Importance of Pettigrew?

[justcarol67]

No: HPFGUIDX 171631

charlie cairns wrote:
>
> As an inactive member of this group I've probably missed this, but
has there been discussion on the importance of Pettigrew's silver
hand? And his debt to Harry?

Carol responds:

Oddly, almost no one seems interested in Pettigrew and his silver
hand, maybe because he's so transparently cowardly, self-serving, and
treacherous that there's no point in exploring his loyalties (unless
you're Pippin advocating ESE!Lupin and two Wormtails ;-) ). I posted
on the life debt in relation to the silver hand in
 
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/HPforGrownups/message/168297

and received no response (possibly because I brought Snape into the
fanciful scenario I proposed. I still like the idea of Pettigrew in
Snape's pocket as an ace up his sleeve, but he's not an essential
component of the scenario).

Seriously, however, aside from what we know about Wormtail (he was a
Marauder, he's a rat Animagus, he spied on the Order for DD and
betrayed the Potters to their deaths and then faked his own, he lived
twelve years as a rat and then escaped to Voldemort and provided him
with a fetal form, he kidnapped Bertha Jorkins, he aided in the Harry
kidnap plot, he killed Cedric Diggory on LV's orders, he "gave his
right hand" to restore Voldemort, he was assigned to "assist"
supposed-DE Snape and apparently to spy on him as well, etc.), two
Pettigrew motifs stand out as unresolved--the life debt and the silver
hand that we know can crush a twig to powder and which he strokes
fondly in HBP (it appears to be his "precious," the only thing in his
wretched life that he values). The silver hand must have been
introduced for a reason--it's a Chekhov's gun waiting to be fired. The
same is true for the life debt: We can be sure that DD's prediction
that LV may one day regret having a servant indebted to Harry Potter
will prove true. Simplicity dictates that these two Chekhov's guns
will be fired together, IOW that the silver hand will be used to pay
the life debt.

Given the association of silver with werewolves, it seems logical (to
me) to anticipate Wormtail's repaying his lifedebt by saving Harry
from a werewolf, which Wormtail kills with his silver hand (dying in
the process--we can't have a living Wormtail once he's redeemed
himself, now can we?). JKR has said that Wormtail won't kill Lupin,
but there's always the odious Fenrir Greyback, who may be in Azkaban
as of the end of HBP but probably won't be there long, and who needs
to be dispensed with. What better way than to have PP do it, as
foreshadowed by his previous "noble" act, biting Gregory Goyle?

One more thing we know about Peter Pettigrew, who BTW is more talented
than either his friends or his enemies give him credit for: He was
sorted into Gryffindor, and that, too, must have happened for a reason
(other than allowing him to be a ragtag follower of the other
Marauders who learned to become an Animagus). There is a seed of
courage buried deep inside the fattest and most timid Hobbit, erm,
Gryffindor, even one as scummy as Peter Pettigrew.

Carol, hoping that JKR will not force us to endure a Boromir-style
redemption scene involving Wormtail