Yellow Rat Spell - Maybe it really did work

[finwitch <finwitch@yahoo.com>]

No: HPFGUIDX 50874

errolowl:
 
> While this is an interesting thought, I'd say the spell
> didn't work 
> because literally he wasn't a rat; and metaphorically he was
> already 
> yellow. Peter's stand against Sirius was not one of bravery –
> it was 
> the typical rat mentality of resorting to desperate measures when 
> backed into a corner. A Rat has an excellent sense of self 
> preservation – it will run to escape most things – but a
> cornered rat 
> is a different proposition. If JKR has brought out anything, it is 
> that Peter values his own skin too much.

-- snipped--

> And Amy! I don't believe that he has anything against Harry –
> he 
> carries no malevolence, no ambition, no cunning agenda ...so 
> attacking Harry wouldn't even have crossed his mind. 
> 

Finwitch:
Well, he IS the rat all right... survivor. Yellow does stand out most 
clearly against black background but is nearly _invisible_ against 
white. So I can see how the yellow Pettigrew remained so unnoticed 
amongst those who're loyal to _Albus_... Then this yellow thing 
stands out when Mr _Black_ reveals him;

Yes, well - Scabbers/Peter Pettigrew/ Wormtail was a yellow one, all 
right -- but as I see yellow as a colour that somethimes stands for 
gold (heraldics- yellow in flag, gold in the crest), as colour of  of 
spring, fertility, easter, rebirth (as the first spring flowers are 
yellow and we tend to dye eggs yellow on easter)-- spring-as in 
*running* - is that where the yellow/coward-thing mentioned comes 
from?

Rat describes Peter Pettigrew's character quite well (which is why 
rat *is* his animagi form, I believe).

Speaking of Pettigrew being there, about to kill Harry... Well... 
true, he'd not kill Harry off just like that, but he might have been 
*carrying* Harry's death in. (like black-rats did, hosting the fleas 
that spread the plague called Black Death...). Quirrelmort was 
another one of 'rat-like'persons, but this rat - after fleeing from 
the Dog, the Wolf, Hermione (who has a cat) and Harry (who has Owl 
and parselmouth) - he's then seen to carry the Death (Voldemort).

Ron's spell-- a poem-formed spell with 'Stupid fat rat', no other 
spell we've heard of is formed as a poem, but is more like a single 
word... Then again, Ron's lived his all life in a wizard-family among 
magic - if poem-formed spells didn't exist, I doubt that Ron would 
have believed Fred/George who told him of it... (Didn't he say one of 
the twins taught it to him? - Maybe Fred/George _did_ turn Percy's 
rat yellow with the spell first...)

So well... I guess it _was_ a real spell. Poems could be a form of 
_ancient_ magic that traditional wizarding families know of, but 
those aren't thought in Hogwarts grades 1-4 unless it's in a course 
Harry didn't take (Alohomora is more effective than 'ink, bottle and 
pen, make this lock open' so well...)

Still, one reason why I think Ron's spell didn't work, was that he 
didn't _have_ any mellow or other items mentioned and that he tried 
to use wand for _ancient_ magic.

-- Finwitch