Easter Eggs, Part 5
ON REFLECTION
A/N: This was inspired by a number of run-ins lately with fangirls of insane, serial-killer-type characters. I needed to figure out why these characters get so much adoration, whereas Peter is generally singled out for hatred.
***
He might have been pardoned, Peter thought later in Azkaban, if he had been irredeemably evil.
That sounded like a contradiction, but it was not. The wizarding world fell over itself in its efforts to "rehabilitate" the Death Eaters. Lucius had claimed to have been under Imperio for years. No one had even thought of asking him to confirm this under Veritaserum. Crabbe and Goyle Senior had been deemed too stupid to have made any conscious choice to join the Death Eaters. Bellatrix was in a private room in the mental ward of St. Mungo's, three doors down from the Longbottoms. The soulless husk that had been Barty Crouch Jr. was gently tended by wizards and witches who believed that compassion would spark the growth of a new soul.
Now that he was safely dead, even Voldemort had his apologists. They claimed that if he'd only had love as a child, none of this ever would have happened. It was all society's fault, really, not Voldemort's.
Peter, however, was roundly hated.
It did not matter that Voldemort had tortured him until both mind and body were broken; it did not matter that he had saved young Harry's life, and therefore the wizarding world, in the final battle. It most assuredly did not matter that he, alone of all the Death Eaters, was bitterly ashamed of what he had done.
If he had been unrepentantly evil, the public could have been fascinated by his vileness. They could have scrabbled through his psyche and found some suitably sentimental excuses. They could have felt comfortably superior as they sought for a way to transform the beast into Prince Charming.
Sadly, he was not quite bad enough. He had served Voldemort, not from love of evil, but from fear of what would become of him if he disobeyed. He was simply an ordinary, cowardly man, like a thousand other men.
Yes, the public might well have accepted, forgiven, loved a monster. But how could they love so unflattering and so cruelly accurate a mirror?
***
I think that's ten. I'm losing track.
A/N: This was inspired by a number of run-ins lately with fangirls of insane, serial-killer-type characters. I needed to figure out why these characters get so much adoration, whereas Peter is generally singled out for hatred.
***
He might have been pardoned, Peter thought later in Azkaban, if he had been irredeemably evil.
That sounded like a contradiction, but it was not. The wizarding world fell over itself in its efforts to "rehabilitate" the Death Eaters. Lucius had claimed to have been under Imperio for years. No one had even thought of asking him to confirm this under Veritaserum. Crabbe and Goyle Senior had been deemed too stupid to have made any conscious choice to join the Death Eaters. Bellatrix was in a private room in the mental ward of St. Mungo's, three doors down from the Longbottoms. The soulless husk that had been Barty Crouch Jr. was gently tended by wizards and witches who believed that compassion would spark the growth of a new soul.
Now that he was safely dead, even Voldemort had his apologists. They claimed that if he'd only had love as a child, none of this ever would have happened. It was all society's fault, really, not Voldemort's.
Peter, however, was roundly hated.
It did not matter that Voldemort had tortured him until both mind and body were broken; it did not matter that he had saved young Harry's life, and therefore the wizarding world, in the final battle. It most assuredly did not matter that he, alone of all the Death Eaters, was bitterly ashamed of what he had done.
If he had been unrepentantly evil, the public could have been fascinated by his vileness. They could have scrabbled through his psyche and found some suitably sentimental excuses. They could have felt comfortably superior as they sought for a way to transform the beast into Prince Charming.
Sadly, he was not quite bad enough. He had served Voldemort, not from love of evil, but from fear of what would become of him if he disobeyed. He was simply an ordinary, cowardly man, like a thousand other men.
Yes, the public might well have accepted, forgiven, loved a monster. But how could they love so unflattering and so cruelly accurate a mirror?
***
I think that's ten. I'm losing track.