wormtail's supposed bravery and Crouch jr and the Imperius Curse was:Re: [HPforGrownups] Re: The Houses Mystery)

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Daniel on Wormtail:

>He is mocked for his supposed cowardice yet he has done many brave things,
albeit for
>evil. A lesser man would not have had the nerve to face Sirius after
>betraying the Potters, they would have gone underground. But Peter
>allowed Sirius a chance to fight and Sirius lost.

Sorry to contradict you, but facing Sirius was only part of the plan to go
underground letting everyone believe he had died. He didn't allow Sirius
anything, Sirius was the only one to know that he was the real Secret Keeper
so he was sure that only Sirius would have come after him when what
happened to the Potters had become known; he also knew that everyone else
thought Sirius the Secret Keeper so that he (Sirius) would be blamed;
staging his murder by Sirius would leave everyone further convinced that
Sirius was the culprit.
 It's true that the only account of what happened in
that occasion is given by Sirius, so you can certainly call it a biased
version of the facts, anyway in PoA ch. 19 Sirius says that Peter didn't
even attempt to fight " he yelled for the whole street to hear that I'd
betrayed lily and James. Then, beforeI could curse him,he blew apart the
street with the wand behind his back, killed everyone within 20 feet of
himself- and sped down the sewer wit the other rats".


>He also allowed
>himself excruciating pain to get Voldemort back to power, the way he
>cut his arm off shows a brave man


I don't see any bravery in this either. It seems to me he's simply overruled
by Voldemort who commands fear even in his hapless baby form.


What you said in your other post about Crouch jr is very interesting. I
didn't recall that Harry had already tried and sort of overcome the Imperius
Curse with the help of the fake Moody. Why giving to someone you know is
going to fight in a battle you are supposed to wish he will lose a useful
trick that might help him win? Crouch could not know if Vold meant to use
that curse against Harry, but as we're told that the Unforgivable Curses
were tipical of Vold and his followers he must have known that the least
Harry knew about them the better! Dumbl. might have asked Moody to show them
to the 4th-years and so he couldn't have refused. But why, in the first
place?
 I assume that there might be Dumb behind this choice because Moody in
his first lesson says: "I'm not supposed to show you what illegal Dark
curses look like until you're in the 6th year. You're not supposed to be old
enough to deal with it til then. Bur Professor dumbledore's got a higher
opinion of your nerves, he reckons you can cope". did D know that Harry
might have needed to know such curses, maybe in relation to the fact that he
had be entered into the Tournament?

One last thought about the Imperius Curse, it doesn't seem to be that big
deal if in one book we are shown 3 characters fighting it ( Crouch sr,
Crouch jr and harry)!
R.

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