Wasted potential in Pettigrew and my overall disappointment with DH

[justcarol67]

No: HPFGUIDX 173517

"guzuguzu" wrote:
> >
> > Peter Pettigrew: Wasted potential for a character:

Clio responded:
<snip>
> I totally agree with your view on Pettigrew and DH in general.
> Although I'm dissappointed with how many stories and detours we saw
> during the previous books turned out to be irrelevant, I think the
> problem may lie in our, or at least my 'wrong' perception of the
> story. Let me explain.
> 
> I think for JKR it was very important to make a point about how the
> future is in the hands of children. The trio and their friends are
the ones that save the world. The focus of the epilogue is on the
newest generation of the wizarding world. And isn't the poem at the
beginning of the books also about children? <snip>

Carol responds:
I think you're right here. It's always been clear that, for JKR, the
book's are Harry's story. (Which doesn't prevent the rest of us for
caring about her other characters or disagreeing with her perceptions.
I don't think that authorial intentions are realizable because of the
differences between any two human minds. Even if she said everything
she wanted to say, conveying her message perfectly, I don't think any
reader would accept all parts of it.) 

But, yes. this story is about HRH and the epilogue is about the next
generation. Pettigrew was lost before the story began. James and Lily
were dead. Black dies recklessly fighting Bellatrix, a Gryffindor to
the last; Lupin struggles with his weakness and overcome its it before
dying along with his wife (at least they produced a child); Snape
struggled with guilt and redeemed himself through courage and love (if
she had simply married James and lived, he would have stayed with the
DEs; having brought about her death, tried and failed to prevent it,
he wears his bereavement in the form of black robes and tries to
expiate his guilt by protecting Harry, always for Lily. It's clear to
me that he dies redeemed, providing invaluable help to Harry with his
last act, but nevertheless, he dies. His generation must pass the
torch to Harry's.) <snip>

Clio:
> I also think all whole generation of the marauders is killed on
purpose as the books progress. They depicted as a generation lost. At
least I think JKR intended it this way. That's why Lupin has to die at
his climax of happiness. Although she gives us a lot of backstory, JKR
isn't interested in the fate of that generation and that's why none of
them is shown to overcome their limitations and torments. Sirius never
get's to enjoy his freedom, Lupin can't live in acceptance of him
being a werewolf. The even more conflicted characters Wormtail and
Snape are not used to their full narrative potential and die
unrecognized and in a rather dissappointing way. 

Carol responds:
JKR didn't originally intend for Lupin to die (he replaced Mr.
Weasley, who died in Book 5), but at some point, I think she came
around to something like the view you're describing (although I'm not
sure about "the climax of his happiness," which sound like poor Cedric
to me). James we never knew (except for the arrogant, bullying berk of
the Pensieve scene), but Lupin and Black are clearly happier in the
afterlife, where, we can safely assume, Lupin is no longer a werewolf.
I assume that Snape, having died atoning for the sin he was trying to
expiate for so many years, is similarly happy, though, of course, he
doesn't appear in the scene with Harry's loved ones. Lupin is only
there because he was a Marauder; he wasn't really that close to Harry.

I've discussed Snape's character arc and function in the narrative
elsewhere; I never wanted his motivation to be Lily, but it works for
his posthumous redemption scene in a way that no other motive would
have worked. That Harry accepts Snape's love for his mother shows that
it was not lust but devotion mixed with guilt over her death that he
could not assuage while he lived. Harry's reaction is surely meant to
guide ours; Snape gave him helped he never had a chance to
acknowledge; at the end, a fleeting look into each other's eyes in
which Snape, perhaps, sees Lily--or perhaps see, for the first time,
Lily's son, who is about to sacrifice himself for the WW as Lily did
for her son, and Harry sees a tormented and dying man desperate to
convey some message, not at all the enemy he expected to confront.
Shock becomes compassion and understanding, remarkable because Snape
has also told him that he must sacrifice himself. It's not what we
were expecting, but, IMO, it's powerful. Harry could not have done
what he did without Snape.

