Pettigrew & an accomplice

[jklb66]

No: HPFGUIDX 35806

Some recent posts have theorized that Pettigrew had an accomplice 
help him frame Sirius by altering wands and/or hiding Voldemort's 
wand for him.  (Fudge being the favorite suspect of the moment.)  I 
don't think an accomplice was necessary or wise.

Why wasn't an accomplice necessary?  On the surface, the evidence 
against Sirius was so overwhelming that no one felt it necessary to 
really investigate.  Dumbledore himself testified that Sirius was the 
Potter's secret-keeper, and a street full of Muggles said that 
they "saw" the dead sexy guy blow up the street, killing the tiny  
guy and 12 others.  We know that Fudge, as part of the Department of 
Magical Catastrophes, was "one of the first on the scene."  IMO, 
Fudge is an imcompetent idiot rather than a covert DE.  If you assume 
for a moment that he IS an idiot, it isn't hard to imagine that when 
he questioned the Muggle witnesses, he probably failed to ask the 
crucial questions.  (Like, "Did the short guy have a wand behind his 
back?" or "Did the dark-haired guy move his wand just before the 
explosion?")  We also know that Crouch sent Sirius to Azkaban without 
a trial, so there was never an opportunity to REALLY examine the 
evidence.  Sirius's wand didn't need to be altered because no one 
ever felt the need to PI it.

Why wasn't an accomplice wise?  At that point in time, Voldemort had 
just been virtually destroyed at the Potter's house.  As Sirius says 
to Peter in PoA, 

"You haven't been hiding from *me* for twelve years, you've been 
hiding from Voldemort's old supporters.  I heard things in Azkaban, 
Peter...They all think you're dead, or you'd have to answer to 
them...I've heard them screaming all sorts of things in their sleep.  
Sounds like they think the double-crosser double-crossed them.  
Voldemort went to the Potters' on your information... and Voldemort 
met his downfall there.  And not all of Voldemort's supporters ended 
up in Azkaban, did they? ...If they ever got wind that you were still 
alive, Peter--"

In that atmosphere, there is NO WAY Peter could have apparated over 
to another DE and said, "Hi. I'm in a bit of a jam and could use your 
help."

What happened to Sirius's wand?  Fudge and the other MOM wizards took 
it (can't let a prisoner have a weapon) and kept it as evidence.  
Unfortunately, they never used it as evidence.  

What happened to Peter's wand?  I'm guessing he left it behind as 
evidence he was dead.  I think this because Peter doesn't seem to 
have a wand anymore when we finally meet him in the Shreiking Shack.  
If he had one, he would have pulled it out when Lupin transformed 
into a werewolf, rather than grabbing Lupin's off the ground.  Peter 
still doesn't have one in GoF; he uses Voldemort's to AK Cedric.

What happened to Voldemort's wand?  I'll still stick with the easiest 
explanation.  Pettigrew was probably nearby when Voldemort killed 
James and Lily and tried to kill Harry.  After Voldemort lost his 
body, Pettigrew scooped up Voldemort's wand and took off.  Peter hid 
Voldemort's wand someplace safe (either before or after running into 
Sirius-- doesn't matter much to me).  Years later, after escaping 
from Sirius and Remus, he gets the wand back from its hiding place 
and scurries back to Voldemort as fast as 4 little legs can take 
him.  No other accomplices necessary.

-Jennifer, who will be thinking of her beloved Remus as she looks at 
the full moon tonight