[HPforGrownups] Sirius and Pettigrew (WAS: House Elves and Slavery)

[elfundeb]

No: HPFGUIDX 126683

I sent this post 14 hours ago, but I'm trying again because the first
one never made it to the list.

Nora:
> Question: do you find Harry's rejection of Draco on their first two
> meetings to be personal or ideological?  I find it, interestingly
> enough, to be both.  Harry rejects Draco because of the attitudes
> Draco espouses, which manifest themselves in distinctly unpleasant
> behavior which reminds Harry of Dudley.

I agree with your take.  Draco's attitude reminded him of Dudley, but
he also made anti-muggleborn comments in Madam Malkin's shop.  Harry,
the son of a muggleborn witch, would be predisposed to find such
comments offensive.

With Sirius, it may well
> have been the same thing.  His near family is so unpleasant strongly
> *because* of the ideology that they espouse.  They make nasty
> comments about other families who are inferior, they have strict
> standards of decorum and ideas about what the proper place of
> everyone is in the world, and they don't tolerate variation.  Twelve-
> year old Ron knows what "Mudblood" means, both as in what it stands
> for--but he also has a definite idea about the approach to the world
> and other people that those who use it have.  It's not a word that a
> nice, in the deep sense of the word, person uses.

True, but Ron was raised in a very different kind of family.  He
learned at home that "Mudblood" prejudice was offensive.  Sirius grew
up in a family where the use of the word was evidently acceptable, and
if the Blacks traveled only in like-minded circles, he would not have
learned of other points of view until he arrived at Hogwarts.  In
fact, one backstory I've considered is that the trouble started
between Sirius and his family when he arrived at Hogwarts and was
sorted into Gryffindor, infuriating his family.

> Pettigrew is a hole, but if we take your read on the Marauders'
> dynamic, we end up with a lot of unexplained things.  The first is
> that your take is profoundly cynical, and I'm not sure that's the
> direction that JKR is going to take their story--it takes a lot of
> the potential pathos and meaning out of it if Peter was always this
> complete toady.  As well, if Peter was always such a tool, was he a
> good enough actor yet committed enough to a scary cause to go into
> the Order?  Dumbledore must have approved of him.

If JKR wants there to be pathos and meaning in Pettigrew's story, then
she made a big mistake in her portrayal of Peter in the Pensieve
scene.   It's one thing for Transfiguration to be more difficult for
him than the others, but his supposed inability to remember werewolf
characteristics in the OWL exam is just silly and badly overplays his
alleged inferiority.  I think his accomplishments when Sirius hunted
him down after Godric's Hollow establish that he was much more capable
than Sirius (or McGonagall) gave him credit for.  Dumbledore must have
recognized more, but Dumbledore is known for giving changes to those
whose talents are dismissed by others.  I see no reason why he would
not give Pettigrew a chance, in spite of the risks.

> Sirius' failures fall into the pattern of the personal.  He treats
> Kreacher badly largely because Kreacher is a horrible reminder of the
> past that he thought he had escaped forever, that he is now chained
> to as his mental health degenerates.

I think this is a reasonable explanation.  My problem is that JKR
gives us *two* different, and in my view, inconsistent explanations.
He loathed Kreacher because he reminded him of the horrible home that
he escaped, *and* he didn't hate Kreacher but simply regarded him as a
servant unworthy of notice.

> And, ummm, is Sirius alone to blame for the Secret Keeper switch?
> Because I seem to remember two other people being involved in it as
> well, and we all know who wore the pants in THAT family.  (Can you
> see Lily meekly acceding to something she isn't completely sure of
> that involves the safety of herself and her family?  I can't either.)

I don't think Lily would have acceded to the plan because she thought
Pettigrew was a "weak, talentless thing."  As I wrote above,
Pettigrew's character only makes sense if he is in fact smarter than
JKR (and Sirius and McGonagall) seem to believe.  Sirius, though, was
a bad choice as secret keeper because he was the obvious choice.

Debbie