| NOTE: This page is only about the original book incarnation of Peter Pettigrew, as his adaptational film incarnation was voted Pure Evil, and thus only the book version of Pettigrew's info should be put here. |
| “ | Sirius Black: You sold Lily and James to Voldemort. Do you deny it? Wormtail: Sirius, Sirius, what could I have done? The Dark Lord... you have no idea... he has weapons you can't imagine.... I was scared, Sirius, I was never brave like you and Remus and James. I never meant it to happen.... He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named forced me ― Sirius: DON'T LIE! YOU'D BEEN PASSING INFORMATION TO HIM FOR A YEAR BEFORE LILY AND JAMES DIED! YOU WERE HIS SPY! Wormtail: He ― he was taking over everywhere! W-what was there to be gained by refusing him? Sirius: What was there to be gained by fighting the most evil wizard who has ever existed? Only innocent lives, Peter! Wormtail: You don't understand! He would have killed me, Sirius! Sirius: THEN YOU SHOULD HAVE DIED! DIED RATHER THAN BETRAY YOUR FRIENDS, AS WE WOULD HAVE DONE FOR YOU! |
„ |
| ~ Wormtail's confession. |
Peter Pettigrew, also known by his nickname Wormtail, is one of the two secondary antagonists (alongside Bellatrix Lestrange) of the Harry Potter book series.
He is a former friend of Harry's parents, who turned to the Death Eaters out of cowardice, and betrayed his friends to Lord Voldemort, framing Sirius Black for his own crimes. Upon being exposed and driven into hiding, Pettigrew rejoins Voldemort and helps him back to power.
His Evil Ranking[]
What Makes Him Heinous?[]
- While a student at Hogwarts, he often joined his close friends James Potter and Sirius Black in bullying students such as Severus Snape.
- He serves Voldemort out of cowardice and self-preservation, as he only fights for the strongest side.
- He passed Voldemort information on the Order for a year, which is implied to have caused a number of deaths.
- He betrayed Lily and James to Voldemort, resulting in their deaths, despite James being one of his best friends since childhood and Lily being a fond friend of him and also knowing him since childhood.
- He framed Sirius, his other best friend, for all his crimes, faking his own death and killing twelve innocent Muggles with a blasting curse. This got Sirius sent to Azkaban for the next twelve years and ruined his life.
- He hides out with the Weasley family as a rat to avoid the retaliations of the former Death Eaters who are still loyal to Voldemort and might blame Pettigrew for Voldemort's fall. Also from Sirius' revenge, after he escapes from Azkaban.
- He positions himself close to Harry at Hogwarts, and is willing to bring Harry to Voldemort if he hears that he's getting stronger again.
- When exposed, he cowardly tries to deny responsibility for his betrayal.
- He attacks when Harry's guard is down even after Harry spares his life, stunning Ron before escaping. This results in Sirius nearly being given the Dementor's Kiss.
- He willingly seeks out Voldemort and agrees to help him back to power.
- He abducts Bertha Jorkins and brings her to Voldemort, enabling her torture and death at the latter's hands.
- He helps put Bartemius Crouch under the Imperius Curse as part of Voldemort's plan and later keeps Crouch imprisoned in his own house to prevent him from revealing Voldemort's plans to the Ministry and Dumbledore.
- He helps attack and incapacitate Alastor Moody so Crouch Jr. can impersonate him.
- He murders Cedric Diggory on Voldemort's orders.
- He resurrects Voldemort, forcibly taking Harry's blood as a critical ingredient. This makes him directly responsible for Voldemort's return and the second wizarding war, ensuring much worse casualties than he had already caused himself.
What Makes Him Inconsistent?[]
- He feels remorse for his betrayal of the Potters, as he's noted by a clueless Lily to have been upset when he last saw them, aware that he was seeing them alive for the last time.
- His constant mistreatment by Voldemort is played for sympathy.
- At one point, Voldemort tortures him as a punishment for Barty Crouch Sr.'s escape from Crouch Manor, where he was kept imprisoned and under the Imperius Curse. The only reason he does not kill Wormtail for it, is thanks to Barty being stopped from revealing Voldemort's plan to Dumbledore, and being discovered and murdered by his own son, Barty Jr.
- Voldemort even forces him to perform self-injury by cutting his own hand off, as part of Voldemort's resurrection ritual. His master shows no sympathy for him and is even amused when he tells him about this "surprise,” and after he regains a body of his own, he leaves Wormtail to suffer on the ground for a while, before giving him a magical silver hand before he passed out from the blood loss.
- Although he was supposed work as Snape's assistant for some time, Snape exploited Wormtail's position to use him as a mere servant, knowing that he was too afraid of Voldemort to complain and request a reassignment.
- He tries to honor his life debt to Harry, as he tries to talk Voldemort out of killing him and is unable to look Harry in the face when he ties him up, showing he feels some guilt over it.
- His death is portrayed in a tragic light, as he spares Harry's life when reminded of his life debt, which results in him being strangled to death by his own silver hand that had been granted by his own master due how remorseful he was, which even Harry is horrified by and felt some pity for Wormtail, due to the ungrateful and cruel way Voldemort treated him. Harry is one of the few people who acknowledges Wormtail’s subtle regret of his life choices and selfishness.
Trivia[]
- This version of Wormtail was presented in sympathetic and redeemable ways, being in fact tragic, insecure, sympathetic, and remorseful (and has some genuine care for Harry). However, his movie incarnation was presented as much more sadistic, ruthless, monstrous and irredeemable, being shown as more cowardly, treacherous and remorseless psychopath, with no value for human life and having absolutely no genuine care for Harry and never showing genuine remorse for his crimes, so he was approved as Pure Evil, since he lacked the redeeming qualities his original book version had. Also, unlike the book version, the movie's Wormtail never redeems himself and never helps Harry in any way.
- It is unknown if his upcoming TV show counterpart can also qualify since the TV show is meant to be more accurate to the books and have Peter be IH in that continuity also.
External Links[]
- Peter Pettigrew on the Villains Wiki
- Peter Pettigrew on the Harry Potter Wiki
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 Inconsistently Heinous
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