Post by Peter Pettigrew on Mar 24, 2006 4:57:01 GMT -5
First off, bear with me. I’ve not done a character like Peter before, so there may well be a few bugs. Also excuse the excessive asides – obsessive character analysis and rationalisation (tending towards the positively academic) is part of my insanity. Reggie
Full Name | Nicknames: Peter Pettigrew, aka Wormtail / ‘That fat kid always tagging after Potter/Black’
Age/Birthday/Year: 17 / February 1960
Note on Birthday – This puts Wormtail as a Pisces, a star sign characterised by desire to be with ‘the in crowd’ and a tendency to live two very different existences at the same time. Pisceans are adaptable and resilient but easily confused.
House: Gryffindor
The books don’t specify, and JK has not stated which house Pettigrew was in. Personality wise he doesn’t seem to fit here, but it’s most likely given that he became a Marauder so we’ll go with that pending any Book 7 Revelations, of course. Maybe he ended up in Gryffindor by a process of elimination as he definitely doesn’t fit the dominant characteristics of the other houses – Ravenclaw intelligence and voracious appetite for knowledge, Slytherin ruthless ambition, or (especially not) Hufflepuff loyalty. (it’s also suggested that the Hat judges not who you are but what you value, in which case Peter might well value the traditional Gryffindor values as those who possess them make pretty good candidates for him to hide behind. Or the Hat could perceive the malleability of his character and want to put him in a place that, for the most part, would offer a more positive influence on his development. As if Peter's future were undetermined, as if he were walking the line between the good and the evil... and the Hat put him in the place that would give him the greatest chance for good.)
Blood: Halfblood (in the same way Harry is considered a halfie – 2 wizarding parents but muggle grandparents)
Again purely conjecture… I’m guessing that (although this may be something of a generalisation) a pureblood with a decent lineage would have had a little more presence and self confidence and not felt the need to latch onto the others as much. He might be a mudblood, of course, but I suspect that might have been brought out by now as part of the ‘How could you join YKW?’ argument. Book 7 pending, as per usual
Sex: Male
Appearance:
The politest way to describe Peter would probably be well built with pointed features (though fat and rat like is perhaps more appropriate), although he has started to thin out a little as he approaches ‘adulthood’. His short stature and pale, pasty complexion mean he isn’t really the most imposing figure (therein will perhaps lie one of his future strengths, since this leads people, even those he’s close to, to underestimate him). His hair is thin, falling in limp strands around his features, with a tone somewhere just the blonde side of colourless, his eyes small, pinched and a pale watery shade of blue as if the colour has been washed out.
His animagus form is that of a fairly mangy grey rat (hehe… you can imagine the scene when he found that one out, given that all his mates had already transformed into theirs before this date – maybe there’s something in this idea that the animagus form relates to the personality after all? ;D
Personality:
Talents/Weaknesses and what made them who they are today integrated into this
Every ‘in-crowd’ has their Peter – the groupy. The fanboy. The fat, geeky kid hanging in the shadow of the popular ones. The trait most likely to strike anyone taking even a passing interest in him is his obsessive, almost stalkerish devotion to, and positive hero worship of, the other three Marauders – he tends to abase himself before them, disguising various parts of his personality (see below) and heightening others to assume the role of weakling flatterer. In the early days, of course, such a persona was necessary to get him ‘in’ with the vastly cooler and more popular Prankster Princes; now he’s clung to it as it gives him a role in the group which he can occupy (lacking the confidence or skill to become a Prankster, and the serious academic side that would link him more to Remus). In a way, although strengthening his bond with the other Marauders, this has somewhat isolated him as he really does think of himself in terms of crippling inferiority, the rest of the world being far too superior for understand unless by means of wheedling and abasement, and the only way he knows of relating to others being as a dependent.
