The Pop-Psychology of Peter and Animagus Thoughts

[abigailnus]

No: HPFGUIDX 34467

--- In HPforGrownups at y..., "cindysphynx" <cindysphynx at h...> wrote:
> I've never been entirely sure what to make of Peter.  I think he is 
> JKR's most compelling villian in the series.  What the heck made him 
> betray the Marauders?  Were James and Sirius kind of mean and 
> dismissive with Peter?  Does he *really* want Voldemort restored, or 
> is he just doing that because he has no where else to go?  Couldn't 
> he have turned himself in when Voldemort fell and cut a deal like 
> Karkaroff, claiming . . . he was under the Imperius Curse?  Why was 
> he so reluctant to proceed with the plan in the beginning of GoF?
> 

I think Sirius captures the essence of Peter's character perfectly when he says that he is the person who hangs 
around with people stronger than he is in order to feel powerful.  When you're a child you accept that it's the job of 
certain people to protect you, but as you grow older you begin to resent it.  I suspect Peter loved and hated his friends 
for always protecting him.  In his own mind, he might have felt that they didn't appreciate him, that they looked down 
on him for being so weak - which he was, too weak to ever step out of their shadows.  Peter must have hated himself 
for that weakness, and ended up hating the people who were constantly helping him for bringing it to light.  He might 
have even felt that they were dominating him.  I wonder how it felt to have Sirius say to him "We'll make you the 
Secret Keeper, Peter, because you're so worthless that no-one will ever imagine that we'd do it."  Note that I'm aware 
that Peter was already working for Voldemort for some time when the Potters made him their Secret-Keeper, and 
that Sirius probably didn't say (or mean) anything in the vein of what I just wrote - but that might have been what 
Peter heard, and maybe he'd heard more than a few things like this in more than 10 years, even if they were all in his 
own head.  

Being so conflicted over whether he wanted his friends' protection or not, he couldn't just start asserting himself and 
try to gently pull away from them, he had to destroy them.  The irony of the situation being of course, that when he 
thought he was asserting himself, finally stepping out of the perceived tyranny of his friends, he was actually 
sublimating himself to someone much stronger and more dangerous, who didn't care one bit about what happened to 
him.  It's hinted at in GoF that Peter is disgusted by Voldemort (although that may be just because Voldemort looks so 
disgusting at that point), and I suspect that he feels towards him now much as he felt towards the Marauders.  If he 
had the courage, which he won't, not unless Voldemort is very weak and is definitely about to lose the fight, I suspect 
he would kill Voldemort himself.

I see Peter as the Gollum character in HP-verse.  The parallel sort of leaps up at you when Dumbledore tells Harry that 
by sending Voldemort a servant in Harry's debt, he has weakend the dark lord, and that Peter may very well have an 
important part in defeating Voldemort (although probably not a willing one.)  It is said of Gollum at some point in LOTR 
that he hates the ring, and loves it, which is what got me thinking along these lines in the first place.  Like Gollum, 
Peter seems pathetic, but is quite dangerous, especially when cornered.  He is a rat (a very apt animagus form) - 
sneaky, devious, always looking out for number one, and if you push him too far he will bite.  As someone mentioned 
earlier, he has no qualms about killing Cedric, and manages to chop off his own hand, which is not just hard, it should 
be impossible with a dagger - there's a bone there, for crying out loud - and once the dark lord was defeated he 
managed to shift the blame to someone else and get away - and I doubt that he'd been planning much in that 
direction since it was so unthinkable that anything would stop Voldemort, certainly not a little boy.  But he's unlikely to 
channel any of that ability towards striking out on his own.  Peter is a survivor, not an initiator - great at dealing with 
crises, but awful at avoiding them or improving his own lot.

I can't say that I feel too much sympathy for Peter, or if I do it's the sort of feeling you get when you see a bad car 
crash - what a shame, what a waste of a life.  

And since I already mentioned apt animagus forms, I've been thinking about the different animals the Marauders turn 
into.  Lupin, of course, can't help his animal form, although I find it interesting that the man who becomes the wildest 
and most uncontrollable animal of the four friends has become the most self-possessed, controled human - over-
compensation?  Or does HP canon allow for werewolves to sponaneously transform when they lose control of their 
emotions?  Sirius' transformation into a giant dog allows for some very fun red herrings in PoA, not to mention that 
Padfoot, the giant spectral dog who haunts cemetaries and suchlike is part of Scottish (?) folklore.  The dog also ties in 
to the role that Sirius adopts in GoF, of Harry's protector.  But I can't make any sense of Prongs.  A stag?  A freaking 
stag?  What the hell is up with that?  Of all the animals you'd want to turn into in order to control a werewolf...  I 
realise stags must be very strong (I also realise I know next to nothing about them, as I live in the Middle East), but 
they're awfully noticeable.  Sirius can turn into a dog and pose, in his words, as a loveable stray (imagine the kid who 
tries to adopt Snuffles, and Sirius' desperate attempts to get out of his brand new collar), but people would notice a 
stag walking down the street, or for that matter on the Hogwarts ground.  Where are stags generally found, anyway?  
Don't they move in groups?  More importantly, does anyone have any ideas on the importance of James' animagus 
form from a symblism standpoint?

Whew, this turned out longer than | expected, I hope it gets read.
Abigail