Snape, Draco, and Wormtail (was Re: Is Snape the only character ...)

[spotsgal]

No: HPFGUIDX 143942

> > hpfan_mom:
> > We also have Regulus as a Death Eater who attempted to recant.  
> > If he turns up in Book 7, he could also be a vehicle for a 
> > lesson on redemption.  Of course, he might be too busy 
> > explaining how he destroyed the locket horcrux. ;)

Christina:

I'm sure we'll be learning a lot more about Regulus, but I suspect 
that he never was truly "evil," and got into the Death Eaters 
without really understanding what they would require of him.  He was 
VERY young when he died, and so he couldn't have possibly been a 
Death Eater for too long.  It seems as though he got himself in over 
his head, and then panicked and tried to back out (perhaps taking 
the locket with him as a last hurrah).  So I personally don't find 
Regulus a very good candidate for redemption, just because I don't 
believe he was ever really evil, or has ever done any real evil.  He 
hasn't even been presented as such in the books; even Sirius says 
that his biggest fault was basically being stupid.

> Lupinlore:
> We also have Wormtail, who seems to have some role to play.  Which 
> is an interesting question.  Wormtail, Snape, and Draco.  Are they 
> ALL going to be redeemed?  Will just one or two of them?  If so, 
> which ones?  I can see one or possibly two (especially if one of 
> them is Draco, who is the most inconsequential of the lot, all 
> told) but all three seems overkill (or over-salvation) as the case 
> may be.

Christina:

Peter's life-debt to Harry basically guarantees that he'll come back 
in the picture.  We don't know how a life-debt works, so it is VERY 
hard to speculate on how it might come into play.  In GoF, Peter 
cuts Harry's arm, so we know that he can still harm him, regardless 
of their bond.

In any case, the idea of Peter being redeemed turns my stomach in a 
way that redemption of Snape or Draco does not.  I think he's the 
most morally bankrupt character in the entire series, and has a 
*lot* of blood on his hands.  JKR has been pretty ambiguous in 
regards to Snape, and we have very little information about ills he 
may have done back when he was a loyal Death Eater (there has been a 
lot of speculation on whether Snape was actually doing in-the-field 
work for LV during the first war, or whether he was a behind-the-
scenes potion maker or something similar).  We know a lot of 
information on the bad things that Peter has done, and I can't see 
anything that could redeem him at this point.  Even if Peter dies 
for Harry, it still would not redeem him because it wouldn't be a 
selfless choice (because of the debt).

I'm shaky on Draco.  He does do some real harm and it's hard to 
excuse him for that, but I think that his place will be to 
demonstrate what some people will do is desperate situations.

There are a lot of truly evil people in the books that I think we 
can all agree will never be redeemed (Lucius Malfoy, Bellatrix 
Lestrange, Voldemort himself, Umbridge to an extent, the other Death 
Eaters), so I'm not too concerned with redemption overkill if both 
Snape and Draco turn out to be good or semi-good.  My worry with a 
ESE!Snape is that it will leave with us without a very clear example 
of somebody that was truly bad at one time and turns to the right 
side.  It also takes away from Snape's role in the story as the mean 
guy who sides on the side of good when it counts.

I also think that we're looking at "redemption" in a very black and 
white way, which seems to me to be incompatible with the story JKR 
has been telling.  I don't think that it's between a character 
being "redeemed" or "not redeemed."  I think that there's ample room 
for middle ground.  For me, I don't need Snape to die heroically for 
Harry for him to be an example of someone who has "seen the light," 
so to speak.  If Snape comes to the point where he realizes that 
he's done things that have been wrong and is truly regretful of 
those things, I think that shows character growth *without* true 
redemption.

Christina