Back to the Bay ( was:Re: Prank and the (Second) Pensieve Four )

[corinthum]

No: HPFGUIDX 78034


> "Corinth", [Laura] continued, "are you really a Wormtail apologist?
>Does 
> anyone ever have a good word to say about him?  In the Leaky Cauldron 
> scene in PoA, there's some discussion about how Peter never seemed to 
> fit in with the other 3. Madame Rosmerta calls him 'that fat little 
> boy who was always tagging around after them'. McGonagall says Peter 
> was 'never quite in their league, talent-wise...he was always 
> hopeless at dueling."  And in the pensieve scene in OoP, James tells 
> Peter not to be 'thick' and Sirius mocks his open admiration of 
> James's skill with the snitch.  There's absolutely no evidence of 
> cleverness.  In fact, the reason Sirius can be framed by Peter is 
> exactly because he doesn't realized Peter has any cleverness in him.  
> It only comes out when his back is to the wall.  I think canon 
> suggests that the others let Peter hang around because he provided an 
> endlessly appreciative audience.  He was probably handy as a gofer 
> and the butt of some of their jokes.  But I don't think they ever 
> thought of Peter as their equal."

"A Wormtail apologist?" Corinth looked at Laura in surprise.  "No, of
course not.  I think he's a cowardly little weasel.  But it's not what
I think of him, it's what the Marauders thought of him.  And I've seen
nothing to indicate that they shared the same opinions of Peter as
others did.  From what we've seen, they put a lot of trust in him. 
James, Sirius, and Lupin could easily have distanced themselves from
Peter simply by keeping the Animagus idea from him.  What Peter didn't
know couldn't hurt him; he'd still hero-worship James and Sirius
during the day, and provide a little audience for their genious. 
Instead, they include him, even take the time and effort to help him.
 Peter was a true member of this group of friends.

"As for Sirius' comments to Peter during the Penseive scene, well,
look at how he treats Lupin.  Lupin asks Sirius to help him study by
testing him in Tranfiguration, and Sirius laughs and says he already
knows it all so he doesn't need to look at the book.  Perhaps not
quite as blatant, but it's the same sort of insult Sirius flung at
Peter earlier.  Yet no one ever questions Sirius' friendship with Lupin.

"Like I said in my earlier post, James and Sirius certainly didn't
consider Peter to be anywhere near their level in intelligence,
ability, etc.  But that doesn't mean they thought he was all the way
to the other end of the spectrum either.  They thought him simply
average.  Peter was able to fool his best friends because they
believed in his friendship, not his stupidity."

-Corinth