CHAPDISC: HBP24, Sectumsempra

[zgirnius]

No: HPFGUIDX 161258

> > Carol:
> > 7.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?
 
> Finwitch:
> As for the countercurse -- well, I would be
> surprised if Dumbledore didn't know it, and spposedly Madam Pomfrey
> did as well. We have evidence that Snape created SectumSempra, not
> that he created the countercurse. For all we know, it was *Dumbledore*
> to create that one, so that doesn't say anything about Snape.

zgirnius:
I am not sure why you conclude that Madam Pomfrey 'supposedly' knew the 
healing incantation. I would have concluded from teh evidence in the 
books that she most likely does not. 

First, because Snape identifies Sectumsempra as Dark Magic, and we are 
told by Dumbledroe that Snape knows far more about the Dark Arts than 
she does. Dumbledore says that this is why Snape, and not Madam 
Pomfrey, is called on to heal Dumbledore and Katie Bell earlier in the 
book.

Second, because of the contrast Rowling explicitly makes in "The 
Phoenix Lament". Harry compares her helplessness in the face of Bill's 
ugly bite marks to the relative ease with which Snape closed Draco's 
wounds with his spell.