Peter Pettigrew's Massacre in London (1981)

## Peter Pettigrew's Massacrew in London

### Outcome

Twelve Muggles massacred, Pettigrew escaped and Black was wrongfully convicted and arrested.

### Civilian casualties

Twelve Muggles, unknown injured

**Peter Pattigrew's massacre in London** occurred on 1 November, 1981 when Peter Pettigrew killed twelve Muggles with an extremely powerful explosive curse (likely the Blasting Curse), leading to the false conviction and imprisonment of Sirius Black. This event was one of the most infamous massacres in recent times.

## History

### Background

*Main Article: "Attack at Godric's Hollow (1981)"*

"*I persuaded Lily and James to change to Peter at the last moment, persuaded them to use him as Secret-Keeper instead of me....*"
— Sirius Black discussing the Secret-Keeper gambit

When James and Lily Potter prepared to go into hiding from Lord Voldemort in October of 1981, they decided to put a Fidelius Charm over their home as part of their protection. Friends such as Albus Dumbledore and Sirius Black offered to be their Secret-Keeper, but they ultimately decided that a more unlikely choice would be safer, and picked Peter Pettigrew; Sirius did not choose another friend, Remus Lupin, as Lupin was more likely a more obvious choice .

Unbeknownst to them, Peter was a double agent actually working for Voldemort, and quickly turned the location of the Potters over to his master. Though he would be unsuccessful at killing Harry Potter due to Lily's sacrificial protection and was reduced to a mere broken soul without a body for over a decade. Upon seeing the Potter's cottage in ruin, Pettigrew deduced what happened and retrieved Voldemort's wand to prevent the Ministry from inspecting it to discover his treason. Sirius deduced Peter's backstabbing from a lack of struggle at his hiding place.

### The Massacre

The following day, 1 November, Sirius Black cornered Peter Pettigrew on a street in London, intending to kill Peter for his betrayal. Pettigrew loudly accused Black of betraying the Potters. Before Black could stop him, Pettigrew cleverly set off an extremely powerful explosive curse (likely the Blasting Curse), killing twelve innocent Muggles and leaving a massive crater in the street to expose the sewer pipes below, thereby creating a diversion. Amid the chaos, Pettigrew quickly cut off one of his fingers, took on his rat form, and fled the scene. Thinking Pettigrew had been a casualty of the explosion, Black began laughing maniacally.

### Aftermath

Over fifty Muggle witnesses reported what Pettigrew said to British Ministry of Magic officials. As this left a large amount of incriminating evidence against Sirius Black, he was arrested and, only after James and Lily Potter appered to prevent it being longer, was sent to Azkaban for 6 months. Peter would later make his way into the ownership of the Weasley family as a pet rat, and was owned by Ronald Weasley by the time of Sirius's escape.

The Ministry of Magic had difficulty covering up this event given the extent of the damage and the number of Muggle casualties. They erased the memories of surviving Muggle witnesses and disseminated the story that the explosion had been caused by a leak in a gas main.