Peter

[geoff_bannister]

No: HPFGUIDX 187725

--- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, "justcarol67" <justcarol67 at ...> wrote:

Geoff:
> <snip> I've forgotten which year Percy was in when he became a Prefect but it is obvious that he [Wormtail] was looked after by another of the family prior to Percy. <snip>
> 
> > This [the informatopm that Scabbers had been in the Weasley family twelve years as of PoA) raises the interesting question of how he managed it and also gives me some thoughts for when I come to draft the discussion for this chapter in a few weeks' time.

Carol: 
> At any rate, I suppose it's possible that another Weasley kid (say, Charlie, the animal lover) adopted Scabbers and then passed him on to Percy when he became a Prefect and/or Quidditch captain ("that's everyone in the family" indicates that Bill, Charlie, and Percy were all Prefects, the Twins being momentarily forgotten and Ginny being only fourteen at the time). I don't think it's "obvious," though. We don't know either way, and I'd like to think that lonely little Percy wanted a pet to make him feel like less of an outsider in his own family.

Geoff:
I take your point. I considered it "obvious" meaning that the rat had been 
in the Weasley family all that time and assumed that he had been passed 
to Percy, as the next in line to the Hogwarts First Year, from one of the 
older guys.

Your speculation that he had been just a pet prior to that thus seems quite 
valid as an alternative scenario.