To give Pettigrew, a cringing rat who betrayed the Potters to
Voldemort, hid for twelve years as a rat, escaped to resurrect
Voldemort, murdered Cedric, and tied Harry to a gravestone while he
took his blood to add to the restorative potion a redemption scene
comparable to Snape's would have been (IMO) pointless and revolting.
He has literally given his right hand for Voldemort's resurrection,
and his reward is a cursed silver hand. "May your loyalty never
waver," says LV as he bestows this Trojan horse of a gift. Perhaps he
merely knows that Wormtail is weak, having heard him timidly suggest
using another wizard than Harry for the potion. Perhaps he knows that
Pettigrew owes Harry a lifedebt. Either way, when his loyalty does
waver in the Malfoy's house as Harry reminds him of the lifedebt, DD's
prediction comes true: "I'm much mistaken if Voldemort wants his
servant in the debt of Harry Potter. . . . The time may come when you
will be very glad that you saved Pettigrew's life" (GoF Am. ed. 427).
So the life debt saves Harry and his friends, not by causing the
ignoble Wormtail to redeem himself by some brave deed but by causing
his death and allowing them to escape. 

Clio:
> The point is, to me it looks like I have taken the wrong
perspectives on the books. The marauder generation was never ment to
be of key importance. That realization makes me feel hollow and
dissappointed. <snip>

Carol:
I agree with regard to MWPP and Lily, but Snape is critical to the
story. The Harry/Voldemort arc begins with Snape the eavesdropper
bringing the partial Prophecy to Voldemort. Throughout the books,
Snape has been helping Harry in ways that no one else could do, from
teaching him about bezoars to killing DD on DD's orders. (The rapport
between the HBP and Harry was not for nothing; it paved the way to the
Pensieve scene in DH, as did the glimpse of Snape's memories in OoP.)
Harry had to get past his hatred of Snape to be in the right state of
mind to sacrifice himself. And Snape brings it all full circle by
giving him the memory that not only shows Harry who he truly is,
faults and all, but by making possible the willing self-sacrifice
without which Harry could not have defeated Voldemort. Snape is and
has always been an essential element of the main plot, whether he was
off-page or on.

Even so, I understand your feelings and empathize with them. Harry is
the hero. This is his book. Snape as Snape is not important in JKR's
view (adult readers obviously disagree); it's Harry's view of Snape
that matters to the story. His eyes are opened and his perception is
cleared, too late to save Snape but not too late to clear his name.
And having Harry vindicate Snape publicly and name his second son
after him means more to me than anything in the books. It's as much of
a tribute to Snape as we can expect from JKR, who gave him the virtue
that she values most highly but still does nto see him as a hero.
That's her prerogative. For me, he's the most moving and dynamic
character in the books, and he has loyalty, perseverance, and love as
well as courage--not to mention intelligence and cunning. He can
"hoodwink" Lord Voldemort and outduel any other character except
posssibly LV. (Imagine if he'd fought McGonagall instead of defending
himself! and George Weasley's ear was lost because the DE heard Snape
shout Sectumsempra swerved out of the way, removing his hand from the
path of the spell. But Snape's shout nevertheless saved Lupin, who
hated him and thought the worst.) He has watched many people die
(never killed anyone except DD, on DD's orders) but "Lately, only
those I could not save." Surely, that's a huge change from the young
man who cared only about Lily.

Healer!Snape! How I wanted you back for DH. You'd have been such a
boon to St. Mungo's.

Clio:
> And Snape and the reinforcemnt of his story through the Bloody
Baron's background teaches us what? Don't trust a Slytherin, even if
he is in love with you. They are all obsessive, sick stalkers, who
will kill you?   
> 
Carol:
I still don't see stalker Snape. He left her alone after she refused
to forgive him and begged both Voldemort and DD to save her. I'm quite
sure he would not have come near her, knowing that she would despise
him as a Death Eater. He only wanted her alive, not understanding how
terrible life would have been for her without her husband and son. His
love was selfish at first, but I don't think it was ever sullied. And
wouldn't you, coming upon a photograph of the person you had loved and
lost in the home of a dead man, have at least been tempted to take
that photograph and signature? They were all he would ever have of
her. It wasn't an admirable act, but he had devoted his life to her.

As for the Bloody Baron, surely he's meant to contrast with Snape. The
Baron murdered the woman he loved; Snape tried and failed to save
Lily, whose death was in large part his fault, and spent the rest of
his life repenting that sin and the last seven years protecting her
son and secretly fighting her murderer, at terrible cost to himself.
Snape's love starts out selfish, but it's never as selfish as the
Bloody Baron's. Nor will Snape spend eternity groaning and clanking on
the Astronomy Tower. ;-)

Carol, reconciled to Snape's fate because he must be happier in the
afterlife, but missing snarky Snape from the early books