[HPforGrownups] CHAPDISC: HBP24, Sectumsempra

[Kathryn Jones]

No: HPFGUIDX 161147

justcarol67 wrote:
> CHAPTER DISCUSSION: Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, Chapter
> 24, Sectumsempra.
> 
> After casting the Muffliato spell to prevent anyone in their Charms
> class from hearing him, Harry tells Ron and Hermione about wheedling
> the true memory from Slughorn and about Dumbledore's lesson on
> Horcruxes. Both friends are "satisfyingly impressed."
> 
> A red-eyed Lavender Brown glares when Hermione grabs Ron's wrist
> because he's accidentally creating fake snow and bursts into tears
> when Hermione brushes the snow from Ron's shoulders. Ron confides that
> Lavender broke up with him after she saw him leaving the boys' dorm
> with Hermione, unaware that Harry was with them under the Invisibility
> Cloak. Hermione, who seems amused by the story, informs them that
> Ginny has split up with Dean for an equally silly reason--she didn't
> like having him help her through the portrait hole. Harry feigns
> indifference but his insides are "dancing the conga." Not
> surprisingly, both he and Ron conspicuously fail to turn their vinegar
> into wine. (Hermione, of course, has easily mastered the charm.)
> 
> Hermione and Ron are both in good spirits after the class, but Harry
> is torn by conflicting emotions: attraction to Ginny and loyalty to
> Ron. His internal debate is interrupted by the sight of Katie Bell,
> who has returned to school after being in St. Mungo's since December.
> After welcoming her back to the team and stating his hopes that
> Gryffindor can beat Ravenclaw and win the Cup, Harry asks her if she
> remembers who gave her the cursed necklace. Unfortunately, Katie can't
> recall anything between walking into the ladies' room at The Three
> Broomsticks and waking up in St. Mungo's five months later.
> 
> After Katie leaves, Hermione states that the person who Imperiused
> Katie must have been female, but Harry, thinking of Crabbe and Goyle,
> suggests that the person might have been Polyjuiced to look like a
> girl. He considers taking a swig of Felix Felicis and waiting beside
> the Room of Requirement again, but Hermione discourages this idea as
> "a waste of potion." Checking his copy of "Advanced Potion-Making" to
> see how long a new batch of Felix would require (six months), Harry
> notices the folded-down page corner that he had used to mark
> Sectumsempra, a spell that the Half-Blood Prince had scribbled into
> the margins of his book and labeled "For Enemies." Still unsure what
> the spell does because he doesn't want to practice it around Hermione,
> Harry considers testing it on McLaggen to find out.
> 
> With Katie back, Quidditch practice goes extremely well. Not at all
> upset about breaking up with Dean (who is off the team because of
> Katie's return), Ginny entertains her teammates with her imitations of
> Ron and Harry. Harry returns to his internal debate over whether
> asking Ginny out would be "base treachery" to Ron, at the same time
> hoping that a spectacular win for Gryffindor will be as good as a swig
> of Felix Felicis in insuring his success with Ginny.
> 
> Harry has not, however, lost interest in figuring out what Draco
> Malfoy is up to and continues to check the Marauder's Map
> periodically. Although Draco's dot is frequently absent, meaning that
> he's spending a lot of time in the Room of Requirement, Harry's
> continued attempts to get inside the room are futile. No matter how he
> words his request, the door does not appear.
> 
> A few days before the scheduled match with Ravenclaw, he spots Draco
> on the map in a sixth-floor boys' restroom, accompanied not by Crabbe
> or Goyle but by Moaning Myrtle. Harry runs downstairs and presses his
> ear against the restroom door but hears nothing. Quietly opening the
> door, he sees Draco bent over a sink, clutching it with both hands and
> shaking. Draco declines Moaning Myrtle's offers to help him and adds,
> "I can't do it. . . . I can't. . . . It won't work. . . and unless I
> do it soon . . . he says he'll kill me. . . ." 
> 
> Just as Harry realizes with a shock that Draco is crying, Draco sees
> Harry's reflection in the mirror and whirls around with his wand
> drawn. Harry draws his own wand. Draco's hex misses him, shattering a
> lamp. Harry attempts Levicorpus, but Draco blocks it. Ignoring
> Myrtle's screams and cries, the boys continue to battle, doing more
> damage to the restroom than to each other. Finally, Draco attempts a
> Cruciatus Curse, but Harry cuts him off, yelling "Sectumsempra!" and
> waving his wand around wildly.
> 
> Blood spurts from Draco's head and chest, and he collapses on the wet
> floor, dropping his wand. Harry falls to his knees, gasping "No--No--I
> didn't--"
> 
> Myrtle screams, "MURDER! MURDER IN THE BATHROOM! MURDER!" and
> Professor Snape bursts into the restroom, looking livid. Pushing Harry
> aside, he kneels beside Draco and mutters a songlike incantation,
> tracing the wounds with his wand as Harry watches in helpless horror
> and Myrtle sobs and wails overhead. The bleeding slows and then stops.
> Snape repeats the incantation, and the wounds seem to knit. After
> performing the incantation a third time, Snape helps Draco to his
> feet, telling him that he needs to take dittany to avoid scarring and
> ordering Harry to wait till he returns from taking Draco to the
