Rats! (Or: A Treatise on Ron and Evil)

[marinafrants <rusalka@ix.netcom.com>]

No: HPFGUIDX 48169

--- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, "heiditandy <heidit at n...>" 
<heidit at n...> wrote:
> I agree wholeheartedly that JKR is sketching a path for Ron that 
> descends into places where nice boys should not go - I know I'm 
not 
> the only one who liked Ron in books 1 - 3, but found his behaviour 
> towards Harry and Hermione in book 4 troubling and frustrating. 
Even 
> Ron's most ardent defenders must agree that he has a mean streak - 
> it showed when he refused to accept Harry's explanations about the 
> Cup, his treatment of Padma at the Ball, and both his fight with 
> Hermione after the Ball, and his dismissal of her explanations 
about 
> Harry earlier in the book. But besides all the canon examples of 
> Ron's hostility, there's one canon issue which makes a potentially 
> major impact on the likelihood of Ron choosing to embrace evil.
> 
> His former pet.

<snip theory about Scabbers occasionally resuming human form during 
Ron's childhood to influence him toward evil>

I have to admit, I really like that notion.  It's eeeevil, it's got 
canon, and it's the sort of thing I can see Pettigrew doing.  I 
still don't see Ron deliberately embracing evil, but I can imagine a 
sort of a "Manchurian Candidate" scenario, with Pettigrew planting 
ideas in his mind and then hiding them behind memory charms and 
appropriate triggers.  Pettigrew, for all his snivelling, is 
cunning, resourceful, and very good at manipulating people when he's 
not having a crisis of nerves. He could pull it off if he really put 
his mind to it.  

The question is, would he plan so far ahead?  Pettigrew strikes me 
as more of a tactitian than a strategist.  He can come up with 
clever plans on the fly in response to specific situations -- 
framing Sirius, bringing Bertha Jorkins to Voldemort.  But I'm not 
sure if he'd plan years in advance like that.


Marina
rusalka at ix.netcom.com