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

[carolynwhite2]

No: HPFGUIDX 115553


--- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, "Nora Renka" <nrenka at y...> 
wrote:
> --- 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.

Nora:
.. 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. 

Carolyn:
DD may well have known the potion ingredients that Voldie would have 
to use to reincarnate himself. Don't forget, transfiguration and 
alchemy are his core subjects. You have to admit they are pretty odd -
 the bones of a hated *muggle* father, the hand of a whimpering, 
cowardly rat-man servant, and just a little, nervous drop of Harry's 
blood. Voldie is by no means in his old position of power, he's got 
to make do with what he can find in his desperation to return. DD 
reads the Muggle newspapers, he knew about Frank Bryce's death, and 
that Riddle House was at Little Hangleton, and who was buried in the 
graveyard.

Voldie also may not fully understand that Harry spared Pettigrew's 
life, he may just think the rat escaped to return to him. Although he 
is supposed to be an accomplished legilimens, maybe it's a question 
of what you don't look for, you don't find. Peter would not need to 
fake any remembered terror of Sirius and Lupin to try and fool him. 
Voldie even says: 'You returned to me, not out of loyalty, but out of 
fear of your old friends.' 

And DD probably would not have given Peter any specific instructions -
 too risky - just engineered a situation to enable Peter to go back, 
and let events take their course. Undoubtably just one of many 
strategies - this is not a re-run of LOTR, where everything hangs on 
one fateful journey.


Nora:
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...'.

Carolyn:
But why did Peter go back to Voldemort after he escaped from Sirius 
and Lupin? If he was capable of making it to Albania, why didn't he 
go bury himself someplace else, far away on another continent rather 
than bring trouble on himself? He's supposed to be a coward? Why go 
and help resurrect a noxious cloud of malignant vapour? Sure, he 
might have anticipated someone might eventually come and hunt him 
down, but not for a while? For the same reasons, why on earth did he 
hang around with the Weasleys all those years? Or stay around at 
Hogwarts after he realised that Sirius had escaped Azkaban? At no 
point do we see him excited about following Voldemort in the way that 
it thrills sick Bella, or envy the powergames it offers Lucius. 


> Kneasy:
He betrays the Potters - but hangs around to confront Sirius even
> though according to McGonagall Pettigrew was useless at duelling.
>
> 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.

Nora:
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?

Carolyn:
This scene is hard to analyse as we only have one person's word for 
it - Sirius - plus Fudge's account of what he found when he arrived 
on the scene shortly afterwards. Neither have the greatest 
credentials as witnesses, and Fudge made very sure Sirius didn't get 
his day in court, or have his wand tested for the last spell 
performed. You also have to ask why Peter was not already transformed 
into a rat. Why on earth was he still in human form at this point? 
Sirius does not mention forcing him to reveal himself with the kind 
of spell used at the Shrieking Shack. To my mind, Sirius is either 
not telling the whole truth or there was a third person involved, 
which might have been Fudge himself.


Nora:
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.

Carolyn:
So it's rather unlike him to use a spell which causes multiple 
deaths, and extremely odd that he is still even in the UK, let alone 
cornered by Sirius at this point - after all he has had several 
hours, or the best part of a day to get away.


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

Nora:
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.

Carolyn:
That would be the same DD that says to Harry: ..'I cared ..more for 
your life than the lives that might be lost if the plan failed' ?