Peter

[rja.carnegie at excite.com]

No: HPFGUIDX 19040

--- In HPforGrownups at y..., "Doreen Rich" <nera at r...> wrote:
> --- In HPforGrownups at y..., captain_debrowe at y... wrote:
> > --- In HPforGrownups at y..., aasta2000 at y... wrote:
> > > Why didn't Sirius or Lupin stun Peter in PoA when they were 
> taking 
> > > him up to the castle? They knew he would run off, given the 
> chance. 
> > > Is it an honor issue? "Don't knock out someone who is defenseless 
> > and 
> > > already under control" or something like that?
> > > 
> > >      --Aasta
> 
> 
> I think they underestimated the weak, sneaky, little scum. My ex was 
> a policeman and he said the small wirey guys were always harder to 
> get under control than the big burly guys. 
> 
> Lupin & Sirius probably thought they could overpower him if he 
> attempted any escapes. They probably also thought that Pettigrew was 
> properly subdued. They also might not have been thinking as clearly 
> as they should have been. They had just had an emotional experience 
> and were under some stress.

Actually, on re-reading, they were ready to kill him - or thought they
were - with Harry's consent, if Peter tried anything.  They would have
killed him outright if Harry hadn't intervened.

Also, Lupin swears to Harry that he won't do anything more than tie
Peter up.  Perhaps promises are more binding among wizards, or perhaps
Lupin personally feels bound by that.  Peter doesn't make any promise
not to escape that I can see...?

Lupin's promise could also account for his not attacking Peter as
soon as he transformed to wolf.  This hypothesis requires that Peter
doesn't move to escape until wolf-Lupin isn't an immediate threat to
him, otherwise he'd be dog meat - and the action is consistent with
that hypothesis.

Lupin probably doesn't quite trust Black to do anything short of
killing Peter, and that's wise.  He had to restrain him before.
It seems that Black isn't quite himself - understandably.
When they did cast a spell on him, they did it together - and doing
that again would break Lupin's promise.  They could, however, have
asked the children to Charm Peter to sleep.  He's more dangerous, not
less, if he can talk.  If you've read Tolkien -

> Doreen, who thinks *any* answer is better than, "So that JKR could 
> use him in the next book..."

That probably is the answer.  If you want to perform a mental rewrite,
how about having him bound _and_ Charmed, but he gets free using
Dark Arts from Voldemort that they don't know about?

Stray thought.  Houses don't seem to mix much socially up to POA,
an exception being Percy's Ravenclaw prefect girlfriend - I presume
that prefects are set apart from their Houses, and have one prefects'
common-room.  So are all the Marauders in Gryffindor, too?
James surely is.  I think the school _really_ need to get that hat
fixed - half of Harry's friends are in the wrong House, too.
Or perhaps Tom Riddle once interfered with it for a joke...

Elsewhere (not The Lexicon, but http://www.theninemuses.net/hp/ ,
which _is_ a lexicon ;-), someone objected to footage of The Film
showing students with House badges on their robes, on the grounds
that our friends see Penelope and don't recognise her as Ravenclaw
by a badge - but upon Percy's first appearance in PS, it seems that
prefects wear prefect badges.  I suggest that this is instead of
house badges.  (And it doesn't matter anyway if The Film gives Harry
a television in his dorm room, the books are still the books and still
as good as ever.  Or a Web cam - no, don't, _don't_, go there - )

I went to this sort of school (with considerable differences of detail), and I never wanted to be a prefect - nasty things - do you
suppose that Harry will become a prefect?  Captain of Quidditch?
Head Boy?  Or, of course, dead. ;-)

Robert Carnegie
Glasgow, Scotland
Who really, really should be doing something else right now.

"I read them all when I was seven and I hated them" - unnamed American
office worker on the Harry Potter books (www.dilbert.com, List of
Stupid Things Overheard)