Oh you just HAD to ask me about this. See, part 1 has mostly been Aslan beating Peter on the side of the head saying, ATTEND! And Peter really and truly thinks that toiling away as he is, to meet these academic expectations, is what he is supposed to be doing. He thinks Aslan wants him to attend to his studies, and he is, sort of. Aslan wouldn't want him to shirk his duty or disappoint his parents or the Professor, would he? He feels guilt that he has not been more attentive and guilt that he has been frittering away days with Richard. It does not occur to Peter that doing what Aslan wants and doing what makes Peter happy are in fact THE SAME THING. This is really typified in how he approaches Richard -- Aslan wants him to spend time with Richard, right? So he does. Oh, he enjoys it, to be sure, but that could not be the reason Aslan wants him to do it. Peter is, as Lucy says, incapable of a selfish act. He cannot say, I want THAT and I'm going to do it. I rattled on about this quite a bit when I was working on part 1 but it returns in full force. He is duty bound to a fault and it is a fault.

He's kinda thick sometimes.