Killing Pettigrew: Yea or Nay?

[pippin_999]

No: HPFGUIDX 116145


--- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, "ericoppen" 
<oppen at m...> wrote:
>  In the  old days, public executions were popular spectator 
sights, and corporal punishment was the norm in schools, the 
armed services, and  (on an informal basis) on the job---mouth 
off to your supervisor in  the factory and you'd be spitting out 
teeth, no error.  In their  cultural isolation, the poor Wizards have 
not realized that Risk is  Wrong, nor that Revenge is Always 
Wrong---they're still in the "eye  for an eye, tooth for a tooth"
stage of things.  <

Pippin:
It seems public executions are not a common spectator sight for 
children in the WW at present, since few in Harry's fifth year class 
can see the thestrals.

It's a theme carried through the book, beginning with Snape's 
threat to poison Neville's toad, that violent death is not a fit
sight for children's eyes -- or indeed for anyone's unless it 
cannot be avoided.

Sirius does know that revenge is always wrong, and that 
informal justice is not just -- he says that Moody always brought 
people in alive where possible and that not to do so would have 
brought him down to the level of the Death Eaters. He's also very 
bitter about not having had a trial.


Dumbledore also says that James wouldn't have wanted Peter 
killed, which is as good as JKR saying "You may think Peter 
deserved to die, but take it from me, there's more coming." 

 Sirius is obviously unbalanced, but  barring ESE!Lupin, I'm as 
mystified as anyone that Lupin wanted to execute Peter. Even if 
there was a trial and Peter got off, why should he think that Peter 
was going to run off and rejoin Voldemort? Sirius himself says 
that it was unlikely to happen unless there were signs that 
Voldemort was stirring again. 

Here's something else that bothers me. At the beginning of GoF, 
Peter tries to persuade Voldebabe that he should be allowed to 
go fetch another wizard, and Voldebabe  thinks this is a plan to 
desert him. But that is very strange.

Voldebabe is very weak, so weak that he cannot survive in that 
form more than a few hours without feeding. Surely all Wormtail 
would have to do is wait, and within a few hours Voldebabe 
would be too weak to hold a wand. What, or who, compels 
Wormtail to stay?

Voldemort says later on in the graveyard that Wormtail returned 
to him only out of fear of his old friends. Yet it seems Wormtail 
thinks he could  have left, if only Voldemort gave him permission. 
Why, if his old friends are hunting him...they wouldn't care if he 
had Voldie's permission, right?

Pippin