Welcome to Harry Potter Theory. Today, we’re discussing Wormtail AKA Peter Pettigrew. Wormtail gets a bad wrap, and has arguably the worst reputation of the entire franchise, with perhaps the exception of Umbridge. No one, not even Wormtail’s allies, held him in a very high regard, and one of the reasons that people looked down on him was that they saw him as submissive and weak. Voldemort and the death eaters disrespected him, never truly giving him the time of day. Wormtail was instrumental in Voldemort’s resurgence, so it’s a testament to Voldemort’s sinister nature, and Wormtail’s submissive nature, that he could disrespect him so openly. At one point, wormtail was sent to Snape’s house to ‘assist’ him, but Snape ended up treating him like his servant, a supreme gesture of disrespect:
Severus Snape: "I was under the impression that the Dark Lord sent you here to assist me."
Peter Pettigrew: "To assist you, yes, but not to serve you drinks and...to clean your house!"
Wormtail was a british pure-blood wizard born in 1959 or 1960, he had pale skin, unhealthy hair that was constantly falling out, and blue eyes. He was a snivelling excuse for a man whose loyalties only lay where there was power, and he did not value friendship or love in the way that most do. Despite serving both sides of the battle at one point or another, neither respected him, and those that Wormtail betrayed hated him because he was, morally, an awful awful person. And while I agree with the sentiment that Wormtail was a despicable person morally, I am not of the impression that he was an untalented wizard. In my opinion, Wormtail is one of the most underrated characters in the franchise, power wise, as if we break everything down - we can see that he was actually able to achieve quite a lot magically.