Cat, Rat and Dog

[catherine at cator-manor.demon.co.uk]

No: HPFGUIDX 27152

--- In HPforGrownups at y..., cynthiaanncoe at h... wrote:
> What does Black mean by "it will make everything much easier"?  I 
> would think the easiest thing for Black is to just have Ron and 
> Pettigrew there, force Pettigrew to transform, kill him, and take 
him 
> back to the castle.  I must be missing something.

This really confused me for a long time, and it's only recently I 
(think) I've made sense of it:

Sirius' primary intention is to kill Pettigrew.  He knows that Harry 
and Hermione have witnessed Ron being pulled into the tunnel under 
the Whomping Willow.   Therefore, he also knew that Harry would have 
two alternatives - to run for help, or to follow immediately.  It is 
probable that Sirius saw Dumbledore et al, go into Hagrid's house and 
knows therefore, that they are in the grounds and not far away, so it 
makes sense for him to think that Harry would run for Dumbledore.  
Harry doesn't, however, and he and Hermione turning up without 
reinforcements means to Sirius that he has more chance of killing 
Pettigrew without interference.  He knows that if Harry had turned up 
with Ministry officials, then the chances were that Aveda Kedavra 
would be performed immediately without any questions asked.

I think, also, that Sirius' secondary intention was to set things 
right with Harry, and knew that it would be difficult to do so after 
the fact.  Imagine what could have happened if Sirius killed 
Pettigrew whilst still in rat form, and he stayed in rat form when 
dead.  He'd have absolutely no chance of clearing his name.  (I don't 
know whether animagi do keep the form they are in when they die - 
anyone thought about this?)

He knew that he'd have surprise on his side - and that he would be 
able to disarm Hermione and Harry.  I don't think he did this because 
he wanted to attack them (obviously) but because he knew that he had 
some explaining to do, and wanted to make sure that Harry would be 
forced to listen to him.

I don't think this comes through particularly well, because Sirius is 
very impatient to kill Pettigrew and is rather garbled.  He is single-
minded at this point, and probably doesn't realise exactly how bad 
his words sounds.   


> Second question:  Outside the Whomping Willow, Ron is lying on the 
> ground with Scabbers while Harry and Hermione are on their feet.  
> Sirius attacks Harry, then circles back and grabs Ron after Ron has 
> stood up.  Why doesn't Sirius just leave his godson alone and 
instead 
> grab Ron while he is on the ground and drag him off, and why 
doesn't 
> Harry or Hermione (especially Hermione) just use magic to overcome 
> Sirius before he drags Ron away?
> 
> Thanks.

Well, the only thing I can think of with the first part of this 
question is that Sirius is attacking indiscriminately because he 
doesn't want Harry and Hermione to stop him from getting at 
Pettigrew.  In fact, Sirius reacts to Harry reaching for his wand.  
The exact quote is:

"Harry reached for his wand, but too late - the dog had made an 
enormous leap and its front paws hit him on the chest."

Then, Sirius heads straight for Ron and Scabbers again.  

So, this answers your second question.  Harry tried to go for his 
wand, but Sirius had the element of surprise on his side and stopped 
him.  Hermione we don't know about, because it's Harry's POV and he 
had enough to concentrate on to be aware of what she was doing, but 
my feeling is that she panicked or was in shock and also didn't get 
to her wand quickly enough.  I hate to say this, because I love 
Hermione dearly, but she has shown before that she panics in a 
crisis, and this could have been one of those times.

Catherine