Cedric and Pettigrew (was Re: Faking Sirius' Death?)

[pippin_999]

No: HPFGUIDX 91707

--- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, "Eustace_Scrubb" 
<dk59us at y...> wrote:
> Pippin theorized:
> 
> Nope, I'm suggesting that Peter didn't kill Cedric. In any case
> Cedric couldn't have recognized him. Peter was hooded and
> Harry himself didn't recognize him until later. I'm suggesting 
that
> someone else was in the graveyard.
> 
> <snips>
> So do we imagine that fumble-fingered Wormtail managed
> to swish a wand out of his pocket before putting Voldebabe
> down, or that he put him down and took out the wand, all while
> Cedric was politely standing there waiting to be murdered?
> 
> Lounging on the grassy knoll, Eustace_Scrubb offered:
> 
> Actually, I'd have to say that Wormtail performs pretty well under
 pressure.  He managed to kill all those muggles, frame Sirius 
for the killings and excise his own finger when he was cornered 
and then transform himself into a rat.<

Pippin stretches out on the knoll:
Ahhh, now we're on firmer ground. The conspiracy to frame 
Sirius is canon. There was information that Sirius was 
Voldemort's most devoted servant, prepared to out himself as 
Voldemort's second-in-command. Peter, in hiding or on the lam, 
could not have spread this rumor on his own. The DE's in 
Azkaban knew that Peter, not Sirius, betrayed the Potters.   And 
they were very, very sure that Peter was dead. Which is odd, but 
we'll get to that in a moment. 

First let's think about what would have happened if Voldemort 
hadn't met his downfall in Godric's Hollow.  How was the 
conspiracy to play out?  Any plan to discredit Black must also 
encompass a plan to silence Peter. He's the only one who can 
prove that Black is innocent. That's a huge liability for Voldemort. 
Peter must not remain alive to face questioning by Dumbledore 
and the aurors. If Peter was to fake  his death and  go into hiding, 
he wouldn't be much use as a double agent anymore, in which 
case why bother  framing Sirius at all? Answer: there's another 
double agent and Peter is expendable.

Now I agree, Peter is not quite the fool everyone takes him for. 
He knows that as soon as he's played out his part, he's toast.  
He's been told to let Black catch up with him in a crowded place, 
shout "Lily and James, how could you?" and kill Black. Little 
Peter, the hero, Order of Merlin, first class.  But he guesses the 
real plan will be for someone to make it look like Black killed 
*him*. Peter foils the plan by cutting off his finger (he could have 
done that *before* he let Black catch up with him) and 
transforming into a rat. The curse which was intended to destroy 
him misses and disposes of twelve unfortunate Muggles 
instead.

Sirius thinks Peter did it, holding a wand behind his back. But 
that means Sirius couldn't have seen it. According to the Muggle 
witnesses, Peter never got his wand out at all. So once again a 
curse comes out of nowhere. We must consider the possibility of 
another wandsman, or perhaps someone who is skilled enough 
to fire a curse without using a wand at all.

Now the DE's in Azkaban know that Sirius didn't betray the 
Potters. They know that Sirius wasn't one of them, and Voldemort 
never taught him any tricks, like how to kill twelve people with 
one spell. So how can they be sure Peter's dead--unless one of 
their own did it? 

Eustace:
> Despite Voldemort's disdain, he did manage to capture Bertha 
Jorkins.  (In fact, our opinion of Wormtail's intelligence and 
magical skills are primarily derived from sources of 
questionable value--the three fellow Marauders who treated him 
badly back in school and Voldemort, who delights in belittling 
him even as  Wormtail performs the excruciating task of 
rebirthing Voldemort.)  <<

Pippin:
Not quite. Neither Flitwick nor Hagrid contradicts McGonagall 
when she says that Peter was hopeless at dueling and not in a 
class with the other two talent-wise. And we've seen for 
ourselves how much Peter envied James's physical 
coordination. 

> Eustace_Scrubb again:
> 
> Well, the whole wand echo scene has been a problem since 
the first printings allowed James' ghost to precede Lily's.  JKR 
fixed that, but if she and the editors missed something that big, I 
wonder what otherdetails were also neglected or simply not 
considered important.<<

Pippin:
Well, that's the strange thing the dog did in the night, isn't it? 
Usually JKR admits her Flints with cheerful chagrin. She's 
acknowledged that she once thought boa constrictors were 
poisonous, that ancestor/descendant was a muddle, that good 
ole Marcus spent an extra year at Hogwarts. But the wand order 
correction was made stealthily, and many people felt that the 
original passage was stronger. So why not just apologize openly 
or else write the mistake into the story somehow? 

The consensus on the list was that priori incantatem will be 
referred to again, and it will  be important for it to operate as 
originally described. And of course JKR said there was a huge 
clue on that page. It wasn't the James Lily swap. So what was it?

Eustace:
>the only time {the robes] would have been obscured would 
have been for the few moments that the steam from the
> cauldron filled the air. 

Pippin:
And for the moments before that, when the sparks were so bright 
that they turned all else to velvety blackness.

Eustace:
> A most stealthy second wandsman it would have been to 
return the wand to the robe pocket without Harry
 noticing. I'm guessing (no proof, mind you) that Pettigrew put it 
in as he was preparing to enrobe the risen Voldemort.<

Pippin:
Harry can only see what's directly in front of him. If I was 
Voldemort, I'd want  somebody on Pettigrew like ugly on a Troll 
until the rebirthing spell was completed and Pettigrew's job was 
done.  My theory is that once Voldemort was safely in the 
cauldron, our stealthy second wandsman darted in  and put  the 
wand in the pocket. As you say, it had to get there sometime.  
According to your theory Peter would have to pick up the robes 
with one hand, and with the same hand, manage to get the wand 
into the pocket unnoticed. Quite a feat! 

Eustace:
> I still think Occam would blame Pettigrew.<

Good. I'd hate to think I was giving it all away <veg>. 

Pippin
"The truth is out there. The lies are inside your head"--Terry 
Pratchett