This aforementioned trait, while important in its own right, also helps illustrate some other integral, though less obvious, parts of Peter’s personality. Firstly, he is desperate for security, allying himself to whoever is the strongest position to offer him protection from this world he struggles to understand. This gives him a strange sort of fierce, though inconstant loyalty – he won’t bite the hand that feeds him, unless there’s a better hand in the immediate vicinity, in which case he’ll do any and everything to get in with the new ‘Top Dog’. He’s also a fairly competent actor when the need arises, and not adverse to using deception to achieve his goals – while he is definitely the weakest (both in terms of presence and skill) of the Marauders it’s not to the degree his act would seem to indicate – he is more than capable, although he lacks any real ‘spark’ and tends to be overshadowed by the achievements of others. Peter does doubt his own capabilities, if anything more than the rest of the world, and relies too much on the safety-net stronger friends provide.
It’s tempting to label Peter as a ‘coward’. Certainly he’s never going to be the one to launch out on his own in some daring escapade, or to stick his neck out for what’s right and screw the consequences (his personal morality being ‘flexible’ to say the least – what’s right is good, what’s popular is better). Applying that label is, however, just another of the many ways the world will frequently underestimate Peter – when it comes to small acts, or acts where he’s not alone, then desire to be liked can work miracles.
Ladies and gentlemen, fasten your seatbelts, we are now entering the realms of wild conjecture
Childhood History:
Peter grew up with the best of both worlds, really - a wizarding family grounded in muggle reality. He was an only child, unlike James born to relatively young parents, and spent his childhood in the family home in a mixed (i.e. not solely wizarding) community near York, attending muggle school until age 11 while getting basic home school tutorage in magic from his parents. They weren’t incredibly rich, neither were they hard off, and if anything Peter’s early years were characterised by this gentle mediocrity, a sense of being, or at least trying to be, Mr. Average.
To say that his childhood was totally happy would be something of a lie – a fat kid with ‘freaky new-age parents’ always being a popular target for less than welcome attention from other children. It was during these years at muggle school that Peter learned the two lessons which would guide his later actions; hide the real you if it keeps you safe, and always have someone bigger to hide behind. The other major shock came some time after his 7th birthday when his ‘extra skills’ were first in evidence, although that in itself was not such a surprise given that his parents were anxiously watching for any sign that their quiet, unassuming and, well, slightly boring son might eventually blossom into something else. His father had rapidly become frustrated with leading a muggle life, his mother preferred it, and while they remained officially married and had by all accounts an amicable split Peter spent the rest of his childhood living with just his mother. He saw his father fairly often, but came away with the sense that the split was in some way his fault, that he hadn’t proved himself ‘good enough’ (this may well be the catalyst for his inferiority complex).
Some time soon after his 11th birthday Peter received the letter which informed him he’d been accepted to Hogwarts. He arrived nervous, feeling small next to the pedigrees and skills of his peers, looking forward to finally finding somewhere he could belong. If that somewhere was with someone powerful who’d offer him a sense of security, so much the better.
Family History: Bla.. this sucks. Oh well... Ignore this bit.[[/i]
The Pettigrews, unlike the Blacks or the Potters, aren't a great family. Yet. And, fact is, they probably won't ever be, although there is a sense that they should aspire towards a degree of greatness. As such, there's a lot of pressure on Peter to 'prove himself' and 'prove the worth of the family' since he is, really, the first true wizarding generation of the family.
Carson Pettigrew and Maebh Caolfhionn met at Hogwarts during the 1960's when he was a Peter Prototype with slightly more charisma and self confidence and she was an ethereal bookworm. In the course of things they graduated, married, and had a son. Having both been raised as muggles they decided to return to living in that world as respectable well-off, if slightly isolated citizens rather than try to cut it in the wizarding world without hefty pedigrees or uncommon skill to give them any sort of status.
Relationships:
Eh, what? Oh *blushes* Erm, well. To say Peter has never had a relationship would be, well, a lie. It would be better to say he’s never had a real relationship, since girls have either tended to use him as a ‘stepping stone’ to get in with the Famous Marauders or to rapidly get bored with his constant submissive neediness. Suffice to say, none of them lasted particularly long or made much of an impression.
