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

[Nora Renka]

No: HPFGUIDX 115561


--- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, "carolynwhite2" 
<carolynwhite2 at a...> wrote:
> 
> --- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, "Nora Renka" <nrenka at y...> 
> wrote:
> > --- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, "arrowsmithbt" 
> > <arrowsmithbt at b...> wrote:

<snip>

Carolyn:

> 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.

DD knowing about the resurrection spell is a separable quantity from 
Peter being his agent.  I can readily buy that he knows what and how 
Voldemort is doing what he's doing, and I think he's not, perhaps, 
*upset* that Voldemort used Harry's blood, but I don't think there's 
anything to support the idea that DD is doing anything to urge this 
process along, as sending Peter back implies.  I think DD would have 
been happy for Vapor!Mort to remain that while Harry learns and grows 
and all of that good stuff.  I don't think he knew about Crouch!
Moody, and I think the end of the book was not a *shock*, but not a 
planned event.  Am I seeing bubbles coming out of the DISHWASHER?

> 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. 

Because Peter has been outed, and Peter is *scared*.  Albus 
Dumbledore, who is very well connected and powerful, is now likely to 
be on his tail, and Peter is going to go running to the one thing 
that is 1) a known quality 2) has some chance of protecting him.  
Sure, there are a lot of questions about the dynamic between Voldie 
and Wormtail, so there's not too much more one can say, without some 
authorial revelation.  C'mon, we wanna know where he was....

<snip>

> 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' ?

The plan, such as it is, seems to involve keeping Harry safe because 
DD knows that he's the only one who can vanquish Voldie.  But don't 
forget what comes before the part you've snipped out:  "I cared more 
for your happiness than your knowing the truth..."  He's apologizing 
for the lack of information.  There's also an implicit "And I was 
wrong to do so" lurking in there, I think.  What seems to weigh 
heavily on DD's mind is the same thing that bugs Harry so badly at 
the end of the book--kill or be killed.  That fits in with a DD who 
says "not right to kill anyone".  Big difference between sins of 
omission and comission, as well.

Dumbledore has a plan, but I think postulating the level of 
involvement/manipulation that the Agent!Peter theory does makes DD 
out to be Preposterously Competent.  He's good, but he's not *that* 
good.  He makes some whammies of mistakes.  I'm not sure he really 
knows whatever happened at GH.  I'm pretty sure that he's actually 
wrong in his interpretation of the Prophecy, and Harry's going to do 
something elegantly different.

But I'm probably wrong.

-Nora descends from Parnassus via the ski lift