Wormtail Has NO Intention Of Saving Harry

[ftah3]

No: HPFGUIDX 31070

--- In HPforGrownups at y..., "luminary_extraordinaire" <ktchong73 at y...> 
wrote:
> Wormtail will NOT "feel the need" to save Harry's life.  Wormtail 
> will NOT "try" to jump Voldemort or protect Harry.  He has not risk 
> his life to save Harry before, and he will NEVER willingly risk his 
> own life to save Harry.  Certainly he had been reluctant to capture 
> Harry for reviving Voldemort, but that is only because he did not 
> want to invite a confrontation with Harry's many powerful 
protectors 
> (e.g., Dumbledore, Black, Lupus.)  Wormtail has only ONE interest 
in 
> his heart: his self-preservation. Everything he has done serves ONE 
> purpose: to save his own skins.  It is faulty to assume that 
Wormtail 
> has any sort of redeeming quality, that he will redeem himself with 
> an ultimate noble sacrifice and be "forgiven".  While such 
sacrifice 
> favors the core values of Judeo-Christianity, it is inconsistent 
with 
> Wormtail's characterization, it undermines the continuity of 
> Wormtail's character development.
> When Wormtail saves Harry, it will NOT be a willing nor noble act.  
> Wormtail will NOT willingly or selflessly save Harry.  We know 
> Wormtail will  play a part in "helping" (not necessarily saving) 
> Harry in some way, but the help will be quite accidental and 
> unexpected.  FATE, not Wormtail, will dictate his action in aiding 
> Harry.  In the classical mythological context, it is FATE--NOT the 
> will of men--that binds life debt.


Hmm.  I dunno.  I think that in terms of classical mythology, 
Rowling's stories highlight the 'making of choices' theme.  Also, I 
don't know that Wormtail is incapable of choosing to help Harry, nor 
that saving Harry from Voldemort in some way would undermine the 
continuity of Wormtail's character development at all.

Wormtail is a very weak-willed being.  He follows the 'big guys,' 
tagging along with James/Sirius/Remus in school, and then throwing in 
with Voldemort later.  He put himself in the protective hands of the 
Weasleys while a rat, as a 'pet.'  He runs back to Voldemort to 
escape Sirius/Azkaban when his ruse is discovered.  Throughout GoF, 
he's Voldemort's servant.  So yes, very self-serving, not too 
terribly indicative of redeeming qualities, on the face of it.

But I still think Wormtail could choose to help Harry while remaining 
in character, and *possibly* by that choice show some redeeming 
quality.  

1. Character.  His character in PoA was set as supremely wimpy and 
self-serving.  He doesn't disprove this in GoF, but we get an added 
character detail during some of his interactions with Voldemort.  On 
the one hand, he stays with Voldemort even though he's disgusted by 
him; fears Voldemort; and would rather Voldemort leave Harry be and 
use some other wizard to reconstitute himself.  

On the other hand, we begin to see that while he is subserviant to an 
alarming degree, he *does* expect some gratitude.  He gets very 
petulant about the fact that Voldemort ignores his service and puts 
down his intelligence.  He even has the guts, bolstered by this 
feeling of unfairness, to actually point out to LV that hey, *he* 
found Voldemort in the middle of no where when no one else did.  
Little Peter wants credit for his work, and LV shows *no* sign of 
ever giving it to him (other than replacing his shorn hand with a 
nifty strong silver one ~ back to that in a moment).  This grates on 
Wormtail.

Also, that hand.  Wow, did Wormtail love that powerful, gleaming 
hand, and Rowling actually takes the time to tell us so.  I think 
that little Peter didn't follow around the big guys just for the 
protection, but also for the power.  And now he *has* some power.  

Also in PoA, we learn that he *isn't* stupid ~ he pulled of the ruse 
that framed Sirius ~ used a clever combination of timing and magic.  
He might be wimpy & lacking in self-confidence, but he's not 
incompetent.  

Combine possible growing anger/bitterness toward LV, and early signs 
of being brave enough to speak out about it + new power in the form 
of that new hand and a proven mental cleverness...I think Wormtail 
has the beginnings of a mini-revolt brewing in him.  

2.  Redemption.  I don't know that he's got redemption in him.  It 
will depend on the circumstances in which he helped Harry. I really 
don't see him defecting from LV and spending several books helping 
the Good Guys fight LV.

I do think, that in a split-second circumstance, and seeing that LV 
is on the losing end of a battle, Wormtail would throw in with 
Harry.  Not very redemptive.  On the other hand, if it came down to a 
struggle between LV and Harry which could go either way simply 
dependent on the intervention of one Peter Pettigrew...I think LV 
would have sunk his own boat by not giving Wormtail credit before.  I 
think that Peter *could* in fact choose to help Harry.  But still, 
not very redemptive.

I guess I think that it is within the scope of Peter/Wormtail to 
choose to help Harry, but that considering his character as we know 
it so far, it wouldn't be so much a choice between good & evil as it 
would be lashing out against Voldemort.

Though, granted, we potentially have 3 more books to learn the in's 
and out's of Peter "Wormtail" Pettigrew's character.  There may be 
good in him we haven't yet seen.

Sorry if that was rambly.

Mahoney