Sample post:
Do I really have to? (*said in best wheedling little worm voice*) Come on, you know me…
Finally: for bonus points and an accepted application; What is Parker's real first name?:[/b] ACCEPTED
Full Name | Nicknames: Peter Pettigrew, aka Wormtail / ‘That fat kid always tagging after Potter/Black’
Age/Birthday/Year: 17 / February 1960
Note on Birthday – This puts Wormtail as a Pisces, a star sign characterised by desire to be with ‘the in crowd’ and a tendency to live two very different existences at the same time. Pisceans are adaptable and resilient but easily confused.
House: Gryffindor
The books don’t specify, and JK has not stated which house Pettigrew was in. Personality wise he doesn’t seem to fit here, but it’s most likely given that he became a Marauder so we’ll go with that pending any Book 7 Revelations, of course. Maybe he ended up in Gryffindor by a process of elimination as he definitely doesn’t fit the dominant characteristics of the other houses – Ravenclaw intelligence and voracious appetite for knowledge, Slytherin ruthless ambition, or (especially not) Hufflepuff loyalty. (it’s also suggested that the Hat judges not who you are but what you value, in which case Peter might well value the traditional Gryffindor values as those who possess them make pretty good candidates for him to hide behind. Or the Hat could perceive the malleability of his character and want to put him in a place that, for the most part, would offer a more positive influence on his development. As if Peter's future were undetermined, as if he were walking the line between the good and the evil... and the Hat put him in the place that would give him the greatest chance for good.)
Blood: Halfblood (in the same way Harry is considered a halfie – 2 wizarding parents but muggle grandparents)
Again purely conjecture… I’m guessing that (although this may be something of a generalisation) a pureblood with a decent lineage would have had a little more presence and self confidence and not felt the need to latch onto the others as much. He might be a mudblood, of course, but I suspect that might have been brought out by now as part of the ‘How could you join YKW?’ argument. Book 7 pending, as per usual
Sex: Male
Appearance:
The politest way to describe Peter would probably be well built with pointed features (though fat and rat like is perhaps more appropriate), although he has started to thin out a little as he approaches ‘adulthood’. His short stature and pale, pasty complexion mean he isn’t really the most imposing figure (therein will perhaps lie one of his future strengths, since this leads people, even those he’s close to, to underestimate him). His hair is thin, falling in limp strands around his features, with a tone somewhere just the blonde side of colourless, his eyes small, pinched and a pale watery shade of blue as if the colour has been washed out.
His animagus form is that of a fairly mangy grey rat (hehe… you can imagine the scene when he found that one out, given that all his mates had already transformed into theirs before this date – maybe there’s something in this idea that the animagus form relates to the personality after all? ;D
Personality:
Talents/Weaknesses and what made them who they are today integrated into this
Every ‘in-crowd’ has their Peter – the groupy. The fanboy. The fat, geeky kid hanging in the shadow of the popular ones. The trait most likely to strike anyone taking even a passing interest in him is his obsessive, almost stalkerish devotion to, and positive hero worship of, the other three Marauders – he tends to abase himself before them, disguising various parts of his personality (see below) and heightening others to assume the role of weakling flatterer. In the early days, of course, such a persona was necessary to get him ‘in’ with the vastly cooler and more popular Prankster Princes; now he’s clung to it as it gives him a role in the group which he can occupy (lacking the confidence or skill to become a Prankster, and the serious academic side that would link him more to Remus). In a way, although strengthening his bond with the other Marauders, this has somewhat isolated him as he really does think of himself in terms of crippling inferiority, the rest of the world being far too superior for understand unless by means of wheedling and abasement, and the only way he knows of relating to others being as a dependent.
