Poor snivelling little Peter WAS Re: Evil!lupin: a rebuttal

[bluesqueak]

No: HPFGUIDX 53453

--- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, "FlamingStar Chows"  wrote:

> Cathy's reply:  I don't know if Pettigrew will be redeemed or 
> not.  I see him as a sniveling little coward that hangs out with 
> the biggest bully around.  He handed over one of his best friends 
> to Voldemort.  It just doesn't say a lot for his character.
> 
<Snip>
> 
> ~Cathy~

No, it doesn't. It also doesn't say a lot for the character of one 
of his best friends that he was ever in a *position* to do this.

The Fidelius charm asks an awful lot of its Secret Keeper. Basically 
the Secret Keeper has to be willing to risk death or torture to 
protect the recipient. James and Lily Potter had to ask someone to 
be prepared to die for them.

In such cases, it's customary to ask for volunteers: Dumbledore is 
known to have volunteered. [PoA. Ch. 10, p.153 UK hardback]. Sirius 
Black appears to have volunteered and changed his mind at the last 
moment [Practically the whole of PoA from Chapter 10 onwards].

There is, however, no evidence whatsoever that Peter volunteered to 
be Secret Keeper. Sirius *never* says that the switch was Peter's 
plan. Quite the opposite; he blames himself for the idea:

"James and Lily only made you Secret-Keeper because I suggested 
it ... I thought it was the perfect plan ... a bluff ... Voldemort 
would be sure to come after me, would never dream they'd use a weak, 
talentless thing like you ... "[PoA p. 271, Ch. 19]

Admittedly, Sirius is not going to regard Peter very highly, after 
his betrayal of the Potters, but you do get the vague feeling that 
as far as Sirius is concerned, Peter *was* the Weakest Link.

It's one of the weird things about the Switch. Peter, the spy, the 
one who *presumably* was eager to betray the Potter's to their 
death, doesn't seem to have actually suggested it. 

Possibly he didn't know about the upcoming Fidelius charm. The 
discussion between McGonagall, Fudge, Hagrid and Madame Rosemerta in 
the Three Broomsticks (Ch. 10 PoA) suggests that the suggestion (by 
Dumbledore) may have been in a private conference between the 
Potters and Dumbledore (possibly with Professor McGonagall also 
present). James may have then had another private conference with 
Sirius Black. 

However, there is evidence that Lupin, at least, knew about the 
Fidelius charm. His words to Sirius Black are: 
"unless *he* was the one ... unless you switched ... without telling 
me?" [PoA Ch.16 p. 252].

Those words suggest that Lupin knew about the Fidelius charm. So why 
wouldn't Peter Pettigrew? And if he wasn't trusted enough to be told 
about the Fidelius Charm, how could he be trusted enough to be the 
Secret Keeper? 

I keep going back to: *why?* What qualities did Peter have that 
would make him a good Secret Keeper? The least talented of the four 
boys. The kid who was always tagging around. The boy who hero-
worshipped Black and Potter [see PoA Ch.10, p.154]. He wasn't even 
good at duelling ... [p.155]

Precisely *what* qualities did Peter have that would make it obvious 
to Sirius that *this* was the person best trusted with the lives of 
three people.

And the nasty thought keeps occurring to me: Peter was the person 
most likely to be bullied into it.

Does either Peter or Sirius ever say that Peter 'asked', or 'wanted' 
or 'offered' to be Secret Keeper? Not that I recall. Sirius never 
once, in his self-mortification at the deaths of Harry's parents, 
blames himself for agreeing to *Peter's* suggestion. Peter seems to 
have been, err, 'volunteered' for this not-exactly-safe post. 

So that's how one of Peter's closest friends saw him. The weak link. 
The one who wouldn't be suspected because he was so pathetic. The 
one whose life was less valuable than that of the Potters. 

And James and Lily? James suggested Sirius Black as Secret Keeper, 
not Peter Pettigrew. Black says twice that they had to 
be 'persuaded' into using Peter. Sounds like James and Lily had 
doubts about Peter as well. 

But they were still prepared to use him.

Look at it from Peter's point of view. Were his friends *really* 
loyal to him? Would they put their lives ahead of his in the crunch?

No. They were quite prepared to say: 'We have a plan. Voldemort is 
going to only be able to get at the Potters over someone's dead 
body. And guess what, Peter?'

This is real loyalty? To ask the friend you know to be weakest to be 
the strongest? To ask him (of all of you) to possibly face Voldemort 
when he's known to be the weakest at magic, the weakest in a fight? 

And OK, so Peter had already been spying on them for a year. But did 
he already know, sense, feel that the general opinion of Peter 
Pettigrew was that he was the least important of the four friends. 
That they might ask *him* to support *them* to the death, but if 
he'd asked *them*, what would they have answered? 'Sorry, Peter but 
the work James is doing is absolutely vital ...'

Did he even feel really safe with them at school? A rat animagi with 
a dog animagi and a werewolf? Dogs (and wolves) kill rats.

Were they really, truly, his friends? 

Why doesn't he seem to be the one who suggested the Switch? Was he 
hoping that he might actually be able to keep the Potters alive 
without seeming to betray Voldemort? Go to Voldemort with the news 
of the Fidelius, and 'Sirius Black is the Secret Keeper, but he's in 
hiding, My Lord, I don't know where he is'?

And then Black blows that hope (and Peter's final illusions about  
his friends' willingness to protect him) out of the water by making 
him the Secret Keeper.

So yes, Pettigrew may well have been a snivelling little coward who 
hung out with the biggest bullies around. But turn that comment 
around.

The biggest bullies around ...

What does *that* say about the character of James, Sirius and Remus? 

Pip