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Post by Bellzabean on Jan 13, 2013 20:33:01 GMT -8
I've read a lot of stories where Peter switched to Voldemort's side while still in school, some where it was after they graduated, and some where he didn't switch until it was obvious that the "good" guys were losing. When do you think he switched? Does it ever actually say when he switched in the books? Do you think it would have made a difference if he had switched sides at a later or earlier time? How would it have changed things?
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Bec
Ministry Employee
Procrastination -------------# (it's a wand)
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Post by Bec on Jan 13, 2013 23:27:56 GMT -8
My headcanon is that he was still decentish during his school days. I think that sometime after he graduated from Hogwarts he was 'converted'. I don't think I've ever really thought on it beyond that, I think you raise a pretty interesting point though...
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Post by Rachael on Jan 14, 2013 16:51:55 GMT -8
I've always believed that it might have been a gradual process. I always thought that the four of them were really close at the start, but that Sirius' constant teasing of him started pushing him away and inevitably led to his defection to the Dark Side. But that could just be my bullied past sympathizing with him. Not really sure. Lol
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Hannah
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Slytherins; we're bringing sexy back.
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Post by Hannah on Jan 18, 2013 19:10:02 GMT -8
I've always just thought it was during school, like during the summer before seventh year. Sirius says at one point that Peter was always hiding behind the big boys on the playground (or something to that effect) and when it became clear that James and Sirius weren't those people, he converted to save his own skin. I don't really ever think he was a really decent person. Because I don't think a decent person could just totally flip on the dime like that, even if he was bullied. I think he was just a rat who put self-preservation above all else.
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Post by Tathrin on Feb 8, 2013 15:00:40 GMT -8
I agree with Bec and Rachel, I feel like it would have to have been after school. At Hogwarts, James and Sirius were the big boys on the playground, as you said. Peter wouldn't have defected to anyone else, not when he had such a good in with them already. I think it would have to have been during the war. (And, like Rachael says, probably a gradual process, at least in regards to Peter's growing nervousness and discontent, even if the actual turncoating was in the face of a single moment of terror.)
Their quartet wouldn't be as close (obviously, because they were growing up, and also had their personal missions; and we know they had to have grown at least a little distant, because Sirius suspected Remus of being the traitor -- and that would put a crimp in the group, I'd think, no matter how much he kept his thoughts to himself. It would have affected the vibe.) as when they were at school. Also, at Hogwarts, they'd have been sheltered from the realities of the growing war. Voldemort never messed with Hogwarts (until the very end); Dumbledore was the "only one he ever feared," and all that. So I think it would have been an unwelcome wake-up call for Peter, being out on his own in the world, which was a lot more dangerous than he expected, and where he didn't have three friends right there next to him all the time, ready to protect him.
And now there's a really, really, really scary guy with a whole army of scary dangerous followers, and Peter can't run up to the Tower and fetch his friends to fight them off for him. And given that Peter learned dependency at school as much as he did magic, I don't think he'd have stood a chance. That's what the Marauders did, really, with their treatment of Peter: they taught him to rely on them. And then there was a war, and they weren't there 100% of the time ready to save him from every bully in a black robe. So when the biggest bully on the playground was no longer Sirius or James, but Voldemort, and Voldemort told Peter "submit or die"...well, is it any wonder that Peter chose "submit"? He's been doing it all his life, his friends are the ones who taught him how.
Furthermore, I feel that if Peter had switched sides at school, he'd have done so openly. What's the good of a big bully for a mate, if he can't protect you? That's what he had Sirius and James for. If he'd joined "Snapes group of friends," he'd have wanted everyone to know that they had his back, or what would have been the point? It was probably Voldemort's idea for Peter to play the spy, Peter doesn't have the guts to suggest such a thing himself, I don't think. Peter would have wanted to be close to the Death Eaters, so they could protect him, not tucked inside his friends' pockets, where they'd kill him if they found out what he'd done.
So...yeah, in my very long-winded fashion, that's why I think it couldn't have been at school that Peter switched sides; it would have to have been during the war itself, when they were all grown up and he was on his own.
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Post by faithjoystar on Apr 15, 2013 5:54:38 GMT -8
I think he went over to Voldemort at the Hollows Eve one year Before Lily and James were Killed
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