Pettigrew, Snape, and the Unbreakable Vow: A thought experiment

[kiricat4001]

No: HPFGUIDX 135001

--- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, "lupinlore" <bob.oliver at c...> 
 
> What is the main theme around Peter Pettigrew?  What one quote 
sums 
> up the big questions that lurk with regard to Wormtail.  I submit 
> it's when he says that if he hadn't betrayed the Potters Voldemort 
> would have killed him, and he is answered "Then you should have 
died, 
> as we would have died for you."  In other words, the theme is 
trust.
> 
> What is the main theme with Snape?  Trust, once again.  And once 
> again we are provided a situation in which, on the face of it, a 
man 
> has to keep faith with his friends and die or break faith with his 
> friends and live.  And Harry calling Snape a coward at the end of 
> OOTP surely hit a nerve.  As someone has recently commented, the 
> insults that hit home are the ones that, deep in our own hearts, 
we 
> think are true.
> 
> We know Peter owes Harry.  We know Peter is working for Snape.  
Will 
> the theme of trust arise yet again?
> 
> A scene provided for your approval or contempt:  Snape, Harry, and 
> Wormtail in confrontation.
> 
> HARRY:  How could you have done it?  HOW?
> 
> SNAPE:  If I had not killed Dumbledore, I would have died.
> 
> WORMTAIL:  Then you should have died, as he would have died for 
you.
> 
> And thus the fall of Snape is the redemption of Peter.
> 

Marianne:

I think that you have touched on two themes that will play out in 
book 7.  Trust (along with loyalty) and cowardice.  We don't really 
have enough on Peter to know how or why he turned.  He said it was 
to save his own life.  But, how enthusiastic a DE was he?  Did he 
start small and then, as time went on, give information that was 
more and more important?  Did he ever regret his actions? Did he go 
through agonizing rationalizations to excuse his betrayals in his 
own mind until it got to the point where he realized he was in it up 
to his neck?  Or was his seduction by the Dark Side relatively 
painless and he spent a year secretly giggling to himself that he 
was fooling everyone around him, all those people who thought he was 
never as skilled a wizard as James and Sirius?  

The reason I bring this up is that the idea of the redemption of 
Peter needs quite a bit of fleshing out to be compelling, whether or 
not it coincides with the fall of Snape. I wouldn't buy Peter 
suddenly having an epiphany about trust and loyalty and thus being 
compelled to do the right thing.  However, I could buy Peter causing 
the fall of Snape or helping in the demise of Vmort because it's in 
his best, self-serving interests to do so. And, thus at the end of 
the story, great evil would be defeated, but we'd all know that 
every-day, garden variety bad people would still be able to figure 
out how to keep a place in the world.  

As far as cowardice goes, I think that theme will come up again 
because it seems to be a long-term, hot button issue for Snape.  In 
OoP Snape enjoys insinuating to Sirius that he is a coward for 
staying hidden at 12 GP.  That scene made me wonder if young Severus 
had ever been taunted for cowardice by the Marauders. For someone 
who insists that it is a weakness to let one's emotions overtake 
them, Snape sure seems to have a problem controlling his reaction to 
that particular charge.

Marianne