HBP: DEFT PIG

[Smythe, Boyd T {FLNA}]

S omebody
P lease
O verturn
I ll-begotten
L ist
E lves'
R ules on
S poilers

Two very odd things have struck me. Remember Peter Pettigrew? He of the
once-central role in this drama? Silver hand? Nursed Vapor!Mort back to
health? Blew up umpteen Muggles and apparently framed dear old Sirius?
Former Marauder? Wormtail? Him?

Where in the heck was he in HBP?

Yes, he was shown meekly trying to eavesdrop on snarky Severus...and getting
zapped for his trouble. And then...nothing. Odd. Very peculiar, in fact, now
that I'm less blinded by the most recent cannon. Especially in light of this
(thanks Lexicon):

Rita: What about Wormtail? Is there hope for redemption? 
JK Rowling replies -> There's always hope, of course. You'll find out more
about our rat-like friend in book six (WBD).

OK, so what did we find out about him? He's the ambiguous male companion of
Sevvy at Spinners End. Great, very useful Jo, thanks tons. Hardly seems to
fit that World Book Day online chat from last year. So that's odd thing #1.

The other odd thing is that someone went to all the trouble of finding a
horcrux, then left a signed note saying they're going to destroy it. Huh? If
they're really trying to kill Voldemort, why sign it? If killing him is not
the point, then why steal & destroy it? Here's the note: "To the Dark Lord.
I know I will be dead long before you read this but I want you to know that
it was I who discovered your secret. I have stolen the real Horcrux and
intend to destroy it as soon as I can. I face death in the hope that when
you meet your match, you will be mortal once more. [Initials]" (HBP) Now
there's someone with a score to settle! And despite knowing they will die
before Voldy, they don't plan on confronting him! Very passive-aggressive;
not like any of our heroes. Odd.

Those two oddments cause me to create my first post-HBP theory: Don't
Everybody Forget That Peter Is Germane (DEFT PIG).

DEFT PIG:
1. Choices are important to Jo. She went out of her way to have DD explain
that the prophecy did not rob Harry of personal choice. Even Felix didn't
rob anyone of choices, it just gave Harry small nudges toward the choices
that would work out best for him. So it would be un-JKR-like to cause
Peter's life-debt to Harry to rob little Wormtail of his choices, right? I
think that means that Peter's choices will unintentionally end up helping
Harry. Life-debt repaid, choices maintained.
2. Peter is a pretty good wizard (the GH explosion) who feels rejected by
the Dark Lord he admires. He is constantly mocked. He wishes he could hurt
Voldemort. That'd show Voldy that there's more to Wormtail! But he'd have to
do it very passive aggressively; no direct confrontation for Peter. Still,
this is personal, so he wants LV to know who did him in--maybe someday after
Peter is dead.
3. Pre-GH Peter may well have played a minor role in helping Voldemort steal
and/or create one or more of his horcruxes--so knows how to find where some
were hidden.
4. He steals one or more horcruxes and leaves a note to say, "I did it! See,
Wormtail wasn't so meek after all!"
5. This repays the life-debt to Harry by enabling Harry to kill Voldemort,
without removing any of Peter's free will or choices.

So what does this mean? RAB is really PAP with an added flourish and
Voldemort's vile mistreatment of the one closest to him (sort of the
opposite of love) will cause his tragic downfall. Pleasantly bangy!

I'm sure I'll look back on this tomorrow and decide it's tripe, but it feels
good now. Now back to Cataloguing!

--boyd
"This is magic at its deepest, its most impenetrable, Harry. But trust me...
the time may come when you will be very glad you saved Pettigrew's life."