Is Peter evil? was Re: Is Percy A Spy?

[kiricat2001]

No: HPFGUIDX 111451

--- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, "Jen Reese" <stevejjen at e...> 
wrote:

> Jen: Yeah, except I don't want to think of Lupin & Sirius as evil 
> because they were willing and able to kill Peter in POA! If we use 
> the logic that anyone who is willing to kill another is evil, then 
> in a time of war that would pretty much include everyone. I'm sure 
> Snape is intimately familiar with the AK curse, but I don't think 
of 
> him as evil either.
> 
> I guess you could say the Cedric/Peter situation isn't a good 
> analogy because Cedric was completely innocent and no threat to 
> anyone when he was killed. 

Marianne:

I wonder if the intended victim of an AK makes a difference as to how 
much the caster of the spell has to mean it.  In the Peter/Cedric 
case, would it be relatively easy for Peter to kill Cedric because, 
1) Cedric probably did not in his wildest dreams think that someone 
might kill him  or 
2) as a young person, still a student, would he have been easier to 
kill simply because he was not a hardened warrior?  Is it harder for 
someone like Peter to use an AK to kill an Auror than it is to kill a 
kid?

Jne Reese:
Peter the betrayer was a different case. 
> Even though unarmed (like Cedric), at the time Sirius/Lupin 
> threatened him Peter was a *future* risk if left alive. Still, it 
> bothered me just a little with how comfortable Sirius & Lupin were, 
> casually rolling up their sleeves to off Peter. I know it's naive 
to 
> think in a time of war people don't take matters into their own 
> hands on occasion. But the war was over!! That was a personal war.

Marianne:
I tend to think that JKR threw that in just to give the reader a 
little thrill of "Aha! That little rat is going to get exactly what 
he deserves!"  And that makes us feel good for a few seconds.  But, 
then JKR pulls us back from that because, yes, it would be a cold-
blooded murder.  So, she doesn't let it happen.  Instead, Harry is 
allowed to act very adult and mature, and Sirius and Remus do not 
walk out of the Shack with blood on their hands.  The reader is left 
with that vicarious feeling of the power of holding the fate of an 
execrable human being in their hands, and doing the right (not easy) 
thing by deciding to let him live.

To throw my two cents in on the question of whether Peter is evil - 
well, what's your definition of evil?  He's always struck me as more 
amoral than evil.  I've never had the sense that Peter enjoys other's 
suffering or likes to cause others pain.  My feeling is that he does 
whatever he has to do to survive.  If that means killing Cedric, then 
fine, he'll do it.  If it means shining Bellatrix's shoes, okay he'll 
do that.  If it means setting himself on fire, sure, no problem.  
Voldmeort calles the shots, and Peter obeys him because it's easier 
than taking a stand to defy him.

Marianne