son of one of Voldemorts death eaters.  (He either 
bit Crabbe or Goyle, can't remember which, but both of their father's 
were represented at V.'s gathering in GoF.) 

Any thoughts on his motivation, or is this not even worthy of mention?

Andrea (who does not post very often for fear of not having her facts 
straight...:)