Maraurders/he exists

[wileras01]

No: HPFGUIDX 169183

> Neri:
> The thing is, if Snape was using Sectumsempra under full control here
> only for the purpose of nicking James, then he was doing a very stupid
> thing. He got absolutely no advantage out of it. It would be like
> fighting someone with a needle: you're almost sure to draw some blood,
> but at maximum you'd manage to anger your opponent even more, and
> hardly stop him. Any common hex (or indeed Levicorpus) would have done
> Snape more good at that point. Snape wasted his one shot at James
> *and* risked exposing his secret Dark invention for no gain at all.


This seems to me to be one of the more important parts of the scene.
In my opinion, it opens the scene up to a few interesting
interpretations.  To be fair my interest in this moment does rely on
the assumption that Snape was actively trying to do more harm to James
than was accomplished.  However, given the situation Snape was in and
the variety of other spells he had at his disposal, I would conclude
it's a fair assumption.

Now none of the characters have a significant reaction to the spell.
They, however, do not have the reader's knowledge of the potential
damage the spell can cause.  The reader, once the true danger of the
spell is revealed, can go back and examine this scene and understand
how close James was to dying.  Aimed a little lower and that slight
cut could have opened James throat killing him well before medical aid
could have arrived.

We know from the title this memory is important.  Also given how
little we get to see of the events from the marauder days we have to
figure that each detail in this memory is important.  It seems to me
to be very odd to include this spell along with Levicorpus, if the use
of both in the scene isn't significant.

So here we have Snape using Sectumsempra and missing.  Depending on
your view of Snap's current character I can see this easily leading
to the chapters title.


If Snape is truly repentant then he could look on this incident as a
time where he could very easily have killed James and regret what
could have happened.

However, if Snape's hatred of James is really as deep as we see in the
current novels then perhaps his worst memory is that in this instance,
where he could have gotten rid of James himself, he missed.  Leaving
aside the ramifications he would have received had he killed James it
does seem like something he could regret.


Overall it seems likely to me that what makes this Snape's worst
memory is tied to the spell that we see Harry so regret using later in
the novel.  The reinforcing of a parallel theme in wishing the spell
had not been used seems too likely to me to be overlooked.  Whether he
regrets using it at all, as Harry does, or using it and wasting his
chance is a larger question.

Jared