I re-tell thee again and again: I hate the moor

[pauraque_bk]

I can't be the first person to have the idea that Peter was in love with James and jealous of Lily, can I? The thought hit me like a ton of bricks while I was re-reading Othello. Hot damn, I think I've finally got an underlying reason for the betrayal that I can work with, not to mention a structure for this damned Bertha Jorkins story I've had kicking around.

And if drawing parallels between Harry Potter and Shakespeare doesn't put you off, you may be interested in idlerat's insights on HP and Christian allegory here and here.

Comments

[pauraque]

He certainly seemed to have an enormous crush on James in the penseive memory.

::nods:: To read the scene in any other way seems forced. Moreover, James is *aware* of Peter's adulation, and deliberately feeds it. It's almost like leading him on -- I can see Peter clinging to the hope that James might actually be interested in him, to the point of feeling devastated and betrayed when James married Lily.

This also fits in with the theme in OotP that *love is dangerous*. Like any magic, it can backfire, growing twisted and suffocating. Dumbledore loved Harry too much. Harry loved Sirius too much. The infinite love that's kept in that room in the Dept. of Mysteries is definitely a dangerous force -- why else would the room be locked? Peter may have loved unwisely, and too well.