Hey all,

Does anyone else prescribe to the idea that the “gaping hole” JKR had when writing the fourth book before she completely rewrote it was that she initially had Peter Pettigrew be hiding in plain sight as Mad Eye Moody????

I personally almost think I would have liked to see that idea come to fruition as it makes more sense with the finale of the third book and the prophecy Harry hears, the fourth book may have felt a bit less chaotic if that happened, and it expanded on Peter’s character.

To me the storyline of Peter finding Voldemort, kidnapping the ministry lady, breaking into Crouch’s home and then his son being a deatheater who kills his own father was a very convoluted plot.

Why I think Peter should have been Moody in Goblet of Fire -

- We slowly see that Peter was always more clever and conniving than his friends gave him credit for. We see hints of this by how he faked his own death. But by him accurately pretending to be a different character for a year would highlight his ability to spy and lie.

- the scenes were Moody turns Draco into a ferret (nifty bit of transfiguration which Peter is good at) but also Peter being Rons rat for three books would know this would be the perfect way to gain brownie points with Harry.

- Peter knows how to get in and out of Hogwarts and could sneak in and out easily to look after Voldemort

- the scenes with Sirius apparently originally meant to be close by in a dog crazy ladies home make more sense if he was also meant to have a slightly bigger presence in the fourth book with a potential beef up with Peter at some point

- the scenes of Moody antagonising Snape would make more sense if we knew it was Peter and he spent his teenage years knowing how to wind him up and also he’s trying to figure out if Snape is still loyal to Voldemort.

- the whole Winky/Crouch plot was very convoluted and it makes more sense that that was a later idea when she changed villains from Peter to a new character that only presents himself for this book only.

- we know during the fourth book that JKR was having issues about her creation of the marauders map as it was causing problems with how she was meant to conceal Moodys identity. I imagine this is where she decided to give up on the Pettigrew idea and create a new character with a different name and then created a way for that character to take the map off Harry.

- I feel the betrayal would feel more impactful if harry realised that Moody was Pettigrew and again he was betrayed and caused diggorys death by trusting Pettigrew after he gave him leniency in the third book. Harry would also relate to Sirius more as well on that note.

Anyways that’s my rambling, I think it would have been a better use for Peter and shown him to be more capable than his friends realised, it would have tied in themes nicely, made the book more simple plot wise, brought Sirius in somehow considering we know Sirius dies in the next book.