HBP (Snape's) old school textbook: FIFTH year text

[Tammy]

No: HPFGUIDX 137030


> > --- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, "Little lama" 
> <mcandrew at b...> wrote:
> > > 
> > > I am confident
> > that the sectumsempra spell is the same one SS used in the 
> Pensieve scene ...  <snip>
> > 
> > 
> > Carol responds:
> > I don't think we can call it a "fact" that Severus was using the 
> book
> > in his fifth year. I'm not even sure there's any basis for 
> speculation
> > of that nature. We do know that the so-called Prank (in which 
> Sirius
> > Black lured Severus into the Shrieking Shack when Remus Lupin had
> > turned into a werewolf) occurred when Sirius was sixteen--almost
> > certainly during sixth year. That action, which was much more
> > dangerous than the merely humiliating Pensieve incident at the end 
> of
> > fifth year, may have prompted Severus to invent the Sectumsempra
> > spell, which he then worked out in the margins of his NEWT Potions 
> book. <snip>

Tammy now:
There was a spell from Snape's potion book that was used during the
"Worst Memory" scene, but it wasn't Sectumsempra, it was Levicorpus.
Harry used it on Ron in Chapter 12 of HBP, then tries to use it on
Snape as Snape flees Hogwarts in Chapter 28. That's the spell that
Harry uses that triggers the rant by Snape of 'you try to use my own
spells against me just like your father' (paraphrasing). 

So to me, it's clear that Snape had at least been using that book for
a little while before 6th year. However remember that it was his
mother's book. The rest of the class did NOT have to be using the same
textbook in order for Snape to already be reading it. Snape is a bit
like Hermione, I think, in that if he's interested in something he'll
go find books about it. His mother's Advanced Potions book would be
just the thing for him to read, re-read, and mark up long before he
ever got into NEWT level potions.

Tammy