CHAPDISC: HBP24, Sectumsempra

[quick_silver71]

No: HPFGUIDX 161308

--- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, "justcarol67" <justcarol67 at ...> 
wrote:
<snip>
> Carol responds:
> We don't know that the nonverbal curse or hex that Teen!Severus used
> in the Pensieve memory was Sectumsempra. I tend to think that it
> wasn't since there's no indication that James was "cut always" (no
> blood flowing profusely down his face, no suggestion that the cut
> won't heal, and, as you say, no scar that we know of).
> 
> I think that the spell young Snape used was a preliminary version of
> Sectumsempra, perhaps just "Sectum" ("cut"), and that Sectumsempra 
was
> a Darker and more dangerous version developed "For Enemies" after 
the
> so-called Prank (the trick Sirius Black played on Severus to lure 
him
> into the Shrieking Shack the following schoolyear). 

Quick_Silver:
I see your point that we don't know the spell Teen!Snape used but to 
me it doesn't make sense thematically/from a literary stand point (as 
a person with no literary background) if of the two spells that we 
don't know in Snape's Worst Memory (the upside down spell and the cut 
spell) we're only told one in HBP (Levicourpus) and instead JK shows 
us the more "evolved" form of "cut" spell.

<snip> 
> I very much doubt that Teen!Severus would have taught Madam Pomfrey
> the countercurse to a spell that he wouldn't want her to know he had
> invented. Nor would the Marauders know the complex countercurse, 
even
> if they got hold of Severus's Potions book, because it wasn't 
written
> in the margins of the book.

Quick_Silver:
Isn't that based on the assumption that only Snape could have a 
counter-curse for his "cut" spell? Why couldn't the Marauders or 
Madam Pomfrey or anyone for that matter come up with a counter-curse? 
Isn't there a scene where Hermione reverse engineers one of the Twins 
products (invisibility hats??) so why couldn't someone do that with a 
spell? 

> I actually think it's a Flint that James knows Levicourpus, a
> nonverbal hex. But even if it isn't (say the Marauders found out 
about
> it by eavesdropping on the Slytherins), there's no reason why they
> would know about Sectumsempra and its countercurse, which I think
> Severus would have kept very secret (and perhaps had not yet 
invented).

Quick_Silver:
But JK has Lupin specifically say that Levicourpus was a popular 
spell during his time at Hogwarts. That to me implies that there may 
be something of a story behind and note that Harry also connects it 
(although not definitely) to the Death Eaters in GoF. Perhaps Snape 
isn't as secretive with his work as we're lead to believe. And 
doesn't Snape himself imply that James turned his inventions against 
him in during his little fit at the end of HBP? 

Quick_Silver (who agrees that having Snape save Malfoy was dramatic 
but you can't deny having Peter do it would be pretty dramatic too)