Neville Longbotttom

[justcarol67]

No: HPFGUIDX 165079

colebiancardi:
> 
> quite frankly, what similarities?  Other than Neville being
round-faced, there aren't any.  Neville isn't a hanger-on like Peter,
Neville has courage to stand up to his friends(PS/SS), Neville isn't a
suck-up like Peter was, and so on.
> 
> In fact, Neville is very much his own person.  Just because Peter &
Neville both have round faces, doesn't mean there are similiarties. 
Neville's parents were both driven insane by DE's; Neville was
supposed to be thought a squib for many years by his family;  Peter
seemed to have some talent early on, due to his wormtail persona.  
> 
> I never "got" any similarities between Neville & Peter - Harry, way
back when, used to envision Peter as a Neville looking type - I
believe it was in PoA, but other than that, I cannot see anything
remotely tieing those 2 characters together.

Carol responds:
Exactly. The similarity exists only in Harry's mind before he meets
Peter or even knows that he's alive, much less that he's Scabbers.
Since Peter is described as a little fat boy and a tagalong, not as
good at magic as his friends (quite possibly a mistaken impression on
McGonagall's part), Harry *imagines* him as looking like Neville. He
also imagines him as the innocent victim of the murderous Sirius
Black, whose photo reminds him of the pictures of vampires that he's
seen in his DADA textbook. There's as much connection between Neville,
who, as you say, is genuinely brave despite his seeming timidity, and
the cowardly, self-serving Peter as between the Grim-looking Black and
Count Dracula. The similarity between Peter and Neville exists solely
in Harry's mind when he imagines Pettigrew futilely attempting to
stand up to the "murderin' traitor" who betrayed Lily and James. (He
underestimates Neville's courage and capabilities by casting him in
the role of timid little fat boy, but that's different from failing to
see a capacity for treachery, which in Neville's case surely doesn't
exist and in Peter's unquestionably does.) Neville's parents were
tortured into insanity by Death Eaters. It's most unlikely that he
will betray their memory and join Voldemort. 

I'm not sure that Pettigrew even has a round face like Neville's. When
we first see him, his grungy skin is hanging off him because he's lost
a lot of weight too quickly. IIRC, he has a pointy nose and small,
watery eyes. In short, he's a rat, literally and figuratively, and he
looks like one--a rather sad commentary on JKR's attempts to avoid
stereotyping and judging by appearance, but sometimes theme, like
character, has to be sacrificed to plot. 

Carol, who happens to like rats, at least the white ones with pink
eyes, which never betray anybody and like to ride on your shoulder