Where Percy got Scabbers

[Steve]

No: HPFGUIDX 83893

--- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, "Hagrid" <aussie_lol at y...> wrote:
>
> ...edited out previous posts....
>
> Aussie"
> 
> Why Arthur or Percy Weasley? ... Don't you mean, why Ron Weasly as a 
> future Hogwoarts student that will be Harry's classmate?
>

bboy_mn:

Not sure what you are asking here, but I'll take a stab at it anyway.
At that point in time, I can't see Peter looking that far ahead. 

Given the fact that Sirius figured out Peter betrayed the Potter,
Voldemort was lost and consequently the DE's would like to get their
hands on Peter, and the fact that as far as the wizard world was now 
concerned his was dead, I think Peter had higher priorities than
thinking about getting close to Harry a decade down the road.

I will agree that if Peter was thinking about Harry, the Weasleys
would have made the ideal choice. I think of the other boys Harry's
age, Neville is too rich and his gran to restrictive, Seamus lives to
far away and has no connection to the Ministry, and Dean is a
muggle-born. I don't know enough about the girl of Harry's age to
speculate about them, but It think it safe to assume a little girl
would not be receptive to a wild rat as a pet. So, this is actually
one more very good incentive for Peter to choose the Weasleys.

Advantages to the Weasleys:
-They live in the country
-Their father works for Magical Law Enforcement
-They have kids
-and they have kids at or near Harry's age
-They are poor
-other?


> Aussie:
> 
> Peter could return to human form at times to influence Percy or Ron 
> as they slept with mind altering spells similar to Kingsley to 
> Marietta in OotP27. They would wake thinking the idea was theirs to 
> accept the Rat or pass him onto the youngest brother, bypassing the 
> twins.
> 

bboy_mn:

I don't think I believe it, BUT this is a very very popular theory.
Certainly, if I we an animagus rat in hiding, I would have to return
to human form every now and then just to keep from going crazy. That
would be another advantage of living in the country. Peter could sneak
out to the woods at night and tranform back to human form without fear
of detection.

Also, Wormtail is right there in the house with boys he know will
eventually associate with Harry, wands are handy, and he can be a bit
devious, but on the other hand, it doesn't seem like Wormtail is
someone who take a lot of initiative or make grand far reaching plans.
He seems to me to be more the type who plays it safe and waits around
to be told what to do.

This waiting around, taking no initiative is one of that failings of
all toadies including Voldemort's Death Toadies. The consequences for
making a mistake are so grave, that it is better to do exactly what
Voldemort says and not stray so much as a hairs breadth from the plan
for fear of having to face his rath. If he creates a screwed up plan
then logically he can't blame you, although we all know that Voldemort
as a self-appointed god, has no imperitive to be logical, reasonable,
or fair. 


> How much older than Ron was Percy? At what age do you think Percy 
> could have been allowed a rat?  ~aussie~

bboy_mn:

Based on my calculations when Harry starts school (first year), the
twins are 3rd year, and Percy is 5th year. Harry was about one and a
half when Wormtail faked his own death, so let's round that off to
two. Therefore Harry and Ron are about 2, the twins are about 4, and
Percy is about 6 years old. The gap in ability to function
independantly between age 4 and age 6 is pretty big, so I can see the
twins needing a lot of supervising that Percy didn't need. 

Also, kids who grow up on a farm have a great deal of freedom; freedom
of movement and independance that kids living in city would never
have. My point in saying that is to re-enforce that Percy would be the
likely candidate for Wormtail to get close to. Also, the twins would
be as likely to use a stray rat for bludge practice as they would keep
it for a pet. Percy being the older and more responsible one, who be
most likely to take care of the rat.

Conclusion, your idea that Ron and Harry are the same age only
re-enforces my belief that Wormtail saw the Weasleys as the ideal
family to take him in.

Just a thought.

bboy_mn