Peter Pettigrew is a conniving character who first makes an appearance in Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban. Check out the Peter Pettigrew pictures and links.

At the end of that book, however, Sirius and Remus Lupin reveal that Peter Pettigrew is an Animagus who takes the form of a small rat. Called "Wormtail", he had become the secret-keeper for James Potter and his wife Lily Evans when Harry was a baby, in hope that Lord Voldemort would pursue Sirius Black instead. However, it turns out that Pettigrew always tries to find powerful friends; he betrayed the Potters to Voldemort in order to gain favour.

During the confrontation with Sirius on that fateful night, it was actually Pettigrew who blasted the muggles and then transformed himself to escape with the other rats down into the sewers. He left behind a finger, successfully faking his own death and framing Sirius Black for his and the Potters' deaths. Since then, Pettigrew had masqueraded as Scabbers, the pet rat owned at first by Percy Weasley, then by Ron Weasley. It has not been revealed how Peter, as Scabbers, managed to get into the Weasley family.

Peter Pettigrew later faked his own death a second time, to avoid Crookshanks, who was trying to bring him to Sirius Black. After his capture in Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban, Harry convinced Sirius and Lupin not to kill Pettigrew. However, Pettigrew managed to escape, and he sought out and rejoined Lord Voldemort. Peter has a life debt to Harry because he stopped Lupin and Sirius from killing him. Dumbledore describes this as ancient magic that forms a bond between the two.

In Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, Pettigrew helped Lord Voldemort in an elaborate scheme to capture Harry. Pettigrew then performed a complicated spell which allowed Voldemort to return to the flesh, sacrificing his own hand in the process. Shortly after his restoration, Voldemort created a silver hand out of thin air and attached it to Pettigrew to replace the hand he had sacrificed in the ritual. The hand is much stronger than Pettigrew's old one. The name "Pettigrew" is probably derived from the French word "petit", or small, and "grew." Hence, "grew small."

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