Young Snape's cutting curse (Was: LID!Snape rides again)

[Ceridwen]

No: HPFGUIDX 150317

Alla:
> 
> ...Levicorpus was also found in the same six year book and we 
> KNOW that it was invented earlier than that.
> 
> I think same thing can easily happen with Sectusemptra.

Ceridwen:
If there is any reason for the book's publish date to have been 
noted, then Snape could have had this book from his mother and could 
have been writing in it all along.  The problem I have with this is 
the corrections on the potions in the text.  Those seem to point to a 
sixth-year use.  The spells, jinxes and so on are scattered 
throughout the pages, implying their being written as sixth year 
progresses.  Of course, he could just have rewritten them during 
sixth year.  When the situation is looked at closely, it gets more 
complicated.

I tend to think it is the cutting curse we saw in the Pensieve 
scene.  It does the same thing, only it is more controlled.  The 
inventor would certainly know how to control it, I think, while 
Harry, who has no idea what it does, flings his wand around in broad 
arcs, with the results we saw.  The only difference seems to be in 
the execution of the spell.

Alla:
*(snipping again)*
> I think it could be so [that Snape was inventing curses all along]. 
I think Snape inventing Dark curses WAS one
> of the reasons of his rivalry with James, who always hated Dark
> Arts, but after all I believe that Snape had always had very Dark
> nature.

Ceridwen:
I won't argue about Snape's dark nature.  I think he has one, too.  I 
think this is part of what makes him a fascinating character.  We 
expected him to be the one in PS/SS who was after the stone, and so 
forth.  When we find out that it wasn't Snape each time, we are 
surprised.

Sirius said Snape came to Hogwarts knowing more dark curses than the 
seventh years (or was it half of the seventh years? either way, 
that's impressive).  I suspect, given that Snape was eleven coming 
in, that the curses he knew then were standard curses that were 
available to anyone who wanted to find them.  And as he got older, 
and learned more in school, he began to try inventing some of his 
own.  Maybe modifying an existing spell at first, then being bolder, 
and making something uniquely his own.  His lack of revusion at the 
Dark Arts would certainly cause contention with James, and probably 
Sirius, too.

Snape called Sectumsempra dark, and he should know.  He later 
admitted to it being his own curse.  This also supports Snape's 
activities while a student.  It doesn't shed any light on whether the 
curse we saw in the Pensieve is the same one.  But I still suspect 
that it is.  JKR said that some of the plot was moved from CoS to 
HBP.  If this is part of it, then she might not have cleaned it up as 
well as if it had originally been meant for sixth year.

Ceridwen.