Wow! This is a bit old. I found it on my computer, and it dates from the first few months of my Harry Potter fascination. I’d just discovered the fandom online, and after looking up MWPP fics, if got really annoyed with the treatment of Peter.

In a mass undertaking of procrastination, I sat down and wrote this out, just for fun.

 

****************

 

From my surfing online, I’ve come to the conclusion that Peter Pettigrew has got to be the most hated character in Harry Potter. People rarely (if ever) have a kind word to say about the man, and are very, very quick to condemn him as deserving of no sympathy, pity, or anything. This dislike tends to carry over into quite a few fanfics. Since Peter is my favorite character, I tend to seek out fanfics dealing with him, and obviously then I like the MWPP timeline. Unfortunately, I found that it is hard to find a story that portrays Peter well. I can not count the number of fics that either treat Peter badly, or flat out exclude him, as though he was to James, Remus, and Sirius, what Neville is to Harry, Ron and Hermione. Heck the Marauder icons don’t even have a Peter one. Lily is there in his place!

Peter had to have been closer then that. I mean for goodness sakes he became an animagus; he found out Remus was a werewolf. Even if they latter were some kind of accident and he wasn’t meant to find out (which I doubt as it was stated by Remus that the four were close friends before that time) no one forced Sirius and James to help Peter become an animagi. The very fact that the two would make this kind of effort indicates a close bound of friendship between Peter and the others. It seems unlikely that he was just a “tagalong.” Tagalongs are rarely included to that decree from my personal experiences. Therefore it seems highly unrealistic (if I can use that word in application to an entirely fictitious world) to exclude Peter from a fanfic dealing with the Marauders.

As for Peter’s personality, there are some fics out there that portray him well. He’s part of the group, and a clearly an intricate member, but besides that, he’s a likable person. Unfortantly in quite a few fics he’s portrayed in such as way as to make one wonder why on earth anyone would associate with him at all. He’s a whiny, whimpering, sycophant. Now, I will not argue that he isn’t that in the 3^rd and 4^th books (Well actually he did express an opinion contrary to Voldemort’s in the 1^st chapter so possibly some resemblance to a backbone may still reside in him) In my opinion though, his younger personality had to have been quite different then what we see 14 years later. Or perhaps more accurately, 14 years later we are seeing the absolute worst aspects of his personality, which he did not display on a daily basis when younger. Why I feel he couldn’t have behaved then as he does now is because he was a close friend with the other three.

Had he been useless, had he been pathetic I can not see any of the other wanting anything to do with him. Therefore, he likely had numerous redeeming qualities. I realize in POA that Sirius accused him of only hanging around with them because they were “powerful” however, I doubt the truthfulness of that statement. First, Sirius is clearly enraged, he wants to hurt Peter badly, and I doubt he was above verbal insults. In lesser arguments people say things that they do not necessarily mean or are not necessarily true, thus I doubt Peter’s entire motivation for being friends with the others was because they were popular. He likely truly was there friend, and Sirius is merely saying what he’s saying out of anger, betrayal and extreme hurt. Second, Sirius, Remus, and James are not stupid. I would give them some credit in the ability to recognize false friendship here. I don’t think Peter could have fooled them. And if Sirius had considered Peter as someone merely being with him out of a desire to associate with a popular person, then why didn’t he think of Peter as the spy before Remus? As sad as it is to consider, more likely then not, Peter was a close, trusted and liked friend with a decent personality and tons of redeeming, non annoying traits.

Read Another Rant