> hospital wing. 
> 
> Too shaken even to think of disobeying, Harry waits silently. Snape
> returns ten minutes later and orders Myrtle to leave. Ignoring Harry's
> protest that he didn't know what the spell did, Snape says that he
> underestimated Harry and asks where he learned such Dark Magic. When
> Harry claims that he read it in a library book, Snape calls him a liar
> and, despite Harry's efforts to block his thoughts, forces a mental
> image of his Potions book to rise to the forefront of his mind. Snape
> orders Harry to fetch his schoolbag with all his textbooks and return
> immediately.
> 
> Knowing that it's pointless to argue, Harry runs to Gryffindor Tower,
> terrified that Snape will not only confiscate the book he regards as a
> guide and friend but also tell Slughorn how he's been achieving his
> high marks in Potions all year. He ignores Ron's questions about why
> he's soaked with water and blood, demanding that Ron give him his
> Potions book. Grabbing his schoolbag, he runs to the Room of
> Requirement and asks it for a place to hide his book. The room opens
> to reveal "walls" composed of broken and banned objects hidden and
> forgotten by many generations of Hogwarts students--"thousands" of
> books and a multitude of objects, from Fanged Frisbees and broken
> eggshells to a blood-stained axe. Passing the broken Vanishing Cabinet
> into which the Twins had stuffed Montague the previous year, Harry
> finds an acid-splashed cupboard in which someone has already hidden a
> cage containing a five-legged creature, now reduced to a skeleton. He
> hides the Prince's book behind the cage and marks the spot with the
> bust of an ugly old warlock, on which he places a dusty wig and a
> tarnished tiara to help him find it again. 
> 
> Harry rushes back to the restroom where Snape is waiting and hands
> over the schoolbag. Snape examines his books one at a time, looking
> especially carefully at the Potions book. He asks Harry three times
> whether the Potions book is his, and when Harry persists in answering
> "yes," he asks why the name Roonil Wazlib is written inside the front
> cover. When Harry says that's his nickname and Snape again looks into
> his eyes, Harry again fails to close his mind and block Snape from
> seeing his thoughts.
> 
> Calling Harry a liar and a cheat, Snape gives him detention every
> Saturday until the end of term. Harry protests that Saturday is the
> last match of the season, and Snape smiles, remarking that he fears
> "poor Gryffindor" will be in fourth place this year. Harry leaves the
> restroom feeling sick.
> 
> Word of the incident spreads quickly, thanks to Moaning Myrtle. After
> Snape tells the staff "precisely what happened," Professor McGonagall
> lectures Harry for fifteen minutes, telling him that he's lucky not to
> have been expelled and that she wholeheartedly approves Snape's weekly
> detentions. 
> 
> Hermione tells Harry that she knew something was wrong with "that
> Prince person," but Harry defends the boy he feels is his friend,
> arguing that the Prince only copied out the spell and saying that
> without him, he'd never have won the Felix Felicis or known how to
> save Ron from the poisoned mead. Hermione interrupts, pointing out
> that he'd also never have acquired a reputation for brilliance in
> Potions that he didn't deserve.
> 
> Ginny tells her to give it a rest and reminds her that Draco was
> trying to use an Unforgiveable Curse. When the girls turn away from
> each other after a few more angry words, Harry feels oddly cheerful.
> However, he still has to endure the Slytherin taunts and his own
> teammates' anger at him for getting detention during their final
> match, which forces Ginny to play Seeker and puts Dean back on the
> team in Ginny's place.
> 
> On Saturday morning, while the rest of the school heads for the
> Quidditch pitch, Harry goes to Snape's office, the same dark room full
> of slimy dead creatures floating in colored potions that he had used
> as Potions master. Snape tells Harry that he'll be recopying the
> records of  "crimes and punishments" of former students for Filch
> without using magic. He is to begin with boxes 1012 to 1056, which
> apparently correspond with the years during which Harry's father (and
> Severus Snape) attended Hogwarts. After Snape reads aloud a card
> recording a double detention for James Potter and Sirius Black for an
> illegal hex that doubled the size of another student's head and
> remarks that the record of their great achievements must be a comfort
> to Harry, Harry holds back an angry retort and begins his boring task,
> occasionally feeling a jolt in his stomach as he encounters another
> record of his father's detentions. Five hours later, Snape tells him
> to mark his place and return at 10 a.m. the next Saturday. Harry
> stuffs a card into the box at random and runs up to the common room
> where he discovers the Gryffindors celebrating their victory.
> 
> Ginny rushes toward him wearing a "hard, blazing look," and Harry
> kisses her in front of fifty people. Both Dean and Romilda Vane seem
> angry, but Hermione looks happy and Ron looks stunned. Then Ron gives
> a tiny jerk of his head that Harry interprets to mean, "Well, if you
> must," and Harry and Ginny leave for a long walk on the grounds.
> 
> Discussion Questions:

