DD and the rat (was:Re: Minerva McGonagall-/Dumbledore)

[Nora Renka]

No: HPFGUIDX 115541


--- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, "arrowsmithbt" 
<arrowsmithbt at b...> wrote:

> Kneasy:
> All  the dirty  deeds I mention are done *after* El Ratto has 
> returned to Voldy. No way DD could influence them. It's just 
> possible he had no choice.

Okay.  I think I see your point...but I can't get my mind around DD 
using Peter as a deep cover spy when Peter is *helping* his boss come 
back to life.  Unless you have a very, very well-planned conspiracy 
theory that DD wants LV to be reincarnated so that he can be 
destroyed.  I suppose you *could* think of it that way.  I'll be 
disappointed and surprised if it turns out so (but if it's canon, 
it's canon, que sera sera).
 
> Mind you, can you imagine what would happen if Peter showed that
> he had doubts? "No, no, Dark Lord. I cannot do this thing, for I 
> have seen the light of goodness and truth." "Uh? Right then." 
> *zap* "That's sorted that silly sod out. Next!"
> 
> There're things about Peter that don't quite add up.
> 
> A member of the Order in the first Voldy War. Why join a team
> that was losing?

Was it losing at first?  It's really unclear how things started out; 
seems to have been a quasi-political movement at first (the DEs) that 
mutated into a more typical evil-overlord-minions situation.  But 
joining the Order doesn't seem to have been an automatic death 
sentence at FIRST.  It's telling that Peter seems to have ditched the 
Good Guys when the going got hard--his 'what was there to be gained 
by refusing him?' is a whine of 'Oh, so HARD to fight the bad guys, 
so dangerous...' that encodes a 'I didn't think it would be like this 
when I joined up...'.

> Who knew he was Secret Keeper? Just the Potters and Sirius. How
> convenient then that Sirius's first act is to attempt to kill Peter.
> The only person who could prove his innocence. No; rephrase that,
> the only person who could testify to the truth.

Was it an attempt to right-out kill, or was it some other kind of 
confrontation?  That's been raised before.  Sirius, not aware of the 
depths of the betrayal/Peter's intense self-preservation instinct, 
goes to confront him along the lines of 'What the hell was that?', 
and gets blown away instead.  (Sorry, my mind is currently supplying 
Marilyn Horne: 'What the hell is this? I'm supposed to be a vestal 
virgin in a temple, not the last of the Red Hot Mamas!')

> He betrays the Potters - but hangs around to confront Sirius even 
> though according to McGonagall Pettigrew was useless at duelling. 
> He went for his wand, but Black was quicker, according to witnesses.
> And what  does he say as he's  being outdrawn? "James and Lily - 
> Sirius how could you?"  And if Black was quicker...what happened
> to his spell?
> 
> A not-so-hot wizard who (according to Sirius) can kill 13 behind his
> back with one spell, cut off a digit, drop bloodstained robes and 
> wand, transform into a rat and dive down the sewer before Sirius 
> can react even though he's drawn first. Pull the other one, sonny; 
> it's got bells  on.

Our consensus has to be that Peter was somewhat more competent than 
the picture we've been presented of him.  Is it not impossible that 
he got an upgrade from working with the DEs--that his accusation 
towards Sirius that Sirius had been learning things personally from 
LV is rather a projection of his own situation?

Oh, I agree it's messy...but I don't see such a deep subversion 
helping out.
 
> Yet after the Shrieking Shack, when Lupin transforms to the general
> consternation, he gets a wand, casts two spells - but only to 
> escape; he doesn't attempt to kill anyone; not Sirius his bitterest 
> enemy, not Harry, the death he tried to encompass at GH -  or so we 
> are meant to assume.

If I were to give a character analysis on Peter, I'd say that he's 
really not the type to out and TRY to kill anyone.  He's more the 
type to 1) only do it on direct command and 2) then rationalize it to 
himself.  Left to his own devices, he's more concerned about taking 
care of Number One (getting the hell out of there) than killing 
anyone.

> And DD has no qualms; he tells Harry he did the right thing in 
> sparing Pettigrew.

DD also says that he wouldn't be content with LV's death--and she's 
TOLD us there's something up there.  I suspect this is DD as carrier 
of a moral code poking through, the whole 'not right to kill people' 
thing.

> Now you may be happy with this farrago of nonsense, but not I.
> It doesn't add up.  I'm looking for alternatives.

It's messy, but I don't think 'Peter as DD's spy' makes things add up 
any better...

Join Faith and I for a drink in the Safe House, Kneasy?

-Nora ascends the many, many steps to Parnassus