Why didn't Peter kill Sirius?

[pauraque_bk]

In GoF 32, woman_ironing said:

I wonder what stopped Peter from the making the more efficient move of killing Sirius and surviving as a hero rather than a rat? (Silly me, JKR and the plot of course!)

I started to say that it was possible that he meant to kill Sirius along with the 12 Muggles -- and with good reason, as Sirius knew the truth about his betrayal -- but ran off when he realized Sirius was still alive. I don't know if that really makes sense, though... It always seemed, with the whole cutting-off-the-finger and immediately running away thing, that he fully intended to flee.

If he had killed Sirius, what would have happened? Well, he might have been charged with the reckless homicide (or whatever) of the other 12 people, but since they were Muggles, and Peter is very good at wriggling his way out of things ("Oh, I didn't mean to hurt all those poor creatures, I was just so scared and I did the first thing that popped into my head..."), I dunno if that would have been too serious.

So, he'd be the hero who killed Sirius Black. But keep in mind that at that point, Voldemort was dead already, and Peter very likely knew it. Maybe he was trying to run from the other DEs (who might well blame him for what happened), and didn't trust the Ministry/Order to protect him from them, even if he did eliminate firsthand knowledge of his betrayal by killing Sirius.

What do you guys think?

Comments

[g_shadowslayer]

I think Peter was trying to hide from the other DE's -- although he may have also been trying to hide from anyone who managed to see their way through him. Obviously, he's competent at ritual magic, but I don't see him as being so confident in his skills that he could evade/mislead/occlumens himself if extensively questioned about the Potters' deaths...

I'm still wondering who got Voldemort's wand back after the attempt to kill Harry failed. I've been thinking it over and just can't figure out how events would have played out: If Voldemort lost his physical form after the attack, his wand would have been lying there. If Peter found it and ran off with it, why didn't he kill Harry while he had the chance? If Dumbledore and the others got there first to find Harry alive, why didn't the side of good end up with Voldemort's wand? Are we just supposed to believe that they were so worried about the Potters and baby Harry that no one noticed it lying there? Or did someone take it in to the Ministry, and later a DE who worked there 'liberated' it? It's one of those things that bugs me...