Peter and non-penetrative rape

[pauraque_bk]

This post contains quotes from and discussion of stories rated NC-17 for non-consensual sexual content. If you don't want to read about that, or if you're underage, move along.


I was reading rushlight75's recent non-con story "Spoils of War", and this paragraph jumped out at me:

Pettigrew was impatient, and refreshingly uncreative. He liked to rub himself off against Harry's leg, all panting breath and clumsy hands and sweaty groping kisses. He always giggled when he came, like being allowed to have sex with Harry was the funniest joke he had ever heard.

It seemed very right to me, and I started thinking about how, when Peter is written as the aggressor in a non-con fic, he often does not penetrate his victim. (Not counting oral sex, which doesn't have the same connotation, at least to me.) This has been the case in my fic, most recently in "Due to Illness", where Peter also rubs off against the leg of his captive, and I found myself wondering why this seems so obviously right and characteristic.

I'd been thinking about this since I got some wonderful feedback from idlerat on "Cut With Diamonds", another story where Peter rapes without penetrating.

Idlerat commented:

Pathetic, wants to convince himself, in any given moment, it's about affection, punishing Ron for messing with his fantasy. The narcissist = infant. Infantile Peter, everything about his appearance, and the total failure of empathy. His incompetence, can hardly walk, Ron bathes him. Sucking--but he is sucked. But can't fuck. Must be passive.

I adore this observation, and it fits perfectly, though I wasn't thinking it consciously as I was writing. Idlerat notes how infantile my Peter is-- and Rushlight's Peter is also childish, giggling inappropriately as he forces himself on Harry. And like a child, he is incompetent: my Peter is explicitly too awkward to fuck, Rushlight's is "clumsy" and "groping". Even as a rapist, he's symbolically impotent.

In "Cut With Diamonds", I was elaborating on the sketched outline of the non-consensual relationship between Peter and Ron in juxiantang's "Damage Control". "Damage Control" is full of penetration, including possibly the mother of all penetrative rape scenes, Draco grotesquely impaling Harry with Hagrid's monstrous cock. I wasn't keeping score, but Peter is one of the few male Death Eaters who isn't shown penetrating anyone, either in "Damage Control" or its prequel, amanuensis1's "And Just Plain Wrong".

Another interesting one for this is "I Am" by Seeker, where Peter drugs Snape and attempts to rape him in his sleep, but doesn't quite manage it:

Leaking enough to at least get the head in, not bothering with lube because he didn't want to take the time, didn't know where it was, and had a suspicion Snape would wake up before he got round to it, Peter lined his prick up and started to work it in.
It was like sticking a wand in a pinhole. Snape was incredibly tight, and hotter than fire, and Peter whimpered with frustration when he realized he wasn't going to make it. Shoving mindlessly, he got nearly two thirds of his prick in before he came, unable to stop himself.
Shuddering, hands clenching the sheets on either side of Snape's hips, Peter sniffed, blinked back tears crowding his eyes, and watched his prick soften. It slipped out of Snape much easier than it had tried to go in, and it seemed to Peter to be the story of his life. Failure was always so much easier, and more natural, than success.

Of course, this isn't true -- everything we've seen Peter attempt to do in canon has ultimately gone according to his plans. But it's very like Peter not to see that, to denigrate himself as a failure.

In all these stories, his figurative impotence is paired with uneasy dominance -- all of Peter's victims are completely at his mercy, but he wears his power over them very awkwardly. A moment I found unforgettable in "Damage Control" was where Peter doesn't like that Ron isn't 'heeling', and yanks on his leash with an "exasperated quack". Such a pathetic rapist, nearly comical compared to Snape, Lucius, Voldemort (the pictures of slick, articulate, cloak-swirling villainy). It feels like the same Peter of the books, who does terrifying things, but seems almost unaware that he's capable of doing them-- the Peter who cries through the resurrection scene in GoF.


I like pondering these things. If any examples or counter-examples come to mind, please share the links.

You know, I keep thinking I read a non-con fic on the "Death Eater whore" theme where Peter does penetrate Draco, but I can't remember who it was by. Anyone? [EDIT: It's "The Gauntlet" [NC-17] by ficbymarks.]

Comments

[webbapettigrew.livejournal.com]

I don't know if you've ever read my fic, "Thrust and Release" but in it, Peter manages the act, but even when he's done there's a sense that he's somehow failed. It's almost a dissociation activity with him--the hope that he can dominate something and when push comes to thrust, he can't do that either.

http://www.thedarkarts.org/authorLinks/Webba

Love your icon, btw.

[pauraque]

*nods* There is that sense of incomplete dominance, of figurative sexual inadequacy, in that fic.

And thanks. :)