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

[naamagatus]

No: HPFGUIDX 115584


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

I concur with everything Nora said, and I'd like to add to it. When 
Sirius confronted Pettigrew, the whole point is that Peter was ready 
and prepared. Like Nora said, Sirius didn't come prepared for a duel, 
so it was easy for Peter to carry out his well thought out plan. I 
imagine that only when he finally transformed into a rat and 
disappeared, Sirius grasped what he had done - looking around, seeing 
the blasted street, seeing the corpses, seeing the bloody robes; 
realizing that Peter is a traitor, and that NOBODY alive now knows 
about the switch. People have speculated about his laugh - it's the 
insane laughter of despair, facing the final absurdity of life. 
Another reason why conspiracy theories in this instance are 
completely unconvincing in my mind.


Naama