Polyjuice!Peter

[pippin_999 <foxmoth@qnet.com>]

No: HPFGUIDX 52512

--- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, GulPlum <hp at p...> 
wrote:
> At 15:25 19/02/03 , pippin_999 <foxmoth at q...> wrote:
> 
> >We don't know that the person Hagrid met at the Potters was
> >actually Sirius Black. Sirius himself never
> >mentions meeting Hagrid or having the motorcycle with him.
> 
> It wasn't really germane to his narrative at the time (in the SS), 
as he 
> was recalling his attitude towards Peter rather than the Potters. 
Although 
> I do admit that it would have nice if he'd said something like "I 
left 
> Hagrid to take care of baby Harry and took off to find Peter". 
Apart from 
> anything else, it would have indicated some concern for the 
baby's 
> well-being, and Gentle!/Concerned!Sirius of the escape scene 
and later in 
> GoF would have had some foundation..
> 
> >It's possible, as I've mentioned before, that the person at the
> >Potters was polyjuiced Pettigrew.
> 
> <snip>
> 
> I've seen that suspicion all over HP fandom (along with several 
other 
> suspected Polyjuice plotlines which I think shows a 
considerable lack of 
> faith in JKR's imagination), and the main problem I have with it 
is that 
> Sirius states unequivocally that he had been at the house 
himself, but left 
> in search of Peter.

Why couldn't the real Sirius  have arrived after Pettigrew left? The 
two stories have suspiciously few points of correspondence. 
Sirius doesn't say he saw Hagrid.  Sirius doesn't say anything 
about the bike.  Sirius says he saw the bodies, which Hagrid 
doesn't mention, and which should have been buried in the 
rubble. McGonagall has spoken to Hagrid before she gets to 
Privet Drive, but  he doesn't seem to have known for sure that the 
Potters were dead.  And how did Pettigrew got hold of 
Voldemort's wand, which Voldemort was in no condition to carry 
away from the scene?


> 
> Sirius says that when he arrived, the house was already 
destroyed. Hagrid  says that he was the first person on the 
scene (BTW how did he know that he 
> was?). What reason did Pettigrew have to hang around 
(assuming he had  accompanied Voldemort in the first place), 
and what foresight would he have needed to bring some 
Polyjuice Potion with him, together with 
a bit of  Sirius? <<<

My idea is that Voldemort, having no wish to lose his real spy (or 
spies) intended all along to frame Sirius Black for the murder of 
the Potters. To this end he planned to have Polyjuice!Pettigrew 
be spotted on the scene, thus implicating on Sirius.

>>>And what was Peter doing with Sirius's "beloved" motorbike? 
Are you  suggesting that he somehow managed to get his hands 
on it, and he and Voldemort arrived on it? How did Sirius get 
there if not on his bike?<<


Peter and Sirius were friends--and Sirius had gone into hiding, 
so he wouldn't have been using his motorcycle. Doubtless Peter 
knew where it was kept. He could either make himself some 
duplicate keys or steal them from Sirius. The motorbike would 
help to establish Peter's false identity. Anyway, why would the 
real Sirius trust his precious  motorbike to the notoriously 
careless and unreliable Hagrid?

 If Sirius wanted to get somewhere in a hurry, I'm sure he'd 
Apparate instead of using the motorbike. Sirius wouldn't have 
expected to find survivors, so he wouldn't have thought he 
needed transport for Harry

>>> Besides, I have a narrative problem with the notion, as I can't 
see any  purpose which a Peter!Sirius at Godric's Hollow could 
serve. Sirius admits that he was on the spot, so there was no 
need to frame him for having been  at the scene of the crime. In 
any case, that wasn't needed, as the later  confrontation afforded 
Peter a *much* better way not only to frame Sirius, 
> but to get himself off the hook and to stop anyone looking for 
him at the same time.<<<

But Voldemort couldn't know how quickly Sirius would get to 
Godric's Hollow. It was necessary to establish Sirius' presence 
at the time of the crime, not afterward. 

> 
>>> I know that there are important details about that night which 
JKR is  keeping well in reserve (above and beyond WHY 
Voldemort wanted the  Potters), but I simply can't see how a 
PJP-Peter could possibly fit in. <<<

At some point, Sirius is going to have to establish his innocence 
to the Wizarding World. That's going to be difficult if his version
of  events doesn't jibe with Hagrid's. Madame Rosmerta, Flitwick, 
McGonagall and Fudge all heard Hagrid's account. And if Hagrid 
goes and DIES  it will be up to Harry to find out the truth.


>> We've already had one huge turn-around revelation about 
who was whom and who did what; having another twist to that 
strikes me as overkill and if it  happens, that's when all my Potter 
books land in the closest rubbish bin  with a thud.<<

Hmmmm...we may have to stop thinking of things like polyjuice 
and Animagus transformations as "twists" and start thinking of 
them as Standard Operating Procedure, no more astonishing 
than criminals (and teens up to no good) using fake ID and 
disguises in the real world. Voldemort says  that when the MOM 
is on the alert at the QWC they will be "checking and rechecking" 
identities. We don't in fact see such security in use at the QWC, 
so maybe Voldemort was being paranoid, but obviously the 
procedures exist.

The big mistake everyone seems to have made is thinking that 
no one would be audacious enough to try such a thing at 
Hogwarts, under the long and crooked nose of Dumbledore 
himself.

Pippin