He could possibly have killed Sirius and got away with it pretty easily. Sirius's guard was down, and he was suffering from a whole shedload of self-recrimination for fiddling with the Potter's security arrangements and through misjudging Peter making them less rather than more secure.
But if he'd gone the route of becoming the conquering hero who just tragically managed to hit a number of Muggles while taking down the evil betrayer, it would only have taken Sirius out of the picture. Remus would still have been around, and the doubts that assailed him with a "dead" Peter and an apparently traitorous Sirius might not have worked so well in Peter's favour if Peter had been the one to "survive". At the very least there would have been lots of awkward questions, because Remus would no doubt have wanted to meet up with him and ask why? and what happened? Perhaps Peter thought that he might break down under that sort of questioning, and sought a way out that didn't involve any.
Turning yourself into a rat and living as someone's pet for over a decade is a pretty drastic step to take to avoid awkward questions, but Peter had ended up on the wrong side without being particularly liked by it, so he was short on people to turn to in any case.
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Date: 2006-02-22 11:02 pm (UTC)But if he'd gone the route of becoming the conquering hero who just tragically managed to hit a number of Muggles while taking down the evil betrayer, it would only have taken Sirius out of the picture. Remus would still have been around, and the doubts that assailed him with a "dead" Peter and an apparently traitorous Sirius might not have worked so well in Peter's favour if Peter had been the one to "survive". At the very least there would have been lots of awkward questions, because Remus would no doubt have wanted to meet up with him and ask why? and what happened? Perhaps Peter thought that he might break down under that sort of questioning, and sought a way out that didn't involve any.
Turning yourself into a rat and living as someone's pet for over a decade is a pretty drastic step to take to avoid awkward questions, but Peter had ended up on the wrong side without being particularly liked by it, so he was short on people to turn to in any case.