Weak vs. Unwilling, Fidelius, Pettigrew's Poor Strategy

[ssk7882]

No: HPFGUIDX 35001

Marina wrote:

> <snipping musings on why Peter didn't throw himself on Sirius'
> mercy after the Potters were killed>

> I don't think we can dismiss out of hand the possibility that Peter 
> just didn't think of it, just as Sirius, freshly out of Azkaban, 
> didn't think of owling Dumbledore to tell him what really 
> happened.  

Neither do I, actually.  It does seem a little odd to me, though, 
because it strikes me as the sort of strategy that would leap
*immediately* to the mind of the Peter we see these days -- a Peter 
who seems to consider the manipulative possibilities of tears and 
deceit first (they're his default response), and only seems to move 
on to consider other options after rejecting Tears-and-Deceit as 
unworkable.

Although...hmmm.  Actually, perhaps that's just not true.  Now that
I think about it, perhaps *flight* is really his default response.
It's how he tries to deal with Sirius Black in PoA.  (For that 
matter, it's how he eventually *succeeds* in dealing with Sirius 
Black in PoA.)  And all through the Shrieking Shack scene, he keeps 
glancing around, looking to the boarded-up windows and the door...
He goes for the Tears-and-Deceit only because he can't just cut and 
run, but that's what he really wants to be doing, and that's what his 
first instinct is to look for a way to do.

And Voldemort accuses him of planning to scarper at the very 
beginning of GoF, doesn't he?  Astute of him, really.

So...yeah.  Okay then.  Never mind.  


> So it's possible that if someone said to Pete, "hey, why didn't you 
> just tell Sirius you were tortured into revealing the Potters' 
> location," it's possible he would've slapped himself on the 
> forehead and exclaimed, "D'oh!  Can't believe I didn't think of 
> that!  Boy, is my face red!"

Oh, I'm sure he thought of it eventually .  I'm sure he thought a 
*lot* about it during all those years he spent as Scabbers.  No 
wonder he was such a depressed-seeming rat.  ("...eat chocolate... 
take nap...eat more chocolate...take nap...")

> Also, even if Peter did think that Sirius would summarily blast him 
> no matter what excuse he gave, that doesn't mean Peter was right.  

Well, I don't really think that Sirius would have, unless Peter had
*really* botched his tale-telling.  But Cindy thought that he would 
have, and she wholeheartedly *approves* of such irrational and bloody-
minded behavior (I understand that she likes ambushes too), so I was 
teasing her.

> The combination of extreme terror he must've been feeling and 
> knowledge of his own guilt may have made it impossible for him to 
> believe that any of James' friends might show him mercy or 
> compassion.

That wouldn't surprise me either.  Also, I suspect that he'd been 
expending quite a bit of mental energy up to that point in time 
convincing himself that they were really hateful people, monstrous 
people, people who had _never_ treated him well, people who had in 
fact treated him very very _badly_, people who had injured him, 
people who richly _deserved_ to be betrayed... 
 
It would be rather difficult, I think, to go from there to: "This 
situation can be salvaged.  I'll just tell them it was forced from 
me.  They'll believe me, and since they can't really hold something 
like that against me, I'll be just fine."


-- Elkins