Since we met him in Prisoner of Azkaban he has not once shown signs of Gryffindor bravery. He was only friends with James and Sirius because they would protect him, he betrayed James to Voldemort because he was afraid of Voldemort. Then after he no longer had Voldemort's protection/thought Voldemort may have been dead he hides out as a rat, then when he's found out he runs away, finds Voldemort and stays with him again, out of fear. Voldemort even says this is the reason Peter came back to him. Sirius says Peter always had to stay with the "biggest bully in the playground" for protection or something like that. After all this though I was sure we were going to see Peter's bravery when he repaid his debt to Harry (Dumbledore said one day Harry might be glad for saving Peter's life as he was now in debt to Harry) but though he did have to repay his debt he definitely did not do it willingly, his hand acted of it's own accord. WHY was he in gryffindor?

i have been wondering the same thing as he has shown no bravery ever !!
but as sirius said he always had to stay with the biggest bully in the playground
maybe he knew james and sirius before they started hogwarts and wished to be
in griffindor because he saw them go that way. And we all know the sorting hat
will let you decide so thats how he came to be in griffindor.

well, he did show some bravery by betraying James and Lily... I mean he had to fear, what if he got caught as he knew Sirius too well, he would know that Sirus would kill him to do so, maybe the sorting hat saw this bravery.... or as Kiwi said, he might have wished to be in griffindore but I cannot think he would have know James or Sirius at the time of sorting...

You can never really tell how a person is going to end up by what they are like at a young age, which might explain why he was Sorted into Gryffindor. Perhaps when Peter was younger, he had a little more of a backbone to him. (Remember, who did he have before he met Sirius, James, and Lupin? He had to have fended for himself a little). He was at least brave enough to become an unregistered Animagus to be with his friends. Then I think as time went on, he got a little too comfortable having leaders and "bosses" to look up too, and so as he grew he started to depend on having those figures in his life, thus canceling out any bravery he may have originally started with.

He did show a bit of bravery by joining Voldemort and by going back to him even though it was out of cowardice. In DH when Harry saw the memory of Snape and Dumbledore arguing Dumbledore said something like "I think we sort too soon." And this would mean that at first Pettigrew might have been brave or daring but then he changed by becoming too dependent on his friends.

Hmm, I kinda wondered that too. He was always sort of a tag-along, but he was sort of loyal to his friends while he was at school. He was kinda brave I guess. He became and animagi with James and Sirius. That was breaking some big rules. I suppose you could consider that brave enough. It was risky. But then, I'm not the sorting hat, so I really couldn't say.

You know, I never really thought about that, I never even realized he was in Gryffindor. Like Aguamenti353 said, you can't always tell what will happen with a person when they are young. Plus, I think he was a little nicer when he was young, however, I still know that he was a complete coward.

But think about it, what other house would he have fit into? Not Ravenclaw, because he wasn't very bright. Not Hufflepuff, because he certainly wasn't loyal, and not Slytherin because he wasn't really evil at that point, it wasn't until he was out of Hogwarts that he turned bad, and that was just out of fear! So it sort of makes since that he is in Gryffindor, however, it also seems completely strange.

I think he might of had a bit of a backbone because remember in the Half Blood Prince when Harry was doing detention with Snape and he was rewriting those incident report things and Pettigrew's name was on some of them. So my guess is that Voldemort drew him in by saying something like, "I can give you the power and such like James Potter had over everyone and have people look up to you like they did to James if you do this for me..." and that's why he became so cowardice, Voldemort stood over him like a towering god or something.

I couldn't have put it better, I totally agree with Felix2090. Now I have a story to tell. I was watching Movie 1 for probably the gazillionth time, when I saw something odd. When Draco gets sorted into Slytherin, Ron says "there isn't a witch or wizard who went bad that wasn't in Slythrin." What about Sirius Black? I know he wasn't really bad, but people thought he was one of Voldy's supporters. And then, although they don't know it at the time, Peter Pettigrew?

Because the Sorting Hat takes the students choice into account...

Maybe he told it that he wanted to be in Gryffindor???

There are all sorts of bravery as Dumbledore so eloquently put it before awarding Neville ten points. Pettigrew may have been a coward at times, but he did show a streak of bravery which was enough for the hat to put him in Gryffindor. He cavorted around with a werewolf in the form of a rat, always a danger nevermind the presence of other animagi. He cut off his own finger while escaping Sirius and must have endured pain for quite some time till he healed. He went back to Voldemort knowing that he could have been killed on the spot for not coming to him 12 years earlier. It is easy to argue that all these were acts of desperation and cowardice, however, it does not lessen the fact that there is a degree of bravery involved even there. He cut off his hand for Tom... he may not fit in the quintessential definition of brave, but did commit some brave acts however, horrendous. However, it's not just that which put him into Gryffindor, Gryffindors are known to fight even when the things are hopeless, Pettigrew did manage to escape from some pretty hopeless situations didn't he?

There are so many forces at work in the Potter world, it's sometimes hard to tell who or what had there hand in which events. I feel the Sorting Hat knew more than it told, certainly, and set up most of the events that took place! It had a loose power of foresight that served the Wizard World enormously. Pettigrew served a purpose, much like a pawn. While his deeds were harmful to some, in the end it all served a greater purpose. Who would have immobilized the Whomping Willow so Remus could be comforted? Without friends, would Remus have fallen to the dark side like most other Werewolves?

Sadly, had Pettigrew not betrayed the Potters, I fear the Wizarding World wouldn't have turned out the way it did. Voldemort wouldn't have fallen, Dumbledore may have taken longer to investigate Voldemort's past (if at all) and all events thereafter that led to the demise of the Dark Lord may not have passed.

I think there was a certain kind of bravery in Pettigrew, but the Sorting Hat had more than one reason to put him in Gryffindor.

I think it's because he is brave. Simple as that, but there is a longer explanation. He had some sort of bravery and loyalty to his friends at the beginning. Even though he was a tagalong, he seemed to show a little backbone. And later, when he joined Voldemort--that took courage, didn't it? He even tried to stand up for himself a few times. I think that proves he should be in Gryffindor. Yes, he did betray his friends, but as Dumbledore remarked when awarding Neville points "It takes a great deal of courage to stand up to your friends." Pettigrew did that, and very blatantly as well. I don't think he was a true Gryffindor, but he was a Gryffindor nonetheless.

I too think its an odd choice for him to be in Gryffindor. I think while he was in school he showed loyalty to his friends since they became animagi to help out lupin. This also showed daring and a littlebit of bravery. They would have to be brave in order to run off every month to walk the grounds in the company of a werewolf. Even if they were all animals.

I was curious when i saw this post too but since reading it i think i have a pretty good idea as to why he was put in gryffindor.
As someone mentioned in a post before, there are all different types of bravery, and he did show a fair amount of bravery, even if it was evil dark bravery, bravery for the dark side. So i guess the sorting hat saw that potential bravery when sorting him into Gryffindor. On top of that, he probably asked to go in Gryffindor, the crafty devil, and as Dumbledore once said: it's the choices we make that decide who we are... or something like that