[HPforGrownups] Scabbars question from Book 1.

[anakinbester]

No: HPFGUIDX 46137

Promethia wrote:
 
>Now my question is, why was Scabbers (Pettigrew), on Harry's pillow? 
>Is Ron *that* restless of a sleeper or could this be a hidden clue 
>that Pettigrew may have already been serving Voldemort as a spy 
>again? Or could I just be over analising this particular instance? 

Well lets see, I think to fully answer that, we'd first need to 
decide how much of Peter's intellect would still have been there as 
opposed to rat instinct. 

Not that that would ever be agreed upon. My answers are going to come 
from my belief that after 11 years, Peter's personality would have 
been heavily influenced by rat instincts. However, the fact that Ron 
can let Scabber loose as much as he seems to (or Peter escapes as 
much) would indicate that the instincts aren't fully in control. 

It's also been my belief that Peter would not have hurt Harry ^^;;
(had he not rejoined Voldemort! I don't think he was plotting to hand 
Harry over in my opinion. I think he would have just been the longest 
lived rat ever.)
But I'll try and shove that aside for right now. 

Anyway, now that I've kinda established where I'm coming from: 

I think it was Peter who decided to crawl over onto Harry's bed and 
not any manifestation of "ratness" It's too much of an odd 
coincidence, and while I believe in those, I don't trust them, 
especially not in Haryr Potter books ^^;. Also, Harry didn't seem 
particualrly surprised to find Scabbers in his bed, so perhaps 
Scabbers had crwled over there before. 

Now, as for spying for Voldemort . . . . what would Peter expect to 
find in a bed? There would be pleanty of better places for Scabbers 
to go,e ven if he wanted some personal effect of Harry's so he or 
Voldemort could curse Harry later (hair etc). 

That makes me think that Peter was not in the bed to spy. Perhaps he 
found it comforting, or perhaps he was worried. Or *L* Maybe Ron does 
move around that much and Peter wanted an entire bed to hismelf, and 
Harry's was conviently empty. (my rats _love_ and empty beds. They 
covet empty beds, especially mine) 



>Could it be possible that maybe he somehow knew, even then, that 
>Voldemort was on his way back, so to speak, and was already starting 
>to formulate plans and inteligence gathering. 

Well that, I think is true, and in fact enarly unaviodable if Ron 
carries Scabbers with him as much as it seem to imply he does in the 
book. The trio may not have but everything together yet (I don't 
recall when they guessed it wwas Voldemort, but I don't think it was 
by Christmas) but I think Peter would have guessed what would be 
going on. I'm sure he knew, espeically later on, that it was 
Voldemort trying to come back to power. 

(which by the way, is my reasoning on why Peter didn't mean harm to 
harry. Peter could have not only handed Harry over to Voldemort the 
first year, but he could have gotten the Philosopher's Stone as well. 
All he'd have needed to do was stow away somehow until Harry had the 
stone.)




>Could I have actually found something? Or am I just overanlising? 

 
Umm honestly, I don't know what Peter could have found that he 
wouldn't have already known. Harry doesn't seem to have taken much 
with him besides his personality, and the Diagon Alley stuff. 
Personalities maybe. I'm sure that would be valuable, but that 
wouldn't be anything you'd find in Harry's stuff.
 
Really, it looks like mutant rat behavior to me more than anything 
else. There is a basis for it in a rat's behavior (active at night, 
liking warm large spaces with lots of blankets to nest in) 
but with a lot of Peter infulence, which would make him go to Harry's 
bed. 
 
A lot of Scabbers behavior is just slightly off rat like behavior. 
It's kinda of interesting to go back and read all the Scabbers 
passages once you know what he is. 
 
There's a great one in PoA. I should look it up. 
 
-Ani 
PS: please forgive any typos. There's not word processor of any type 
on this school computer, so I can't spell check 0.o

Also, if anyone uses hotmail, can you tell me how you changed the 
format from HTML to text? I'm sick of not being able to respond from 
my e-mail account (anakinbester at hotmail.com)
thanks.