Harry and Snape's redemption

[Geoff Bannister]

No: HPFGUIDX 150958

--- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, "Magpie" <belviso at ...> wrote:

Magpie:
> Peter does seem far more like Gollum in this respect.  Snape seems very 
> different, imo, since he is potentially trying to do the right thing.  And 
> perhaps it's Wormtongue we should really be thinking of when it comes to 
> Peter, since Peter doesn't have anything like the ring-lust Gollum has.  Not 
> to mention, I just don't know if JKR shares the same type of pity for Peter 
> Tolkien had for Gollum, since Gollum does suffer for the ring (despite his 
> own bad character and bad behavior in getting it) in ways Peter doesn't.

Geoff:
Interestingly, way back in those halcyon pre-HBP days when we could have a few threads 
going at one time and not be dominated by Snape/Horcruxes for weeks on end, I 
suggested that JKR had perhaps pointed up an HP/LOTR connection in her wordplay 
between Wormtail and Wormtongue.

Both had been trusted and close within a circle - Peter as a  Marauder and Grima in 
Theoden's court and both were seduced by evil wizards, namely Voldemort and Saruman. 
Both have seen their "dark lords" vanquished, Saruman being killed in Hobbiton (I'm 
working from the book) and Voldemort being sent on a long vacation to Eastern Europe 
from Godric's Hollow.

The only real divergence in their story lines is that Voldemort and Peter are still with us, 
but since Wormtongue and Saruman died almost simultaneously, is this a harbinger of 
what might happen at the end of Book 7?