Dark Magic and Snape (was:Re: CHAPDISC: HBP24, Sectumsempra)

[Jen Reese]

No: HPFGUIDX 161373

Betsy HP:
> What I got from this particular curse is that young!Snape was
> angry.  And I'm sure that anger made him quite susceptible to 
> Voldemort's temptations.  But I don't connect Voldemort with dark
> magic so much.  Mainly because JKR has failed to do so.  She's
> connected Voldemort to perversion and chaos.  But not to a specific
> form of magic (I'm comparing to Darth Vader here.)
<snip>
> So yeah, I doubt anyone would think twice about Snape's having
> invented the Sectumsempra.  Especially as it doesn't seem to have
> required a certain mindset (as the Unforgivables apparently do). 

Jen:  There's a definite connection between Voldemort and dark 
magic, and dark magic being at least one path to his service.  
Dumbledore tells Harry that despite his privileged insight into 
Voldemort's world, he's never been 'seduced by the Dark Arts, never, 
even for a second, shown the slightest desire to become one of 
Voldemort's followers.' (HBP, chap. 23)

Coming as that does in the book about Snape's boyhood, plus Snape's 
own characterization of Sectumsempra as dark magic, there's the 
implication he was on shaky ground when he started inventing dark 
curses that caused people to bleed 'forever'. 

What's darker than Horcruxes, btw?  Maybe Voldemort started out 
interested in pure blood mania but his later goal of immortality at 
the cost his soul sounds a heckuva lot like the ultimate dark 
magic.   Not to mention his rebirth which he called Dark Magic.  
Possession is another one.  I guess I'm saying dark magic can be 
perverted magic for lack of a precise definition.

Jen R.