Snape's Songlike Chant (Snape's Song: revised)

[leslie41]

No: HPFGUIDX 152566

--- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, "Najwa" <noon_at_night at ...> 
wrote:
>
> I was thinking about the part in HBP where Snape "...muttered an
> incantation that sounded almost like a song.(HBP US version, pg. 
> 523) "after the Sectumsempra that Harry performed. This reminded 
> me a lot of Fawkes and his song, as well as his tears. Does anyone 
> think there is a connection between Fawkes and Snape? I just felt 
> like this songlike incantation was not a conventional wizard 
> healing method, otherwise we'd find Madame Pomfrey singing 
> incantations as well as healing. I haven't noticed that any other 
> spell, incantation, etc. was ever described as song-like, so it 
> made me feel there was more to it, considering the many posts 
> about Snape's patronus being a phoenix and so on. 

> Just a thought.
> 
> Najwa

Leslie41:

I too think Snape's patronus will turn out to be a phoenix, and 
there is a definite connection there with his status as a healer.

No, the method certainly doesn't seem conventional, and this aspect 
of Snape's personality, I think, is of really key importance when 
analyzing his character, and predicting what will happen to him.  

Snape is a healer. This particular spell is also very pleasant to 
listen to, and very potent.  Snape may have an affinity with the 
dark arts, but his status as a physician (who far exceeds Pomfrey's 
skills, from what I can tell) is a clue that we are not supposed to 
believe that he's as evil as he seems to be.  He's been DD's 
physician throughout HBP.  The fact that the healing spell is also a 
SONG almost makes him a poet as well.  

Does anyone doubt that this spell as well is his own creation?  I 
don't.  Certainly Harry has never heard it before.      

Snape has a lot in common with other heroic characters who both 
destroy and restore.  Achilles, for example, is a healer as well as 
a killer, and was taught to heal by (of all things) a centaur.

I can't think of any character on Voldemort's side who actually 
casts any sort of healing spell (though they are fond of 
unforgivables of course).