Pink Flamingos/ Fourth Man Kayak and other ramblings

[talondg]

No: HPFGUIDX 36543

--- In HPforGrownups at y..., "lucky_kari" <lucky_kari at y...> wrote:

> BTW, did you feel a twinge of sympathy for Pettigrew when he said 
> the Dark Lord forced him to betray the Potters? I did (at least the 
> first time around) and Lupin's reaction still doesn't feel good for 
> me. I mean, "Who doesn't crack every once and a while?" Now, of 
> course, it looks like Pettigrew's guilty as sin.

Nope, not me. Wormtail didn't just "crack", he had been spying and 
reporting on the Potters & friends for quite some time. And when 
Voldy seemed dead and gone, rather than come rescue his friend from 
Azkaban by turning himself in, he stayed in hiding for 13 years.

If he had been captured and tortured into revealing the secret, and 
had immediately gone to the authorities the instant he got loose... 
OK. Torture will eventually break anyone, it's really just a matter 
of time. You're supposed to hang on for as long as you can, but it is 
assumed that as soon as you're captured, you _will_ spill your guts 
eventually. Had he been picked up, and the Potter's location be 
Crucio-ed out of him, he'd be blameless.

But he didn't do that. Instead, he chose to collaberate with the 
enemy well past the point when he was in immediate danger. That's 
treason by anybody's books, and deserving of exactly what Sirius 
wished to give him.

DG