Was Harry Draco and bathroom/Now Harry and Peter Pettigrew

[justcarol67]

No: HPFGUIDX 162809

Roberta:
> 
> You seem to be saying that Harry and Pettigrew assumed Pettigrew 
> would be sent to Azkaban, but in reality Pettigrew would have been 
> kissed.  

Carol responds:
That's what I originally thought, yes, but I was conceding in this
post that the rest of the quotation, which I had snipped, suggested
otherwise. But, nevertheless, Harry saves Wormtail's life *only* to
turn him over to the Dementors, who will take him back to Azkaban, and
even if they don't suck out his soul, he'll be in their power,
suffering despair and even madness. And Harry is fine with that. (Had
Hary not prevented Lupin and Black from murdering Pettigrew, Black
*would* have had his soul sucked and most likely werewolf!Lupin
wouldn't have fared much better.)

Roberta:
However, being handed over to the Dementors is not synonymous with
being kissed.  Everyone who goes to Azkaban is handed over to the
Dementors.  

Carol:
Yes. That's what I was conceding. But to be sent to Azkaban is to have
the Dementors for company. They may not suck out your soul, but they
will suck out every bit of happiness in you--and your sanity along
with it. Look at the mental state of Sirius Black after twelve years,
and he could fight it by turning into a dog. Being sent to Azkaban, as
Harry knows, is not like being sent to a modern prison with gym
equipment and computer privilieges for the prisoners. It's a living
hell. Harry, of all people, knows what Dementors can do to the mind.
His Boggart is a Dementor, after all.

Roberta:
And as Kelly points out elsewhere in the post to which you were
replying, the only people in canon so far who have either been kissed
or been specifically condemned to be kissed are Sirius and Barty
Crouch, Jr., both of whom are Azkaban escapees. <snip>
> We can't assume that Pettigrew, who has never been convicted of 
> anything, would be sentenced to be kissed right off the bat.  Sirius 
> was sentenced to life in Azkaban for killing thirteen people and for 
> betraying the Potters (although this second crime was not 
> publicized).  It's reasonable to expect that Pettigrew would have 
> gotten the same sentence for the same crime if they had made it up
to the castle.  (And Pettigrew only killed twelve people!  Maybe
they'll let him out on parole in eighty years.)

Carol:
On a sadly ironic note, regarding your remark that "Pettigrew only
killed twelve people," we could add that those twelve people were
Muggles, which might lessen the crime in the WW's eyes. But he did
betray the Potters (though I don't think that's why Sirius Black was
arrested or what he was sentenced for). So reserving soul-sucking for
escapees in an odd way shows the WW's priorities. Maybe if the
Dementors sucked the souls of all the murderers or those who used
Unforgiveable Curses, they wouldn't have enough prisoners to suck the
happiness out of.

So take your pick. Which is worse, having your soul sucked out so that
you're robbed of your identity and your memories or whatever losing
your soul entails or sitting in a cold, bleak cell in Azkaban for the
rest of your life with only the swooping Dementors and your own
despair and self-hatred for company? As Sirius Black says, many
prisoners died or went mad within a year of being sent there. Barty
Crouch Jr. was on the point of dying when his parents (foolishly)
rescued him. So Harry's mercy in sparing Wormtail is, IMO, not an act
of kindness to Wormtail, who might be better off dead than being sent
to that hellhole. It's his father's friends, Lupin and Black, that
Harry saves from a terrible fate--and from the guilt of having
performed the act of murder.

Carol, remembering Barty Jr.'s terror of the Dementors in the Pensieve
scene in GoF and picturing Wormtail in his place