Did Peter really kill those Muggles + did he torture Bertha?

[anakinbester <anakinbester@hotmail.com>]

No: HPFGUIDX 49417

 Angela Evans <sixhoursahead at y...> wrote:

> OK, here is where it gets interesting for me.  Black says that the 
reason PP has been hiding all these years is because he fears the DEs 
who blame him for LV's downfall, because LV dissapeared while 
following PP's info.  I find this a little weak.  Black DOES say that 
he personally heard DEs in Azkaban calling PP a traitor, but still.  
I think PP could have argued his case to the DEs.  

Me:

Well, not all the DE's seem perfectly reasonable, but yes, I think 
Peter could have argued his case as well, though it would have been 
risky, and Peter doesn't seem to like taking risks.

Peter also doesn't ever seem to want to do anything directly. The 
only action that I can think of that he did directly is to kill 
Cedric, but even then he was "just following orders" (yay for moronic 
excuses) 

Ok my actual point, I always thought he wasn't running so much from 
anyone in particular, but from what he'd done.

If he hadn't faked his death, then he would need to, on record, 
accuse Sirius of both being the spy, and trying to kill him. 

I think it was simply eaiser on Peter to pretend to be dead, that way 
he doens't need to face up to anythign he's done. he can also argue 
that it's not really his fault Sirius went to prison. The wizards 
jumped to a conclusion without looking for facts. All Peter has to do 
is not ever give them reason to quetion the conclusion, which he does 
by remaining dead. 

Also, Peter breaks down quickly in the shrieking shack. I don't know 
that he could have stood before everyone and accused Sirius without 
giving off massive, 'I'm lying' body language. Of course, that 
perception then goes against his ability to be a spy. (but in my mind 
Peter does have a lousy poker face, just no one figures out the real 
reason he's so nervous, so it makes sense in my little world ^^) 

Another thing though, Peter can also escape the DE's, and here I 
don't simply mean escape as in they won't chase him down and kill 
him. By being dead, even if Voldemort does come back, Peter needn't 
ever rejoin the DE's. Course he wasn't expecting to be found be 
Sirius I suspect. I mean Peter didn't seem any more eager to search 
out Voldemort than most other DE. He only does so when he feels 
cournered. 

Anyway, all this simply goes back to be dislike of taking anything 
Black says about Peter at face value. 

And finally, I've been trying to find something on this in other 
posts. I can't (I'm a terrible ML researcher *Sigh*) If it's been 
delt with could somone direct me to some posts on it? If not, It's 
something I've wondered. 

Who tortured Bertha? According to Voldemort's account, Peter made him 
the fragil body _after_ Bertha was tortured. But if Voldemort was 
vapor, he couldn't have used any magical, or presumably physical 
means to extract information from Bertha. 

Peter, however, does not strike me as an expert torturer. Do you 
think Voldemort's time line is inaccurate? If so, would it be a 
flint, or intentional? Could he have posessed Peter for a short time 
and used Peter's body to torture Bertha? Or did Peter actually do the 
torturing? 

Ah well, just thought I'd ask since I was out of lurker mode anyway.

-Ani