Personally, I tend to leave out Dumbledore from all theorising, because I don't think he is a fully developed character. In my eyes, he is the voice that explains the background to Harry and the readers at the end of each novel, without really contributing to the plot. Asking why Dumbledore did not know about Peter's role as a spy, one could just as well ask why Dumbledore did not know about Voldemort sticking out from the back of one of his teachers' heads, and why he did not realise that one of his best friends was, in fact, an insane Death Eater, fresh from Azkaban, who had been imprisoned since he was 19 and had no chance whatsoever to learn all the stuff the real Moody was likely to know after a long career as an Auror: I am convinced that in all those cases the answer is, the author needed Dumbledore to be ignorant to be able to carry on with the plot.
There were other people in the Order, however, who could have guessed that it was Peter who was the spy. Sirius was too arrogant to consider Peter, but Remus, who knew that he wasn't the spy, and James, who had a family to protect and was likely to suspect everybody, might have had some suspicions. I think that it is very likely that Peter switched sides very late and, in addition, not because he was convinced that embracing the Dark side was the right thing to do, but because he thought it was the smart thing to do, given the circumstances. The good guys offered no longer protection, and he was most likely constantly underestimated by them. The Dark Lord offered the career of a lifetime. He offered the promise to have a lifetime, in the first place, seeing as the Order members were being killed off in quick succession.
I think that Peter's motives were largely based on fear, and that he acted out of self-protection. But, not being convinced of the cause of the Dark, he didn't act upon ideological ground. He didn't want Voldemort to triumph. He wanted to stay alive.
Is it possible that Peter was not afraid of the prospect of being found out, either because he placed such trust in Voldemort, or due to some other aspect of the circumstance?
I think this is very likely. I don't consider Peter being evil. It all comes down to self-preservation, and he acted in the full knowledge of doing wrong. I can well imagine that he assumed a very fatalistic position: knowing that he was doing the wrong thing and yet unable to stop himself from doing it, he would let fate decide whether or not he was found out.
In conclusion: I think it was the combination of circumstances: Peter running over at a rather late point, Sirius not suspecting Peter because of his arrogance, James and Remus suspecting virtually everyone and not singling out Peter, and dumb luck. Not very helpful, is it?
As to why Spying!Snape didn't have any information on Peter: The Death Eaters didn't necessarily all know each other. We know that they wear masks and robes during their meetings. We know that they use the Dark Mark to distinguish each other, which suggests that they don't necessarily know each other by name/face.
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Date: 2004-07-15 03:57 pm (UTC)There were other people in the Order, however, who could have guessed that it was Peter who was the spy. Sirius was too arrogant to consider Peter, but Remus, who knew that he wasn't the spy, and James, who had a family to protect and was likely to suspect everybody, might have had some suspicions. I think that it is very likely that Peter switched sides very late and, in addition, not because he was convinced that embracing the Dark side was the right thing to do, but because he thought it was the smart thing to do, given the circumstances. The good guys offered no longer protection, and he was most likely constantly underestimated by them. The Dark Lord offered the career of a lifetime. He offered the promise to have a lifetime, in the first place, seeing as the Order members were being killed off in quick succession.
I think that Peter's motives were largely based on fear, and that he acted out of self-protection. But, not being convinced of the cause of the Dark, he didn't act upon ideological ground. He didn't want Voldemort to triumph. He wanted to stay alive.
Is it possible that Peter was not afraid of the prospect of being found out, either because he placed such trust in Voldemort, or due to some other aspect of the circumstance?
I think this is very likely. I don't consider Peter being evil. It all comes down to self-preservation, and he acted in the full knowledge of doing wrong. I can well imagine that he assumed a very fatalistic position: knowing that he was doing the wrong thing and yet unable to stop himself from doing it, he would let fate decide whether or not he was found out.
In conclusion: I think it was the combination of circumstances: Peter running over at a rather late point, Sirius not suspecting Peter because of his arrogance, James and Remus suspecting virtually everyone and not singling out Peter, and dumb luck. Not very helpful, is it?
As to why Spying!Snape didn't have any information on Peter: The Death Eaters didn't necessarily all know each other. We know that they wear masks and robes during their meetings. We know that they use the Dark Mark to distinguish each other, which suggests that they don't necessarily know each other by name/face.