This aforementioned trait, while important in its own right, also helps illustrate some other integral, though less obvious, parts of Peter’s personality. Firstly, he is desperate for security, allying himself to whoever is the strongest position to offer him protection from this world he struggles to understand. This gives him a strange sort of fierce, though inconstant loyalty – he won’t bite the hand that feeds him, unless there’s a better hand in the immediate vicinity, in which case he’ll do any and everything to get in with the new ‘Top Dog’. He’s also a fairly competent actor when the need arises, and not adverse to using deception to achieve his goals – while he is definitely the weakest (both in terms of presence and skill) of the Marauders it’s not to the degree his act would seem to indicate – he is more than capable, although he lacks any real ‘spark’ and tends to be overshadowed by the achievements of others. Peter does doubt his own capabilities, if anything more than the rest of the world, and relies too much on the safety-net stronger friends provide.
It’s tempting to label Peter as a ‘coward’. Certainly he’s never going to be the one to launch out on his own in some daring escapade, or to stick his neck out for what’s right and screw the consequences (his personal morality being ‘flexible’ to say the least – what’s right is good, what’s popular is better). Applying that label is, however, just another of the many ways the world will frequently underestimate Peter – when it comes to small acts, or acts where he’s not alone, then desire to be liked can work miracles.
Ladies and gentlemen, fasten your seatbelts, we are now entering the realms of wild conjecture
Childhood History:
Peter grew up with the best of both worlds, really - a wizarding family grounded in muggle reality. He was an only child, unlike James born to relatively young parents, and spent his childhood in the family home in a mixed (i.e. not solely wizarding) community near York, attending muggle school until age 11 while getting basic home school tutorage in magic from his parents. They weren’t incredibly rich, neither were they hard off, and if anything Peter’s early years were characterised by this gentle mediocrity, a sense of being, or at least trying to be, Mr. Average.
To say that his childhood was totally happy would be something of a lie – a fat kid with ‘freaky new-age parents’ always being a popular target for less than welcome attention from other children. It was during these years at muggle school that Peter learned the two lessons which would guide his later actions; hide the real you if it keeps you safe, and always have someone bigger to hide behind. The other major shock came some time after his 7th birthday when his ‘extra skills’ were first in evidence, although that in itself was not such a surprise given that his parents were anxiously watching for any sign that their quiet, unassuming and, well, slightly boring son might eventually blossom into something else. His father had rapidly become frustrated with leading a muggle life, his mother preferred it, and while they remained officially married and had by all accounts an amicable split Peter spent the rest of his childhood living with just his mother. He saw his father fairly often, but came away with the sense that the split was in some way his fault, that he hadn’t proved himself ‘good enough’ (this may well be the catalyst for his inferiority complex).
Some time soon after his 11th birthday Peter received the letter which informed him he’d been accepted to Hogwarts. He arrived nervous, feeling small next to the pedigrees and skills of his peers, looking forward to finally finding somewhere he could belong. If that somewhere was with someone powerful who’d offer him a sense of security, so much the better.
Family History: Bla.. this sucks. Oh well... Ignore this bit.[[/i]
The Pettigrews, unlike the Blacks or the Potters, aren't a great family. Yet. And, fact is, they probably won't ever be, although there is a sense that they should aspire towards a degree of greatness. As such, there's a lot of pressure on Peter to 'prove himself' and 'prove the worth of the family' since he is, really, the first true wizarding generation of the family.
Carson Pettigrew and Maebh Caolfhionn met at Hogwarts during the 1960's when he was a Peter Prototype with slightly more charisma and self confidence and she was an ethereal bookworm. In the course of things they graduated, married, and had a son. Having both been raised as muggles they decided to return to living in that world as respectable well-off, if slightly isolated citizens rather than try to cut it in the wizarding world without hefty pedigrees or uncommon skill to give them any sort of status.
Relationships:
Eh, what? Oh *blushes* Erm, well. To say Peter has never had a relationship would be, well, a lie. It would be better to say he’s never had a real relationship, since girls have either tended to use him as a ‘stepping stone’ to get in with the Famous Marauders or to rapidly get bored with his constant submissive neediness. Suffice to say, none of them lasted particularly long or made much of an impression.
Sample post:
Do I really have to? (*said in best wheedling little worm voice*) Come on, you know me…
Finally: for bonus points and an accepted application; What is Parker's real first name?:[/b] ACCEPTED