Cedric and Pettigrew (was Re: Faking Sirius' Death?)
pippin_999
foxmoth at qnet.com
Fri Feb 27 01:11:27 UTC 2004
No: HPFGUIDX 91722
--- 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
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