Pettigrew as Cedric's murderer (Was: What possessed Peter to restore Voldemort?

[justcarol67]

No: HPFGUIDX 149432

Carol earlier:
> > Why Peter actually went through with the assignment--kidnapping
and injuring Harry, murdering Cedric (not part of the original deal,
but promptly performed), violating a grave, and above all mutilating
himself, all to restore Voldemort and make him stronger, is unclear 
to me. Did he really think he had no alternative and that he'd be 
better off with a stronger Voldemort? Couldn't he have left him 
stewing in the cauldron without adding the ingredients (bone, blood,
and his own flesh) and at the same time released Harry, fulfilling his
life debt?
> 
> SSSusan:
> Questions I, also, have asked before.  I just don't GET Peter here.
 It does seem to me that it would've made more sense to have RUN from
 a weak & needy Voldy, leaving him to die.  Maybe it really *was* just
the fear that Voldy was so strong... that if some other DE came by 
and saved him... that he knew he'd be killed.  But that possibility
seems so remote that I just can't figure out why he didn't walk away
from a Voldy who *couldn't* at that time have killed him!

Carol again:
My sentiments exactly. I understand that it was fear of retaliation by
both sides and exposure as a mass murderer that sent Wormtail to
Voldie in the first place (see AmiableDorsai's argument upthread), yet
in GoF he's no better than a slave. When the stakes are raised and
he's ordered to cut off his own hand, with only dim hope of
restitution or reward, and his helpless master is at his mercy, why
doesn't he destroy him (and make good his life debt to Harry by
letting him go)? He's a rat Animagus and could live in the sewers or
the wild or even be adopted by another family. Even Azkaban (which he
could certainly escape if Sirius Black could, given his small size in
rat form and the Dementors' near-inability to sense animal emotions)
would be better than being forced to serve so cruel a master--and
compound his own crimes in the process. Yes, he's a coward. Yes, he's
"deeply evil" (nods to Alla). But he's also the epitome of an OFH!
self-interested character with no real loyalty to anyone but himself.
The chances of being discovered by some other DE after abandoning
Fetus!mort to his fate were slim; only Barty Crouch Jr. knew what
Wormtail was supposed to do, and he (like Wormtail) was believed to be
dead. And Voldemort himself would have been vaporized again if he
starved or was drowned or was destroyed by Harry. I don't see how *he*
(It) could have harmed Wormtail, whom he can't possess for reasons
stated in my previous post. So why didn't Wormtail, who hates and
fears LV, make a run for it when he had the chance? It makes no sense
to me.
> 
Carol earlier: 
> > Carol, wondering why Harry thinks that Voldemort <snip> murdered
Cedric when it was Wormtail who killed him
> 
> SSSusan:
> Ah, we've had this discussion before, Carol. :-)  I maintain that
Harry is correct in that thought.  It's the Charles Manson-type
parallel:  You ORDER the murder, you ARE the murderer in the legal
sense of things.  Harry *knows* Wormtail cast the spell, but he heard
Voldy order the killing and so knows that it was Voldy's INTENTION and
COMMAND which made the murder happen.  Hence, he's the murderer (the
cause of the murder) even if he's not the murderer (the one taking the
action).
> 
> Eeek, will this stance be torn apart by the *real* lawyers on the 
> list? :-)

Carol again:
I agree that Wormtail is the Agent (a person who acts for another) and
Voldemort is the Principal, in the sense of "one who employs another
to act as agent subject to the employer's general control and
instruction; specifically: the person from whom an agent's authority
derives" (Merriam-Webster Online, definition c). 

However, I'm pretty sure that in a court of law, the person ordering
the murder (the Principal) and the person committing the murder (the
Agent) are equally guilty, whether the agent is Charles Manson, Adolf
Hitler, Osama Bin Laden, or Voldemort. Surely a Mafia hit man is as
guilty of a particular murder as the Mob boss who sends him on his
mission. (I'd appreciate hearing from any lawyers on the list on this
point.) I suppose it could be argued that Wormtail is not a paid
assassin--Voldemort is his master and he's a servant--but that applies
to all the DEs. Does that mean that unless the DEs are acting on their
own initiative, like Bella and her crew torturing the Longbottoms into
insanity, they are mere puppets of their master and bear no
responsibility for their actions? If Dolohov tortured Muggles and
Travers killed the McKinnons (GOF, "The Pensieve") on Voldemort's
orders, does that make Dolohov and Travers innocent? I don't think so.
They were sent to Azkaban and should have stayed there. (Dolohov, at
least, is evil, evil, evil!)

I realize that Voldemort probably was not actually present giving the
order at the scene of these crimes as he was with Pettigrew, but I
don't see how that makes any difference. The Principal/Agent
relationship remains the same: he gave the order and they (willingly)
obeyed it. Wormtail cast the Killing Curse himself ("screeching it
into the night"), and, like the imprisoned DEs, he *chose* to obey the
order. He acted (as far as I can tell) out of fear of retribution, yet
he was using Voldemort's wand, and Voldemort, a helpless, wandless
bundle of rags, was at his mercy. Wormtail could have merely stupefied
Cedric to get him out of the way, arguing that there was no need to
kill him, or better yet, he could have chosen that moment to Apparate,
saving his hand and avoiding the commission of yet another crime. Or
rather two crimes: the tragic and pointless murder of an innocent boy
and the restoration of an evil overlord which made additional deaths
both possible and inevitable. By staying, he injured himself,
prolonged his servitude, and compounded his own crimes exponentially
by restoring a murderous tyrant to power.

BTW (to bring up someone else's argument, I think Karen's), Cedric
counts as one of Voldemort's murders in the graveyard scene only
because Wormtail used Voldemort's wand. If Wormtail had used his own
wand, Cedric's shadow would not have been included with the others. So
that in itself does not make Voldemort the murderer, or the sole
murderer. It was a team effort, and occurred only because LV gave the
order *and* Wormtail obeyed it. Wormtail would not have killed Cedric
on his own initiative, AFAIK, but Voldemort's order alone would not
have killed him, either. It took the combined actions of Principal and
Agent to kill him.

So, while I absolutely agree with Harry (in GoF, "The Pensieve") that
Voldemort is ultimately responsible for most of the murder and
destruction in the books (he is, after all, the villain of the
series), I don't think Wormtail can be exonerated in this instance any
more than in the deaths of the twelve Muggles he killed to save
himself and frame his friend. He chose to kill Cedric; his action
directly brought about the boy's death. He could have chosen to defy
Voldemort and refuse to obey the order, but instead he obeyed him
instantly. That he acted out of fear of retribution is no excuse, IMO,
any more than it was an excuse for betraying the Potters. Nor does the
fact that Voldemort gave the order excuse him for obeying it.

IMO, Wormtail is at least as guilty of Cedric's murder as Voldemort
and should not be exonerated. Our choices reveal what we are, says
Dumbledore, and Wormtail's choice to obey Fetus!mort and kill an
innocent boy reveals him as a scurvy, murdering coward who deserves to
go to Azkaban for this one crime alone, even without all his other
evil deeds.

Carol, listening to the wind whipping the palm trees and hoping it
will bring rain