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"Imagination is the only weapon in the war against reality."
-Jules de Gautier

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I don't own anything you recognize from any of my stories. Any familiar characters, settings, plots...they all belong to the appropriate copyright holder. I am not making a profit from any of my writings and write only for my enjoyment. Again, nothing recognizable belongs to me.

Peter Pettigrew

Yes, we know you hate him. Yes, we know he killed Lily and James, orphaned Harry, framed Sirius, and brought Voldemort back to full power. But read the following quote carefully: (Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban, chapter 19, page 275 my edition)

" 'THEN YOU SHOULD HAVE DIED!' roared Black. 'DIED RATHER THAN BETRAY YOUR FRIENDS, AS WE WOULD HAVE DONE FOR YOU!' "

So, hopefully Sirius' statement should clear some things up for you thick-headed skull-brains who believe that everyone has always hated Peter. I once read a fanfiction where, and I quote, James said,

"Don't you have somewhere better to be?"

This quote was set in the Marauders' second year, around the time they found out that Remus was a werewolf. James would not have said that to one of his best friends, especially during a crucial time such as this.

In addition, guys, use your heads. If Sirius, James and Lily hated Peter, would Sirius have suggested using him as Secret Keeper? Would James and Lily have agreed? Lily and James trusted Peter with theirs and their son's lives; they would not have given him that position if they did not love him like a brother and think that he would be able to resist torture on the off-chance that he would be captured by Voldemort.

I read somewhere else that someone believed that the O.W.L.s scene in Order of the Phoenix showed how much James, Sirius and Remus hated Peter. Let me quote a few lines: (Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, chapter 28, page 567 my edition)

"Wormtail was the only one who didn't laugh.
'I got the snout shape, the pupils of the eyes and the tufted tail,' he said anxiously, 'but I couldn't think what else - '
'How thick are you, Wormtail?' said James impatiently. 'You run round with a werewolf once a month - ' "

Let's pretend, for a moment, that you and your friends never EVER tell jokes or kid around with each other, call each other stupid or pretend to be mad. Very boring relationship, no? So why can't the Marauders be the same way? James and Peter are very close friends; therefore, one knows when the other is being serious and when he is kidding around.

This same person said this:

"The very fact of asking Peter to replace Sirius as Secret-Keeper was a request that he die to keep them alive rather than vice versa!"

I find this absolutely absurd. They were not asking Peter to die for them any more than they were asking Sirius to die for them. They evidently trusted both men to do well under pressure, specifically the Cruciatus under Voldemort's wand, and not betray their secret. They are not asking them to die; rather, they are asking them to protect their family with every fiber of their being and not give them away to Voldemort. I would consider this the highest honor; it is not a death sentence.

I honestly don't know where you people come up with the idea that Peter was a dunderheaded blubbering blundering stupid idiot; even if you do hate him, you have to admit that he kept from being detected as a spy for a year before the Potters were attacked. You must admit that this is quite a feat. Clearly Peter is not the idiot most fanfiction makes him out to be.

Yes, McGonagall says: (Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban, chapter 10, page 154 my edition)

" 'Hero-worshipped Black and Potter,' said Professor McGonagall. 'Never quite in their league, talent-wise. I was often sharp with him. You can imagine how I - how I regret that now...' she sounded as if she had a sudden head cold."

Okay, before you all start bombarding me with hate mail saying that, yes, Peter worshipped James and Sirius and never really was their friend, let's think for a moment. Somewhere it was said that James and Sirius were the "height of cool". Generally to be "cool" one must have admirers and people must think that he is cool. I am not saying that Peter did not think James and Sirius were cool; I am not one to go directly against canon. I am saying that the rest of the school most likely did not know the bond that the Marauders all shared; nobody knew that they had all become Animagi by the age of fifteen, nobody knew of the Marauders' Map, nobody but the staff knew that Remus was a werewolf, and therefore did not know in how high regard he held his friends, and they him. It seems to me that most of the school probably just saw them as a normal group of friends, only one hell-bent on causing as much chaos as is humanly possible.

Therefore, nobody knew exactly how much James, Sirius and Remus loved Peter. They helped him to become an Animagi; if they were not confident in his abilities and if they did not love him like a brother, I'm sure they wouldn't have bothered. What McGonagall saw while at Hogwarts was what the student body saw and what the rest of the staff saw: the incomplete portrait of the Marauders.

And just because Peter wasn't quite as smart as his other three friends, that doesn't mean that they still can't be close. Intelligence means nothing; Voldemort was smart, and look what he turned out to be. Dumbledore was smart, and look at him. Peter wasn't viewed as very bright, and Neville wasn't viewed as such either. Do we see a pattern here? Just because he's not as smart as the so-called "valedictorian" of the Hogwarts class, that doesn't mean that he's not competent. He may have been rather bright for all we know. Only one person can be the best, and because apparently James and Sirius were absolutely brilliant, Peter got shunted to the side by his teachers.

Let's put this into an example:
I'm going to assume that your school system is like mine, where there are smaller feeder schools for grade school and middle school, and then all of them feed into one large high school. And if it isn't, pretend that it is. Let's say that you were at the very top of your middle school class at the end of the last year, and were rather pleased with yourself because of it. Then you go to high school with hundreds of other kids you've never met before, and everything changes. There's other smart kids too; you aren't the only one. Perhaps you get beaten at a review game by someone from a different feeder school, or you get kicked out of the top spot by someone else. You get angry at this person, but you have to realize that there are other smart people out there too; you are not the only one.

Now, what McGonagall says is that Peter was not as smart as James or Sirius. From what we've heard about these two, they're extremely smart, getting passing grades without trying. McGonagall was sharp with him; was it perhaps because James excelled so wonderfully in Transfiguration that Peter was overshadowed by him? Perhaps McGonagall saw what James was doing and expected Peter to do the same level of work?

So, what I'm getting at is that Peter was not necessarily stupid; he was able to become an Animagi, for heaven's sake. He can't have been thick if he could do that. A lot of people are very smart, but many are ignored to let the valedictorians and salutatorians have the limelight. This may not be fair, but it's the way the world is.

Now, let me say something very important here, and you must believe me:

I AM NOT DEFENDING WHAT PETER DID.

I do not in any way approve of what Peter did to the Order and to his friends. What my problem is is when people assume that he has always acted like a prat and portray him as such in Marauder-era fanfiction. I have no problem with adult Peter-bashing, as in Harry's Hogwarts years and onward. He most definitely deserves to be bashed then, as we know exactly what he did, where he did it and when he did it.

I foresee a shower of PMs saying that we know exactly what Peter was doing back in the late 70s/early 80s - spying on the Order. Yes, I cannot deny that; however, nobody suspected him of turning traitor and therefore treated him the same as always. James would not have made Peter his Secret Keeper if there was even a shadow of doubt about his loyalties; there was too much at stake.

So, what I'm trying to get at is that there is absolutely NO excuse for Marauder-era Peter bashing. If you disagree, feel free to PM me and explain your views. Again, I DO NOT APPROVE OF PETER'S DEATH EATER ACTIVITIES. I am speaking out simply in the hopes that people will come to realize that Peter Pettigrew was a good person once, and deserves to be treated as one.

And you have to admit, he went down doing a good deed in DH, didn't he?