Peter Pettigrew

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(Redirected from Wormtail)

Template:HP Character Peter Pettigrew (b. circa 1959/1960) is a fictional character in the Harry Potter series of novels. In the movies, he is played by Timothy Spall.

Pettigrew is normally referred to as "Wormtail," his nickname.

Spoiler warning: Plot and/or ending details follow.

At first, in Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban, Harry Potter is told that Pettigrew was a friend of his father (James Potter) who confronted Sirius Black after the latter had betrayed his parents. Black supposedly murdered Pettigrew, leaving only a finger behind as physical evidence and slaughtering a dozen-odd innocent Muggles in the process. For this crime, Black was sent to the wizard prison, Azkaban.

At the end of that book, however, Sirius and Remus Lupin reveal that Pettigrew is an Animagus who takes the form of a small rat. Called "Wormtail," he had become the secret-keeper for James Potter and his wife Lily Evans when Harry was a baby, in hopes that Lord Voldemort would pursue Black instead. However, he betrayed the Potters to Voldemort in order to gain the Dark Lord's favour. During the confrontation with Sirius on that fateful night, it was actually Pettigrew who blasted the muggles and then transformed himself to escape with the other rats down into the sewers. He left behind a finger, successfully faking his own death and framing Black for his and the Potters' deaths. Since then, Pettigrew had masqueraded as Scabbers, the pet rat owned at first by Percy Weasley, then by his brother Ron. It has not been revealed how Peter, as Scabbers, managed to get into the Weasley family. However, Pettigrew used his time with them to his advantage: he remained alert for any news about Voldemort or Black. None of the Weasleys took particular note that "Scabbers" outlived a common garden rat and had a missing toe.

Following Harry's and Ron's second year at Hogwarts, Scabbers was shown in a photograph in the Daily Prophet, perched upon the shoulder of Ron Weasley. This prompted the escape of Sirius Black from Azkaban, as he recognized Pettigrew.

Pettigrew later faked his own death a second time, to avoid Crookshanks, who was trying to bring him to Black. After his capture in Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban, Harry convinced Sirius and Lupin not to kill Pettigrew. However, Pettigrew managed to escape in his rat form, and he sought out and rejoined Voldemort. Peter has a life debt to Harry because he stopped Lupin and Black from killing Peter. Albus Dumbledore describes this as ancient magic that forms a bond between the two.

In Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, Pettigrew helped Voldemort in an elaborate scheme to capture Harry. When Harry and Cedric Diggory were transported into the graveyard by a portkey that was the Triwizard tournament Cup, Pettigrew, who was carrying his master's small body, appeared from the darkness. On Voldemort's orders, Peter killed Cedric with the unstoppable killing curse, Avada Kedavra, and tied Harry up to an altar. He then performed a complicated spell which allowed Voldemort to return to the flesh, sacrificing his own hand in the process, and also cutting Harry's arm and adding blood to the potion. Shortly after his restoration, Voldemort created a silver hand out of thin air and attached it to Pettigrew to replace the hand he had sacrificed in the ritual. The hand is much stronger than Pettigrew's old one.

Pettigrew did not appear in Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, except in Severus Snape's memory. He is also seen in a portrait of the original Order of the Phoenix; he was one of the original members of that organization.

He also makes a brief appearance in Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince. When Narcissa Malfoy and Bellatrix Lestrange visit Snape, it is revealed that Pettigrew is currently hiding at Snape's home on Voldemort's orders. J.K. Rowling hinted that Pettigrew will make additional appearances in the final novel.

Peter is one of the few evil wizards who are not from Slytherin House.

Recently, on Rowling's website, it was revealed the Pettigrew once was considered to have been the Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher posing as Alastor Moody in the fourth book, but J. K. Rowling picked Barty Crouch Jr. instead.

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