TBAY: Anthem of the SWAK DEAD

[hpfgu_elves]

No: HPFGUIDX 132755

Davenclaw wrote:

Yes, but Voldemort himself calls him something like a "miserable  
wizard" or something else derisive during his speech to the DEs in  
GoF.  I think this is a bit of a goof - either AK isn't that hard to 
do, or Peter shouldn't be able to do it, or maybe he can only do it 
using LV's wand because LV has somehow given him a little extra 
boost to  do things like that.<<

KathyK:

Kaylee already covered why we might not take LV's word on 
Pettigrew's ability, so I'll leave that.  

I've always thought Pettigrew must be more powerful than we are led 
to believe.  I mean, our main source of information on Peter's 
abilities are an angry and vengeful Sirius.  He could have been 
exaggerating Wormtail's weakness.  Or perhaps not.  It's likely he 
was simply underestimating Pettigrew.  According to McGonagall in 
PoA, Sirius and James were "exceptionally bright."*  Now those 
exceptionally bright people who don't need to study (See 
OoP, "Snape's Worst Memory"), may simply *think* Pettigrew weak and 
incompetent in comparison with their own abilities.  

Our other source of information, that Pettigrew was "Never quite in 
thier league, talent-wise,"* and was hopeless at dueling, is 
McGonagall.  I'd wonder what being hopeless at dueling entails.  Is 
it that he's unable to do the spells, or that he's just not as quick 
on his feet with casting as others?  And she does say Wormtail was 
not in James and Sirius's league, not that he had no abilities or 
talent.  So I think it quite likely Peter is able to cast AK all on 
his own.

*All PoA quotes come from Ch. 10 "The Marauder's Map"

KathyK, cutting it short and dashing off to work