Sirius and Pettigrew (WAS: House Elves and Slavery)

[nrenka]

No: HPFGUIDX 126713


--- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, elfundeb <elfundeb at g...> wrote:

<snip>

> Debbie:
>
> 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.

There is the possibility of some other views in the Black family: I'm 
thinking of Uncle Alphard.  What else I was trying to bring up is 
that it *does* occur that people decide, from an insider perspective 
precisely without much exposure to the outside, that the behavior of 
the inside is distasteful and wrong.

Given what Sorting seems to indicate about a person in this 
essentialist world, Sirius going into Gryffindor is a good indication 
that he had already developed some differences of thinking about the 
world from his parents, and becoming friends with James Potter 
(pureblood family that doesn't seem to be pureblood obsessed) 
probably only made it worse.
 
> 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.

I think it's a deliberate narrative strategy. :)  We've been set up 
with two presentations which really don't fit together comfortably at 
all; Marauders as great group of friends, Marauders as petty and 
dismissive of their own members.  What is missing is enough 
information to put both aspects into one picture, because at present 
too many things don't make sense.  [The other, underrated 
possibility, is that we're extrapolating from age 15 to age 21 with 
excessive ease.]  To make it really interesting, I think this has us-
the-readers doing precisely what Harry does; confused by the 
disjunction of material, we tend to swing pretty hard to one side or 
another (I've seen at least one 'James Imperio'ed Lily' theory out 
there, for example), when the actual thing is more in the middle.

Peter and his role are awfully ambiguous at present, hence the 
formulations of the DISHWASHER crew that it's possible that Peter is 
actually an agent of Dumbledore, or that he's innocent and Lupin 
really did it.  It's the kind of story where minimal revelations can 
have maximal effects on how we see the character--much like Snape's 
character arc, which has been set up so that any number of "Ahas!" 
could be the right one (but we're probably only going to get one).
 
> 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.

If I understand you correctly, then, Sirius is to blame for 
suggesting Peter because he thought he was the weak, talentless thing 
(James presumably agreeing?), but Peter was sharp enough to fool 
Dumbledore and Lily, two people who are always presented to us as 
fairly acute.  It's all rather tangled, but I don't see the basic 
presentation of the facts changing a terrible amount (famous last 
words, I know), which means there's some explainin' to be done.

-Nora gets up and going through the rain