[HPforGrownups] Re: What's in the Box?

[Bart Lidofsky]

No: HPFGUIDX 176996

Sali:
>Peter Pettigrew - the how and the why of his betrayal. His motivations, back
>story, anything about the boy/man he was as opposed to the one we see in the
>now of the books.

Bart:
I have my own ideas on that, mostly gathered from hints in the books and a basic knowledge of people. 

First of all, while the canon is kind of self-contradictory on this, there APPEAR to be about 10 students in each house in each class (about 40 per year, about 280 students in the school). Given this, it is not unreasonable that the 4 boys were the only male students from their year in Gryffindor. It's certainly no stretch to suppose that they were roommates. It's been implied, if not established, that James, and to a lesser extent, Sirius, were both quite charismatic. And, especially since their idea of fun included a lot of rule breaking, it would be VERY difficult indeed to exclude one of their roommates without said roommate resenting it, possibly even showing the resentment in marriettish ways. Also, James and Sirius, by implication, and Lupin, by demonstration, were all quite intelligent. Peter, on the other hand, was not quite as intelligent. So, the boys let Peter in on their fun. They almost certainly liked Peter. But they did not respect him. And (as has been shown in canon), James and Sirius, at least, were not very nice as teenagers, and Lupin was too dependent on their friendship to rock the boat too much. And, noting the conversation in SWM, they could be pretty condescending to Peter, probably continually reminding him how lucky he was to have friends like them. While it's also been established that James, at least, mellowed out by the time he was 17, he probably still thought of Peter as a charity case. Consider how he and Sirius figured that nobody would possibly guess that Peter was the secret keeper. It shows that, while they thought of Peter as a trusted friend, they did not have a very high opinion of him as a human being. They probably STILL had the mentality that they were doing him a favor by allowing him to associate with them.

Having been, among other things, a counselor, I have found that a not uncommon way for one member of a couple to control another (usually the male controlling the female, in my experience), is to treat them just that way. He puts the woman down, emphasizing her lack of value, and tell her how lucky she is that he is willing to be her boyfriend. I have seen women get the life sucked out of them by these relationships. And, from Sirius, Lupin, and SWM, I see them doing exactly that to Peter, albeit without knowing what they were doing. 

Then comes VW1. Morty knows that the major force against him is the OOP. So, through his means, he finds out who the weak link is in the OOP, and discovers that it's Peter (he probably even recognizes the methodology that James & Sirius used on Peter; it's a sociopathic sort of thing to do). And, as a sociopath, he knows exactly how to bring Peter over. He lets Peter know that Peter really is an important person, and if he joined the DE's, they would treat him as an equal, or even a superior. He pulls Peter in, and maintains power over Peter by using the same methods that James and Sirius used, only with deliberate knowledge, and not through thoughtlessness. And although Peter was a rat, he was Morty's toad.

Bart