Peter Pettigrew

"You sold Lily and James to Voldemort!"

- Remus Lupin to Pettigrew, in the Shrieking Shack

Peter Pettigrew (1960 - April 1998 ), also known as Wormtail, was the wizard who betrayed James and Lily Potter to Lord Voldemort. Pettigrew defected from the Order of the Phoenix to the Death Eaters sometime during the First Wizarding War; after the Dark Lord's fall, he faked his own death and spent years living in his Animagus form as the Weasleys' pet rat, Scabbers. Pettigrew played a key role in Voldemort's rebirth, and continued to serve him during the Second Wizarding War. He met his end in the spring of 1998, when, in a moment of rare mercy, he paused in his attempt to strangle Harry Potter, who reminded him of a life debt. Pettigrew was subsequently strangled to death by the silver hand his master had constructed for him.

Early Life
"Hero-worshiped Black and Potter. Never quite in their league, talent-wise. I was often rather sharp with him... Stupid boy... Foolish boy..."

- Minerva McGonagall on Peter

Peter began attending Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry in 1971 and was sorted into Gryffindor house. He soon became friends with James Potter, Remus Lupin, and Sirius Black, fellow Gryffindors whom he idolized for their popularity and talent.

He, James and Sirius soon discovered Remus to be a werewolf, but they did not abandon him as a friend as many other wizards would have. Instead, they spent years learning how to become Animagi so that they could accompany Remus during his transformations. Peter's Animagus form was a rat, from which was derived his nickname "Wormtail". The four friends called themselves the Marauders and designed a map to navigate Hogwarts.

Betrayal
"Your devotion is nothing more than cowardice. You would not be here if you had anywhere else to go."

- Lord Voldemort to Pettigrew

After graduating from Hogwarts, Pettigrew and his friends joined the Order of the Phoenix and fought against Lord Voldemort and the Death Eaters during the First Wizarding War. At some point, however, Pettigrew began working as a double agent for Voldemort, apparently out of pure fear. He was appointed the Secret-Keeper for James and Lily Potter when they went into hiding after a prophecy was made about their infant son, Harry, being the one with the power to defeat the Dark Lord. On Halloween night, Pettigrew betrayed his friends, and Voldemort killed the Potters, but was defeated when his Killing Curse rebounded off Harry and resulted in him losing his physical form.

Apart from Lily and James, Sirius was the only one to know Pettigrew was their Secret-Keeper; it had been his idea. Furious and devastated, Sirius pursued Pettigrew, wanting revenge. When he closed in on him, Pettigrew screamed that Sirius had betrayed the Potters for everyone to hear and then blew up the street, killing twelve Muggles and faking his own death by cutting off a finger and leaving it behind as he transformed into a rat and fled. Sirius was arrested for betraying the Potters and killing Pettigrew and the Muggles and imprisoned in Azkaban without a trial.

Pettigrew was unjustly awarded the Order of Merlin for his confrontation with Sirius.

Scabbers


Pettigrew went into hiding as Scabbers the rat, coming into the possession of Percy Weasley and, later, Ron Weasley. It was clear Scabbers was an extraordinary rat; he was unusually old for a rat of his species, which had a life expectancy of three years, yet the Weasley family owned it for twelve years.

In 1993, Sirius Black escaped from Azkaban after seeing a picture of Pettigrew's rat form in a Daily Prophet article about the Weasleys' trip to Egypt. Scabbers began to thin and go bald. Ron thought this was due to Hermione Granger's pet cat Crookshanks constantly harassing it, but it was in fact out of fear that Sirius would find him and get his revenge at last. That same year, Remus Lupin, who had been unaware of Pettigrew's duplicity and believed him to be dead, began teaching Defence Against the Dark Arts at Hogwarts. He began to suspect the truth when he saw Peter's name appear on the Marauder's Map, a charmed parchment created by him and his friends that came into Harry's possession. In June 1994, Pettigrew was unmasked by Sirius and Remus. They planned to kill Pettigrew, but Harry Potter stopped them after Pettigrew claimed that Harry's father never would have killed him. Although Harry wanted to hand Pettigrew over to the Dementors and use him to clear Sirius's name at last, this created a life debt between Harry and Pettigrew.

