Wormtail and Voldemort's Plans for Murder

[justcarol67]

No: HPFGUIDX 170384

Limerent wrote:
> I am rereading GoF and ran across an old note I made in the margins
where I wondered who else's murder Wormtail and Voldemort were
planning at the time of their conversation in Chapter One.
> 
> "My Lord, I must speak!"  said Wormtail, panic in his voice now.
> "All through our journey I have gone over the plan in my head --
> My Lord, Bertha Jorkin's disappearance will not go unnoticed for
> long, and if we proceed, if I murder --"
> "If?" whispered the second voice. "If? If you follow the plan,
> Wormtail, the Ministry need never know that anyone else has died.
> You will do it quietly and without fuss; I only wish that I could
> do it myself, but in my present condition ... Come, Wormtail, one
> more death and our path to Harry Potter is clear. I am not asking
> you to do it alone. By that time, my faithful servant will have
> rejoined us --"
> 
<snip>
> 
> Earlier in the chapter Wormtail says this...
> 
> 
> "My Lord, I do not say this out of concern for the boy!"  said
> Wormtail, his voice rising squeakily. "The boy is nothing to
> me, nothing at all! It is merely that if we were to use another
> witch or wizard -- any wizard -- the thing could be done so much
> more quickly! If you allowed me to leave you for a short while --
> you know that I can disguise myself most effectively -- I could
> be back here in as little as two days with a suitable person --"
> 
> So is Wormtail disguising himself as the murdered person at
> times so no-one suspects? We don't see him in the 5th book
> but he does appear at the beginning of the 6th book.
> 
> Does anyone have any thoughts on who was meant to be killed
> without the Ministry knowing?
> 
> limerent
>

Carol responds:

I'm guessing that you're using the Scholastic edition. (I wondered the
same thing when I first read GoF, also using that edition.) The
question was at least partially answered by the differences between
the US and UK editions. The UK edition reads "If I curse" rather than
"if I murder," "one more obstacle removed" rather than "one more
death," and "one more curse" rather than "one more murder." 

http://www.hp-lexicon.org/about/books/gf/differences-gf.html

It's possible that the U.S. editor misunderstood and thought that
Voldie and Wormtail were talking about Harry's murder rather than
removing the obstacle (Barty Sr. or Mad-Eye Moody) who stood in the
way of the plan. I think "one more curse" refers to the Imperius Curse
placed on Barty Sr. but I'm not sure. 

Other interpretations are more than welcome, but I think we can take
the UK edition as definitive here.

As for Wormtail's ability to disguise himself, I'm sure he's referring
to his ability to transform into a rat--much more effective for his
purposes than Polyjuice.

Carol, noting that such significant alterations by a copyeditor would
normally have been queried and wondering how they got past JKR (whose
exhaustion after completing GoF is the only explanation that occurs to me)