I agree with your points, though I've always taken the ability of Slughorn, Minerva, and Kingsley to duel Voldemort to be a side-effect of Harry dying in Forest to save his friends (inducing the protection aspect of love).
Also, Molly should be in the same category as Bellatrix, or at least above-average, no?

 

Slughorn, Minerva and Kingsley surviving as long as they did is definitely because of Harry's sacrificial protection. They probably should have died several times over during that duel.

But I still don't think it was coincidence that they were the ones fighting him in the first place, and not, say, Lavender Brown.

Re: Molly. We've only seen one display of high end magical use from Molly, and it was during a time of high emotion, which we know can give magic a boost. Plus, she won by casting what appeared to be a Killing Curse (instant death on impact), which, as unblockable and apparently able to be cast by every wizard and their dog, hardly displays great magical talent.

 

We know it's blockable--by physical objects, Phoenixes, Lovus Shieldus (Harry's mother's sacrifice, Harry's sacrifice perhaps), and by weird wand tricks such as casting through a wand that doesn't recognize you as its master, say, or Priori Incantatem. There's no reason in principle why Bellatrix couldn't have summoned something to block it.

It could be hyperbole on his part, but canon suggests that the curse requires some combination of skill, will, and "power" (whatever that means in the HP-Verse). It doesn't seem like something just anyone off the street can pick up a wand and do. In canon, the only other people we saw cast it are Voldemort, Bellatrix, Pettigrew, Crouch Jr., Snape, and Thorfinn Rowle. In other words, Voldemort and his inner circle.

 

I know it bothers the shit out of some people (read: everyone) that Molly Weasley managed to get one up over everyone's wet dream bad girl, but there's nothing in canon indicating that Molly isn't a talented witch. It's not even an inference. All we know, for sure, is that she's a slightly overbearing worry wart.

On the other side of the coin, we've seen how long-term residence in Azkaban can make you a bit cocksure about your skills (see: Sirius Black).

 

Based on what we see in Snape's memories & other characters telling stories about Sirius, he was that way before he went to Azkaban.

 

Actually, I think Crabbe (either him or Goyle) cast the AK in The Deathly Hallows. The guy can't even pronounce/spell 'disillusion' correctly - he kept calling it 'Dislution' while throwing around his AKs, if I remember right - and he failed his DADA OWL, but he was still performing the 'powerful' curse multiple times and was having Harry and Co jump around trying to dodge.

That scene completely ruined the effect of the AK for me.

 

Most likely the AK just requires one to be able to come up with enough negative emotions to use properly, and will is very important for that. Skill can be the speed with which you do so, and there's really no canon explanation for "power".

 

Maybe the difficulty is not in doing it, it is in what to do. In that case, the argument that Pettigrew was lucky to have James and the others as friends has some value. But all we're doing is speculating, since the Animagi Art is a blank canvas in canon.

 

...

I don't even know.

/me goes back to vacation. This should be interesting to read when I get back.

 

Even given the explanation that the wards were lowered during the Minister's visit, there is still the question of exactly how Pettigrew escaped the island. If I recall correctly, Azkaban is located in the North Sea, which according to Wikipedia, "it connects to the ocean through the English Channel in the south and the Norwegian Sea in the north. It is more than 970 kilometres (600 mi) long and 580 kilometres (360 mi) wide, with an area of around 750,000 square kilometres (290,000 sq mi)"

That's a lot of fucking space when you think about it. We know Sirius swam to shore, but his animagus form is a dog, and dogs are decent swimmers. It is implausible to me that a rat can make that kind of journey. And if Azkaban is further out in the sea, say 50 or 60 miles or kilometers, that journey is straight up impossible.

Rat physiology does not seem to particularly lend itself to swimming (see below). There is also the fact that it would succumb to hypothermia much quicker than a dog, having much less fat and muscle tissue for retaining heat. The North Sea is, according to Wiki again, "the average temperature in summer is 17 °C (63 °F) and 6 °C (43 °F) in the winter." Even for humans, to survive a few mile swim (like 2-4 miles) in 40-60 degree water, you would have to a trained swimmer used to such conditions. I'm pretty sure I could not swim 2 miles in those type of conditions, and again, that's only positing that Azkaban is only a few miles/kilometers off of Britain's shore.

According to this website: http://www.terrierman.com/aboutrats.htm, rats can swim 1/2 mile in open sea and tread water for 3 days.

Sirius escaped sometime before the Hogwarts year started in canon. If Pettigrew escaped around the same time as Sirius did, the water would probably be closer to the warmer side of the range stated above; perhaps around 50-60 degrees F. So basically, the only way that Pettigrew could have escaped Azkaban by swimming to shore is if Azkaban is 1/2 miles or so off Britain's coast, that is if the information above is accurate.

Even if Azkaban is 1/2 mile off shore it is still doubtful he could do it considering he's been locked up for like 12 years, so his muscles are probably decently atrophied and he is most likely not in good general health, especially the kind of cardiovascular health needed for an extended swim in cold water. In my opinion, Pettigrew dies from drowning following severe hypothermia if he attempted that.

Sorry to logic!fuck this thread all of a sudden, but given the information above, it does not seem at all plausible that Pettigrew could have swam back to Britain from Azkaban.

 

He apparated.

 

Have we so quickly forgotten the lesson taught to us by Stuart Little? Pettigrew clearly made a sailboat out of scrap wood and his prison clothes. He then had his own mini-regatta against the opponents of drowning, destruction, drowning, death, and drowning. The odds were stacked against him, but remember that Pettigrew is an insane motherfucker (Pers, 2011). This, combined with him being a fan of E.B. White, was enough to see him through.

 

Since when can you apparate from Azkaban? Surely there are anti apparation jinxes for that very reason. Saying that he apparated and that Azkaban has no such defenses is silly and kind of lazy imo.

seriously, lol @ Azkaban if it doesn't have basic spells to keep prisoners from up and apparating away at whim.

edit:

Some people like answers for these types of things. Pettigrew escaping and coming after Nathan is a big plot point; how he escaped is fair game and should be included in a chapter somewhere. And what are your additional explanations?

I can think of a few others: 1. Someone let him out from the inside by the way of bribe, coercion, or imperius. And 2. A free DE could have broken him out, but both of those situations seems unlikely to me. Who would go through the trouble of freeing Pettigrew, a veritable waste of space of a wizard? He's not useless as so many people think, but he's definitely not worth breaking a bazillion laws and breaking him out of Azkaban for. Pettigrew probably has no real bargaining chips that he could use to bribe his way out of Azkaban with, and no wand to cast the Imperius on a guard. Both of those scenarios seem unlikely. He could have also grabbed a broom from somewhere on Azkaban and flew away, but still that seems a bit too easy an explanation. It doesn't satisfy me all that much.

So how did he escape to free, non-Azkaban land?

 

How about he swam a little and then apparated, because whatever protections Azkaban has, I doubt they reach much outside of the island.

 

Swimming in near freezing water after being under the influence of Dementors for 10+ years, as well as being certifiably insane?

If that were the case, the chance of splinching himself to death seems highly likely. Apparating in any altered mental state is just asking for a splinching, and I think Pettigrew had plenty of that going on.

 

Man, now you are just nitpicking. Sure, there was a high chance that he would not survive this escape and maybe in 99.9% of alternative universes he didn't. But in this particular one he got lucky.

 

I don't like luck as an explanation in general, for anything. I would think more people would be interested in a reasonable explanation than saying "Oh, he just got really lucky."

Apparently not.