The plan was upset, though, when the full moon rose and Remus transformed into his werewolf form, forcing Sirius to take on his Animagus form, that of a dog, to protect Harry, Ron and Hermione. Pettigrew took advantage of the chaos, transforming into his rat form and fleeing.

The Servant Rejoins his Master
"Bone of the father, unknowingly given, you will renew your son. Flesh of the servant, willingly given, you will revive your master. Blood of the enemy, forcibly taken, you will resurrect your foe."

- Peter Pettigrew

After his escape from capture at Hogwarts Pettigrew returned to the service of Lord Voldemort. He milked venom from the snake Nagini to strengthen Voldemort and provide him with a rudimentary body.

He also had an important role in the rebirth of Lord Voldemort. When Harry Potter was delivered to the graveyard of Little Hangleton per Voldemort's plot, Pettigrew killed Cedric Diggory on Voldemort's orders and performed the ritual to restore Voldemort to physical form, reluctantly sacrificing his hand. As a reward for his assistance, Voldemort replaced the hand with a silver one.

Pettigrew was later assigned to "assist" Severus Snape &mdash; which Snape interpreted as Pettigrew being his servant.

Later, he was stationed in Malfoy Manor. He also took the role of servant there.

Battle of Malfoy Manor
"You’re going to kill me? After I saved your life? You owe me, Wormtail!"

- Harry Potter as Pettigrew strangles him

Around Easter of 1998, during the height of the Second Wizarding War, Harry, Ron and Hermione were brought to the Manor by a group of Snatchers led by Fenrir Greyback. Bellatrix Lestrange isolated Hermione in order to interrogate and torture her about how the trio obtained Godric Gryffindor's Sword. When they heard a noise from the dungeon below, Pettigrew was sent to investigate.

When he arrived, Pettigrew was tackled by Harry and Ron, who had been freed by Dobby the house-elf. He began to strangle Harry, but Harry reminded him that he owed him a life debt. When Pettigrew hesitated, his brief moment of mercy caused his silver hand to turn on him, strangling and killing him, despite Harry and Ron's best efforts to restrain it.

Harry McClements was an extremely short man with small, watery eyes and a pointed nose. In his youth, his hair was mousy brown, but, by his mid-thirties, it had thinned out, lost its colour, and acquired a large bald patch. McClements spoke with a squeaky voice. In 1981, he cut off the index finger of his right hand as part of a ploy to fake his own death, and, fourteen years later, he severed his entire right hand at the request of Lord Voldemort. Voldemort used magic to give Pettigrew a shining silver, glove-like replacement.

Personality and Traits


Peter Pettigrew was characterized by weakness. Although he was sorted into Gryffindor, he did not appear to be very brave. In his youth, he latched onto James Potter and Sirius Black, more talented and popular students, idolizing them and seeming to live vicariously through their accomplishments — as well as their occasional bullying of others such as Severus Snape. Pettigrew betrayed his closest friends to Lord Voldemort when his life was threatened, showing an incredible level of both disloyalty and cowardice. Even Voldemort seemed to disdain him for the latter, and treated him as nothing more than a minion, as did the other Death Eaters. However, in spite of others claiming that Pettigrew was a "weak, talentless thing", he was at least cunning enough to escape Sirius after Voldemort's first defeat, frame his former friend for his crimes, and fake his own death, living for years in his Animagus form.

Pettigrew also showed a "tiny, merciful impulse" when he hesitated to hurt Harry Potter in 1998, though he swiftly tried "to undo that moment of weakness", unsuccessfully and to his death. Harry later reflected on how this showed "a bit of regret" on Pettigrew's part.

Author's Comments
J.K. Rowling has explained Pettigrew's switch of allegiance by saying that he "out of cowardice will stand in the shadow of the strongest person". She also said that James Potter and Sirius Black allowed Pettigrew to be their friend "in a slightly patronizing way" and that he ended up being a better wizard and better at hiding secrets than they ever knew.

Appearances

 * Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone
 * Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone (film)
 * Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone (video game)
 * Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets
 * Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets (film)
 * Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets (video game)
 * Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban
 * Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban (film)
 * Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban (video game)
 * Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire
 * Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire (film)
 * Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire (video game)
 * Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix
 * Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix (film)
 * Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince
 * Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince (film)
 * Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows

Notes and references
Peter Pettigrew Peter Pettigrow