Snape as Neville's teacher (was:Re: Snape as Noble teache...

[Dana]

No: HPFGUIDX 168407

Sandy: 
> In fact, I wasn't even thinking about the Sectumsempra  curse. I 
> was referring to Katie and the necklace and Dumbledore and the 
> ring.  Others on the list have used these two examples, as well as 
> the Sectumsempra  incident, and the fact that DD wanted Snape after 
> returning from the cave, to  point out that Snape is qualified as a 
> healer. Since he was effective in three  of the four cases 
> I can't argue against him having certain abilities to heal. There 
> is one thing, though. In all three of these incidents, the injury 
> or illness was caused by "dark" magic, if, indeed, Sectumsempra is 
> a dark curse.  There is no doubt that the poisoned necklace and 
> cursed ring were dark magic.  Kind of makes you wonder about 
> Snape's healing abilities, doesn't  it?

Dana:
Personally and I have expressed this before, I think JKR did not 
actually inserted Snape's help to express his healing capabilities 
but to emphasis his expertise in the Dark Arts. For instance we see 
Lupin tell Ron in PoA he can't heal bones as well as Madame Pomfrey 
so why he leaves it alone but he expresses that he knows how to do 
it, in case it would be required. 

We see Sirius heal his own hand when he was bitten by a snuffbox. But 
we also see many types of injuries Snape does nothing about through 
out the course of the books. He does not help the healing of the 
petrified in CoS because it does not require his help. To me he does 
not have healing capabilities in that sense of the word but he knows 
enough about Dark Magic and Dark Curses to counterbalance the curses 
he is asked to deal with. More like a pharmacist knowing which 
medicine to give you ones the illness is diagnosed, a pharmacist is 
still not a doctor, he will know which medicine should not be taken 
together and he will know the side effects of every medicine he ever 
prescribed but again this still does not make him a doctor. 

Katie still had to go to St Mungo's and was still out for longer then 
a week; Snape stopped it enough for her not to die. He does not heal 
DD but stops the curse from effecting more then DD's hand. If I take 
an aspirin to stop my fevering then it doesn't mean I healed myself 
from the flue and it doesn't make me a doctor. 

Lupin knows that chocolate will help against the effects the 
dementor's have on you but it does not make him a healer just because 
he has this knowledge. I am not saying this to undermine Snape 
knowledge because he definitely knows more about the Dark Arts and 
Dark curses then anybody else but it also is proof of that Sirius's 
claim in GoF that Snape was famous for this knowledge is true. 

To me what Snape does can be more compared to giving someone an 
antidote after a snake bite, you do not have to be a doctor to do 
that but you do have to have knowledge about what type of snake you 
are dealing with to know which antidote you should use. But this 
knowledge doesn't mean that you can actually heal the aftereffects 
this poison has on the organs of the victim, you only are able to 
stop the venom from killing the person and you let the healing part 
to the professionals at the hospital. 

I think why he could only really heal Draco's wounds while with the 
other incidences he could only stop the worst outcome possible is 
because this curse was by his own invention while with the others he 
could only partly guess what they were made off.

JMHO 

Dana