[HPforGrownups] Who recruited Peter Pettigrew for the Dark Lord?

[AnitaKH]

No: HPFGUIDX 113679



mgrantwich <mgrantwich at yahoo.com> wrote:
I have been giving some thought to this issue (when I should have 
been working but never mind that...)

I don't think that Pettigrew approached the DE's on his own initiative. By nature he's a reactor to things and forces; he doesn't make the first move but rather sits back and observes, watching to see what response would be best for him to make to maximize the benefits to himself. [cogent analysis snipped]


I don't think that anyone threatened Pettigrew: he would have responded to that by saying whatever he needed to say to get out of the immediate situation and then have gone into hiding until the all clear signal blew - probably in 
southern Tasmania. No, I think someone approached Peter and let him know the benefits of switching gangs. 


[snip again]
And Peter got in deeper and deeper until it really was a matter of facing Voldemort and giving up the info the Dark Lord wanted about the Potters.

But he didn't give it up because he was afraid - by the time he became Secret-Keeper, Peter had travelled a fair way down the road to wanting nothing but power, and he could see no place more powerful than being the Leader's right-hand (foreshadowing?) man. By the end of POA, Peter is a much darker and more ammoral wizard than he was 13 
years ago, when he was already turning into a serious criminal.

People will ask how he could have betrayed James when he idolized him. Answer: he didn't idolize James, he worshipped James' image, his hipness, his coolness, his persona. He didn't give a toss for James the person, like Lupin and Sirius did. So it wasn't a huge deal for 
him to betray James and Lily.

Had he been totally honest in the Shrieking Shack, he would have told Harry: "Harry, it was nothing personal." And the really scary thing is - he would have meant it sincerely.

akh replies:

I think you make some very good arguments for Peter's voluntary move to the Dark Side here.  I would like to add that there is another very basic interest: survival.  In OOTP, Moody talks about what appeared to be a systematic plan of killing off the Order members.  I would bet that earlier Order members tried to go into hiding, with little or no success.  By the time of the prophecy, his close associates have thrice defied LV; he's getting closer in line for extermination.  He can wait to have his courage challenged (not a good idea), or he can seek out ways to save his skin.  

He's become convinced that LV and the DE's are the winning side (read: cool and hip), and he's now in a position to be valuable, a sensation he hasn't felt with his old crowd.  (This point was made more clearly in the original post). I think his early pleas to Harry in the Shrieking Shack were not false; they just didn't cover all his motives for changing sides.

 

akh, whose light bulbs all burnt out at once (karma, anyone?)




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