> 4. Harry undergoes a number of temptations in this chapter, among them
> to try out Sectumsempra on McLaggen and to use Felix Felicis either to
> strengthen his chances with Ginny or to help him get into the Room of
> Requirement so he can find out what Draco is up to. What do these
> temptations reveal about Harry and about his ability to deal with
> temptation in general? Might they foreshadow a more serious temptation
> in Book 7?

   KJ writes:

    Great questions Carol! Congratulations.
  I think that Harry has a tendency to take the easy way, which will be 
a temptation for him in itself. He will have to choose "between what is 
right and what is easy."  So far it is easy for him to get Hermione to 
help him with his schoolwork, using the Prince's book makes potions 
easy, using the F.F. makes things easy for him.  He has to start 
choosing what is right.

> 6.  Were you shocked that Harry would try out Sectumsempra under these
> circumstances, especially given the label "For Enemies"? Why or why
> not? What other options, if any, did he have in response to Draco's
> attempted Crucio?

   KJ
    It doesn't make sense for him to try a new spell under such 
stressful circumstances.  A person, when surprised like that, will use 
the most familiar spell, rather than a new one that hasn't been 
practiced. I would think he would fall back on expelliarmus, which has 
worked so well in the past. I think this was only done for the purpose 
of the plot.
> 
> 7. Why did Snape and only Snape show up when Myrtle cried bloody
> murder? Could anyone else have saved Draco, or does Snape alone know
> the countercurse? What does the songlike or chantlike nature of the
> countercurse suggest to you about it or about Snape? 

  KJ:
   I am quite certain that wherever Draco goes, Snape is not far behind. 
  He has promised to look out for him and he obviously takes his promise 
seriously.  Of, course, the risk of death does make a person get their 
nose to the old grindstone.  I expect that others may know the 
countercurse, but as the inventor of the spell, Snape is probably the 
most proficient. Snape must have come very close to failing the vow at 
that point. I had the sense that he was somewhat shaken by the 
experience, as well.

> 9. Why does Harry wait for Snape to return, as if he thinks that he
> deserves to be punished, and yet lie when Snape asks him where he
> learned such a Dark spell? What do you think would have happened if
> Harry had told the truth? 

   KJ:

     I think that Harry only waited because he knew there was no 
avoiding Snape. He may as well get it over. He was still in shock, as well.

> 11. Professor McGonagall tells Harry that he could have been expelled.
> Why does Snape tell the staff "precisely what happened" yet punish
> Harry only for being "a liar and a cheat"? Why didn't he so much as
> threaten to expel Harry when he could have done so? Are the Saturday
> detentions primarily intended to punish Harry by tormenting him with
> his father's indiscretions or does this tactic disguise Snape's real
> purpose for keeping Harry in his custody every Saturday until the end
> of term?

   KJ:
     I think that it is quite important that the one time that Snape 
would have had a great case for expelling Harry, he ignores it. I also 
think that Snape is keeping Harry out of Hogsmead for the duration. 
There is no reason why Snape can't enjoy himself while baby-sitting.

> 13. Why do you think Snape continues to use his old office in the
> dungeon, complete with dead creatures floating in colorful potions,
> now that he's the DADA teacher and his classroom is on another floor?

   KJ:

    He is still head of Slytherin and needs to be close to his house and 
Draco.