Unfortunate!Peter

[snow15145]

No: HPFGUIDX 118264


Kneasy:
One of the FAQs that crops up regularly is Scabbers' association with
the Weasleys. How long has he been there, along with musing on how a
long-lived non-magical rat was accepted as a pet at Hogwarts for years
and no-one so much as blinked. What was Peter likely to know about the
Weasleys? Damn all, I should think. Neither Molly nor Arthur appear on
Moody's photograph and so probably weren't in the Order in the first
Voldy War, and they were at school years before him and their 
kids             were years after him.

Charme:

Of your whole post, this is the one paragraph that interests me the 
most. We
have never been told "why" Molly and Arthur weren't on the photo when 
so
many others were, plus we're left to wonder how Peter got to Percy 
and the
Weasleys as a pet.

Snow:

Actually we have been told that Molly and Arthur were not a part of 
the first Order and therefore would not have been in the picture:

OOP The Woes of Mrs. Weasley >Lupin talking to Molly< "Oh, Molly, 
come on, it's about time you got used to hearing it-look, I cant 
promise no one's going to get hurt, nobody can promise that, but 
we're much better off than we were last time, you weren't in the 
Order then, you don't understand
"

Although Molly was not in the Order the first time she had family 
members who had been, and were killed, Fabian and Gideon Prewett. We 
don't know how Molly was related to them, brothers possibly, but we 
do know through Arthur's description in GOF of the dark mark that 
they had become victims of the first war:

GOF The Dark Mark "Ron, You-Know-Who and his followers sent the Dark 
Mark into the air whenever they killed," [
] "The terror it inspired

you have no idea, you're too young. Just picture coming home and 
finding the Dark Mark hovering over your house, and knowing what 
you're about to find inside
" Mr. Weasley winced.

Sounds like first hand knowledge, most likely the Prewett brothers. 
This could also be the connection factor as to why Peter-Scabbers 
chose the Weasleys as home. Peter was in the Order with the Prewetts 
and could have known that this would be the type of family that would 
accept a rat as a pet without question or time to take notice of the 
rat's longevity. So many children too little time to be concerned 
with a child's pet. Percy would have been between five and six years 
old if Peter immediately took up residence at the Weasleys. This 
would be about the right age for Percy to play healer to a hurt rat 
with a bleeding paw. 

Snow