I feel like the only people who can like Peter Pettigrew are those who have created a fanfiction version of him. Canonly, Peter is a horrible traitor who got accepted into a group of people who cared about him, but the 1st chance he got, he betrayed them to someone he thought tougher. He’s an opportunistic coward who spied on the Order for years and then sold out his friends to Voldemort knowing they had a baby, and got Sirius sent to prison for 12 years. He is scum, period.
I don’t think anyone is trying to say that Peter wasn’t a horrible person; it’s pretty clear that he was. There are lots of things to debate in the HP fandom but the fact that Peter Pettigrew is scum isn’t one of them.
People who “like” Peter don’t necessarily actually like him. I mean, I can only really speak for myself but I feel like we writers include him in our Marauders fics because canonically, he was in Gryffindor with the others and canonically, he was a Marauder too, and one of their closest friends. The Marauders weren’t James, Sirius, and Remus + an awkward tag-along kid, the Marauders were the four of them. Moony, Wormtail, Padfoot and Prongs.
That’s exactly why Peter’s betrayal is so horrible and infuriating, because he was just as much a part of the Marauders as any of the others. No one expected him to do what he did, not James, not Lily, not even Sirius, and that makes it all the more heartbreaking because no one saw it coming, not from Peter. They did accept him. What’s more, they trusted him. They shouldn’t have, but they did, and there had to have been reasons for that. So yeah, he sucks. But writing him into fics as a likable (albeit awkward and shy, etc.) person is actually vital to ultimately creating the proper feelings of horror and disgust about what he did.
No one’s saying he didn’t turn out to be a piece of shit in the end – we’re writing him into fics because it’s important to.
OP is definitely missing the entire point of Peter.
also, i dont think “he betrayed them the 1st chance he got” is fair
he didnt spy on the order for years. i think it was one year max, and the scene in the shack more than clearly shows that peter would have been killed if he hadnt told the death eaters the truth
peter didnt walk into voldemort’s house ( does voldemort has a house ? where did he live? ) and said “heya dark lord i wanna sell you my friends”. it started with little things, like when the order planned an attack, etc… also, voldemort was a skilled legilimens, so to me it probably helped to get peter to feel entirely helpless and completely terrified
peter would have died if he hadnt sold out his friends. now you may think he should have died with honor, protecting his friends, but you cant just assume everyone is brave enough to make this choice.
tdlr : peter didnt betray his friends the first chance he got, he was more likely under extreme mental manipulation and death threats for a long time and just wanted to stay alive. im not saying he’s good, im saying his story is complicated
Fuck JKR 