Two Plot Problems

justcarol67 justcarol67 at yahoo.com
Sat Aug 29 01:24:45 UTC 2009


No: HPFGUIDX 187642

Carol earlier:
> >  As for all the problems involved in Lupin's saying that Sectumsempra was Snape's signature spell when he didn't even know that Snape was a DE,
> 
> Mike:
> Please refresh my memory, where did we find out that Lupin didn't know Snape was a DE? Obviously it has to be before GoF, because we all knew by the end of GoF that Snape was a former DE with the dark mark on his forearm. 

Carol responds:
In GoF, Sirius Black makes it clear that he doesn't know Snape was ever a DE, and if he didn't know, Lupin wouldn't have known, either. (Certainly, the fewer who knew the better he could perform his role as spy for Dumbledore.) I agree that Lupin must have found out soon after Snape revealed his Dark Mark to Fudge in the presence of Sirius Black (and two Weasleys). But even Fudge seems taken aback by it; apparently, he didn't know either (or he didn't know about the Dark Mark, one of the two). I don't think that Snape's having a DE ever got beyond Dumbledore and the Wizengamot. If Rita Skeeter had known, she'd have mentioned it when she talked about Dumbledore's questionable choices for teaching staff in the article attacking Hagrid's ancestry.
 Mike:
<snip>
> To me, it's abundently clear that the same spell can result in vastly different outcomes depending on who cast it, what their intent was, and probably how resistant the victim is through their own abilities. IOW, I don't see why that cutting spell in SWM couldn't have been Sectumsempra, or as Alla suggests, one of the precursors to Sectumsempra that was scratched out and replaced by a new incantation. 
> <snip>

Carol responds:

As I said in another post, I also think that the hex that Severus used on James was a precursor to Sectumsempra, not Sectumsempra itself, for the reasons I've already given. I don't think that Teen!Snape had as much control over his spells as the adult Snape, and, as you say, he crossed out and revised his spells several times. But regardless, since Severus didn't speak the incantation, Remus couldn't have known about the spell either way. (and, of course, there's the whole problem of how anyone learned Levicorpus, a "<nvbl>" spell, and why that spell would have been popular in MWPPS's fifth year ("S" standing for Severus") when it was a sixth-year Potions book. We've been over and over this ground, so I don't think that anyone is going to convince anyone else.

Mike:
> And if Molly can stop the bleeding from the adult, magically powerful Snape's spell, I don't think it much of a stretch to think that Madam Pomfrey could cure the same spell cast by a 16 year old Severus. 

Carol:

If it's Dark Magic, and Snape, it's inventor says that it is, neither Molly nor Madam Pomfrey should have the knowledge to stop the bleeding. (If Molly had restored George's ear, I'd have been happy for George but angry with JKR for an even bigger inconsistency.) It's clear that Molly didn't perform Snape's complicated countercurse. Maybe she applied Dittany, which has suddenly acquired greater healing powers in DH. :-)

At any rate, it makes nonsense of Snape a healer of Dark Magic spells that even Dumbledore can't cure if Molly (or Madam Pomfrey) can heal Sectumsempra.

BTW, if anyone doesn't believe that JKR is inconsistent even in small matters in the same book, check out the number of hours' worth of Felix Felicis potion Harry's vial contains. In one place it's twelve, in another, twenty-four.

And JKR has said that she doesn't read her books once they're in print. Of course, there are inconsistencies, and, IMO, Lupin's claim that Snape was known for casting Sectumsempra is one of them. If that's the case, why wasn't he expelled from Hogwarts and/or why doesn't the whole WW know that he was a Death Eater?

Carol, who has used up her quota of posts for the day







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