Peter and the Possible Prophecy

by Val Aug

“The one with the power to vanquish the Dark Lord approaches…Born to those who have thrice defied him, born as the seventh month dies….and the Dark Lord will mark him as his equal, but he will have power the Dark Lord knows not…and either must die at the hand of the other for neither can live while the other survives…The one with the power to vanquish the Dark Lord will be born as the seventh month dies…”

This was the prophecy we learned that was given by Professor Trelawney shortly before Harry’’s birth. Dumbledore told Harry that this prophecy could refer to one of two wizarding boys born at the end of July; these boys are Harry Potter and Neville Longbottom. Usually Dumbledore has his facts straight to a point. But, what if he’’s wrong this time?

Now, I know what you’’re going to say and think when I tell you this, but PLEASE just hear me out. I think that the prophecy refers to not Neville, not to Harry, but “one whose heart walks with murderers.” Those who have seen the movie know I am referring to Peter Pettigrew. Don’t think this is just a spur of the moment theory. I’ve thought long and hard about this. Let’’s look at the prophecy piece by piece, shall we?

“The one with the power to vanquish the Dark Lord approaches…”

When referring to Harry or Neville, this part of the prophecy is saying how “the one” is approaching his birth. However, in my theory, this could mean one of two things. Either that Peter is approaching the Dark Side, or that he is approaching his betrayal of Lily and James. It could go both ways.

“Born to those who have thrice defied him,”

We don’’t know anything about Peter’’s past, but, we have been told that Sirius was basically disowned because he was sorted into Gryffindor and his family consisted of Dark witches and wizards. We probably wouldn’t have heard in great detail about Peter’’s family history since everybody hates him now, but we would probably have gotten wind of something if his family disapproved. This doesn’’t prove that his parents were deep in the fight against Voldemort, but they probably weren’’t Dark wizards which means the chance of them defying Voldemort is pretty good. Or, maybe they are Dark wizards (which would be how Peter got involved in it) and they defied as Death Eaters. They disobeyed Voldemort’’s wishes three times and he got sick of it so he had them killed.

“born as the seventh month dies…”

Once again we are not told this bit of information, but there is a one in twelve chance that Peter was born in July. (Of course, there is an eleven in twelve chance that he was born in any month besides July, but I am trying to prove my theory.)

“…and the Dark Lord will mark him as his equal,”

The first phrase that comes to mind is “Dark Mark,” but all of the other Death Eaters have them and we need Peter to be unique. Does anyone else remember a certain silver hand? It isn’’t necessarily a mark of equality, but add it to the fact that Peter brought Voldemort back to life and it could mean that Peter is the new “Dark Lord’’s pet.” I mean, bringing him back to life was basically saving his life, right? So now they have that “wizarding bond” and are connected to each other.

“but he will have powers the Dark Lord knows not…”

Going back to the whole “wizarding bond,” Harry saved Peter’’s life when he stopped Sirius and Remus from killing him. This means that Peter, as much as he might hate it, owes Harry his life. If that isn’’t one of the greatest powers you can have, then I don’’t know what is. However, if you don’’t consider owing his life to Harry a power and need a better explanation, then I will open the door to the prospect of Peter having some “secret” power, just to make you happy.

“…and either must die at the hand of the other, for neither can live while the other survives…”

I think this is pretty straight forward.

“…The one with the power to vanquish the Dark Lord will be born as the seventh month dies…”

For the longest time, this sentence was the downfall of my theory. Well, not the whole sentence, just two words; “will be.” Had they been a dot-dot-dot the theory would have worked without question. But, the “will be” denotes future tense. As in not born yet. Then I thought, (I know this is a little far-fetched, but I really want this theory to work) what if it means he was born into evil. Peter could have become a full-fledged Death Eater when Harry was born and then he would have been feeding information to Voldemort for a year and two months before his ultimate betrayal of Lily and James.

The final proof that this theory works is this: it would be the perfect twist. J. K. Rowling would love to have us all fooled. She did it in the third book when we though Sirius was evil, but then it turned out to be none other than Peter Pettigrew. I think J. K .R. would be highly amused at the fact that she, once again, bamboozled us. Think about it. It’’s not as unlikely as it seems.