Snape, the healer (Was: why did DD need Snape? )

[Deb]

No: HPFGUIDX 137746

 Deb wrote:
   And Snape is a healer!  (Snip) I also suspect 
 that Snape was LV's Potions Master when he was first in the DEs... 
 he may have been the one who created the potion in the bowl in the 
 cave. So he would be the one to know any antidote that might 
 exisit.  <snip>
 
 Carol responds:
 I absolutely agree that Snape is a healer skilled in countering Dark
 Magic, which is why Dumbledore wants him and not Madam Pomfrey after
 he drinks the potion in the cave. Note that Snape also saved
 Dumbledore from the ring Horcrux and slowed the curse on Katie Bell 
so
 that she could safely be taken to St. Mungo's. (He may have broken 
the
 curse on the necklace itself as well since McGonagall has Filch
 deliver it to Snape.) We could even throw in the fact that Ron owes
 his life to Snape's knowledge of bezoars. And if he invented the
 Sectumsempra Curse, as we know he did, the countercurse also has to 
be
 his own invention. 
 
 But I don't see how Snape could have created the potion (which 
appears
 to be poisoned thoughts or memories) in the Pensievelike bowl in the
 cave simply because he was only eleven when Voldemort returned and 
LV
 surely would have hidden his Horcruxes long before that, much 
waiting
 seven or eight more years till Severus was old enough to join the
 Death Eaters. I suppose it's possible that Voldemort rehid that
 particular Horcrux and that young Snape was asked to create a
 deterrent to prevent anyone from accessing it. That could explain 
how
 R.A.B. (almost certainly Regulus) could find the cave and steal the
 potion. Severus Snape, sharing Regulus's doubts but much more 
skilled
 at keeping his cover, told him about it. But why would he leave the
 ring Horcrux so easily accessible and not rehide it, too?

Deb writes: 
LV was gone for many years according to canon between the time he 
left Borgin and Burkes after stealing the locket and cup, and went 
off to learn all he could about becoming immortal. (He did not, IMO, 
know how to do this when he left Hogwarts).  When he came back that 
is when I think he began creating his Horcruxes preparing himself 
for the confrontation with DD and the OOP that was sure to come with 
all of the evil things he'd been doing (Fudge tells the Muggles PM 
that LV had committed over 1000 specific crimes) ... That cave and 
that lake are very big and probably could not have been created 
overnight. It may have taken LV and his DEs quite a while to create 
that space and put all the magic into it. LV had, I think, sealed 
the area when he first found it so no one else could trespass there -
 but he found it when he was a boy and certainly at that time he was 
not yet a trained wizard.  Plus I also suspect that potion is very, 
very complex and needed an expert to create it. Snape appears to 
have left school and joined the DE's almost immediately (if he had 
not already joined while in school). IF RAB is indeed Sirius's 
younger brother (who we are told joined the DEs when he was about 
16... Draco's age), Snape would be leaving school about the same 
time Regulus joined the DEs. And this young RAB was in Slytherin 
too... so they probably knew each other. Isn't it possible that LV's 
first task for young RAB was to go along and help Snape (LV's "new" 
potions expert-bet Snape got an Outstanding on his Potions' NEWT) 
finish the cave and the potions there? That would explain how RAB 
(again if this person is Regulus Black) found out about the cave, 
found out about Horcruxes which are a forbidden subject at Hogwarts, 
found out how to recapture the locket, and how to get back and forth 
across the lake. And it may have been what horrified him so much 
that he wanted out of the DEs quickly...either the ceremony required 
to make a Horcrux or the creation of the Inferi who are living in 
the lake...         
 
Carol writes: 
 I'm not sure about Snape's involvement here, but I absolutely agree
 that he's a very powerful wizard and a healer, and I've always
 suspected that his role in the DEs was as a potion maker for
 Voldemort, who uses the talents and powers of his followers to his*
 best advantage. (See the Karkaroff hearing in GoF for specific
 examples.) Why send Snape out to Crucio unwilling followers or 
torture
 Muggles when his time is better spent searching among his walls full
 of books for the specific potion Voldemort needs, collecting the
 ingredients at the exact time required by the complicated 
directions,
 and carefully watching over that potion till it's ready? Bellatrix
 implies that Snape is in the habit of "slithering" out of DE
 activities (when he's not at Hogwarts, which would be an excuse in
 itself). No doubt he used the same strategy when he was young,
 especially after the death of Regulus or whatever caused his
 pre-Godric's Hollow change of heart. ("I can't join you, Bellatrix. 
I
 have a potion brewing.")


 
Carol, noting that Snape, directly or indirectly, saves four people 
in
 HBP: Dumbledore (from the ring Horcrux), Katie Bell, Ron, and Draco
 (twice)--quite a record for someone perceived to be evil

Deb adds: Plus saving Harry from performing a UC several times there 
at the end - for isn't saving some one from an act of folly that 
would tear their soul not also an act of a healer?  "An ounce of 
prevention is worth a pound of cure"