[HPforGrownups] Pettigrew, Snape, and the Unbreakable Vow: A thought experiment

[Magda Grantwich]

No: HPFGUIDX 135608

--- lupinlore <bob.oliver at cox.net> wrote:
> 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.
>
> What think you?

Well, personally, I'd throw up all over the book.

For me, the main aspect of Pettigrew's character is his refusal to
face the truth about himself.  When he kept insisting in the
Shrieking Shack that he had no choice, that he's weak and not strong
like the other Marauders were, that there was nothing else he could
have done - he wasn't lying in that he actually believed all that to
be true.  And since he believed that he had no choice he hasn't yet
taken responsibility for betraying James and Lily.  After all, if
there was nothing he could have done differently, nothing's really
his fault, right?

The first step towards redemption or atonement for just about
anything is an acknowledgement that you have done wrong and want to
make up for it, as much as possible.  I see no sign yet that Peter
has achieved that level of self-knowledge.  Pettigrew's coasts as
much as possible and gets by with doing as little as he can get away
with.  Making up to more powerful people is a talent he does have in
spades.

I can see Pettigrew making a calculation that Harry's going to come
out on top and trying to help him during the Final Confrontation With
Voldemort; it doesn't really work and Pettigrew gets killed but it
does allow Harry to save himself.

But Snape will probably be dead by that point.

Magda (who thinks Pettigrew won't be redeemed because he doesn't see
the percentage in it for himself)


		
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