Peter Pettigrew - Questions and Commentary

[jodel_from_aol]

No: HPFGUIDX 101308

>   In the end, it looks like some of the questions I'd love to see 
> answered in books 6/7 or by JKR in an interview would be:
> 
> * Did Peter know the Weasleys, the Prewitt brothers or any others 
> that V or his supporters damaged or destroyed well enough to have 
> potentially been responsible for betraying them?
> 
> * Did Peter actively participate with the DE or was he nothing more 
> than a weak-willed "stool pidgeon" for the Dark Side?
> 
> * Did Peter deliberately seek out the Weasleys (whether he had known 
> them well or not before) when looking for a wizarding family to take 
> him in?

...

> 
> * Why did Peter feel the need to frame Sirius instead of V. with his 
> untimely death?
> 
> Jenni A. M. Merrifield
> -=> strawberryJAMM <=-


Well, now that JKR has thrown us the bone of Legilimency to chew on,
we need to re-evaluate what we think we know. Particularly in regards
to Peter Pettigrew, and even more particularly if we have been
thinking that we know it for any length of time. Because the concept
of Legilimency seriously unbalances most of our earlier theories, and
a lot of the other characters' assumptions.

For one thing, it is obvious, now, that unless the Secret Keeper was a
master Legilimens, or Occlumens himself, there is no way that he could
have managed to keep that secret if he were dragged before the Dark
Lord and met his eyes. A captured Sirius Black would have fared no
better than Peter did, so we really have *no* certainty as to whether
Peter deliberately betrayed the Potters or not. (Salutary reminder of
Legilimency in action: end of PS/ss; LV makes Quirrell take off the
turban and turn around. He looks Harry in the eye, taunts him for a
moment and demands the Stone in his pocket.)

I *do* suspect that Peter betrayed the Prewetts and probably many if
not most of the people on Moody's casualty list. I do *not* think he
turned his coat voluntarily. Pressure was brought to bear, and he
caved. But if he was passing information to the DEs for *a full year*
before the Potters went into hiding, I think he may have been giving
them everyone *but* the Potters.

He's a Gryffindor. They don't daydream of wining the field at any
cost. They dream of being *heroes*. He thought he was getting away
with it. Yes, he was sending harm people's way, but they were all
people who could take care of themselves, or so he told himself. He
was protecting his *own* friends. And no one would suspect *him* of
being their Secret keeper. He may even have told himself a fine tale
of how he, little Peter Pettigrew whom no one really considered, would
be the one to infiltrate the DEs and save the day. And once the
Potters were safely in hiding, he took his fatal step and agreed to
take the Mark. 

And was brought before Voldemort himself, and met the Dark Lord's eye.

And he was trapped.

Well, he'd only been keeping that secret for about a week and he was
only just now comming forward to join up, so he was able to do some
convincing tap-dancing about how he had only just now decided to give
the Potters to Voldemort. To the DEs it must have looked as if
"Wormtail" had come in out of nowhere and immediately led their leader
into a trap.

Which is why he needed to fake his death. He had both Sirius Black AND
the DEs on his tail. The DEs he might be able to shake off. But Sirius
knew too much about Pettigrew altogether, and needed to be stopped
from blurting the information about Pettigrew being the secret keeper,
or he'd have the Order on his tail as well. Ergo, however he made his
escape it needed to be in a manner which would discredit Black and
take him out of commission. Lupin wasn't as big a problem, even if he
knew most of the pieces of the information. He didn't know about the
Secret Keeper switch, and that had to be supressed at all cost. For
one thing. Even if Lupin *did* figure it out, he wasn't likely to try
hunting him down *himself*. Sirius could be a dog any day of the
month. His tracking capabilities were not limited to the phase of the
moon.

As to the Weasleys; At this point we don't really know enough about
Pettigrew's background to be able to say anything deffinite, but from
the series so far, it looks to me very much as if the largest single
employer of trained wizards and witches is the Ministry of Magic. We
know that Arthur works for the Ministry. It really isn't that much of
a stretch to believe that Pettigrew may have as well. James may have
been well-off enough not to need to work, and Lupin may have been
unemployable, but I suspect Pettigrew had a day job. And the Order
worked *with* the Ministry the first time around so there may have
been an opportunity for contact there as well. 

Plus, Peter did know Gideon and Fabian Prewitt from the Order, even if
not closely, and could ell have been aware that their
sister/cousin/niece/whatever Molly was married to a Ministry wonk
named Arthur Weasley and had seven children under the age of 10. That
isn't exactly common in the ww and the recollection may have stuck. If
we can make another leap of reasoning and postulate that Pettigrew may
have had pet rats as a child nimself, a country retirement as a family
pet may have been an easy decision. (Percy would have been 5 or 6 when
Scabbers showed up. It would have been some years before Pettigrew was
hauled off to Hogwarts. And I think Percy did take him to school until
he got Hermes and passed him on to Ron, since he couldn't take an owl
*and* a rat.