What to do with Pettigrew, once captured?

[Eric Oppen]

No: HPFGUIDX 37119

I remember the scene well where Peter Pettigrew, exposed, cowered and
whimpered for mercy...and the utter lack of respect I had for him.  I
couldn't imagine Severus Snape, in his pre-spy days when he _was_ a real
proud Death Eater, doing anything of the sort, or Lucius Malfoy, or
_especially_ Lord Voldemort.  There is a certain grandeur in proud,
unrepentant evil, a la Satan in Milton's _Paradise Lost,_ but a snivelling
coward, whimpering for mercy to the very people he had most bitterly
wronged?  Uh-_uh._  Had I been Remus or Sirius, I'd have probably yielded to
an overwhelming temptation to demonstrate the ancient and honorable Muggle
British martial art of "putting the boot in."

It wasn't as though he honestly hadn't had any choice about what he
did...even though he _may_ have had no choice about blabbing to Voldemort
about Lily and James, he could just as easily have hidden out with his
fellow rats after Voldemort's unfortunate little accident.  Instead, he
deliberately set up a guy who had been his friend, in a really cruel,
heartless way involving the murder of many innocent bystanders, to take the
fall for _his_ crime.

That being said, once I'd worked off my feelings with a good solid kicking,
I wouldn't have killed him...a simple _Petrificus Totalus_ or Stunning Spell
combined with a _Mobilicorpus,_ a trip down the tunnel to Hogwarts (avoiding
dementors), and an interview with Dumbledore, and Sirius Black's name is
cleared.  I can always be turned from my bloodstained aims by a few things,
and raw pragmatism is one of them.

However, this still leaves us with the question of what to _do_ with little
Peter.  Azkaban?  It obviously can't hold an Animagus, although a _known_
Animagus may be a different story---we don't know how many wizards and
witches go there, or how long it's been there, and they may have not set it
up to handle Animagi.  Dementor smooch?  Maybe.  I have no qualms about
executing a criminal who has proven that he's dangerous enough, and little
Peter's about as harmless as a coral snake---the more dangerous for not
_looking_ dangerous.