Two Plot Problems

[mcrudele78]

No: HPFGUIDX 187645

> > Mike earlier:
> > Please refresh my memory, where did we find out that
> > Lupin didn't know Snape was a DE?
 
> Carol responded:
> 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. <snip>
> I don't think that Snape's having been a DE ever got beyond
> Dumbledore and the Wizengamot. 

Mike now:
OK, I guess we have a different interpretation of canon. For one, and here again I agree with Alla's take, Sirius spent 12 years in prison where I don't think there were a lot of visits from outsiders bringing him a Daily Prophet. So there are a lot of things that Sirius wouldn't have known *for sure*. 

As to whether SB knew that Snape was a DE, he certainly suspects him, but he doesn't know that he ever got *caught*. Well, he didn't, did he? Dumbledore recruited him and vouched for him to the Wizengamut sometime after the windswept hill scene.

Back to Lupin; Clearly, Dumbledore knew Snape was a DE by the time of the windswept hill scene. Also, we know that a lot of people were accused of being DEs after Voldemort's fall, and a lot of them got off through various tactics. I'm sure that Snape was suspected right along with Malfoy, the Lestranges, etc. But Snape got off via Dumbledore's testimony. 

Does that mean that nobody else besides DD thought that Snape was a DE? I'd doubt it. Could they prove it? Probably not. So don't you suppose that Lupin along with some others thought that Snape had been a DE that got off somehow? Ron, because of his dad, is sure that Malfoy was a DE. I would think that Lupin, being much closer to the situation with Snape, was sure that Snape was a DE that got off somehow. And isn't that take exactly the same thing that Sirius was telling HRH in the cave?




> Carol:
> 
> But regardless, since Severus didn't speak the incantation,
> Remus couldn't have known about the spell either way. <snip>

Mike:
I've already given my thoughts on the 'not speaking' part, so I won't rehash that aspect. The SWM cutting spell could well have been a precursor to the final version, I agree that that seems likely. But after Severus finalized Sectumsempra, wouldn't you suppose that he actually had used it on "enemies"? It's not a killing curse, bleeding from it can be stopped, it's just that damage from it can't be repaired without the countercurse.

JKR painted a picture of Snape's time at Hogwarts being a little more wild west than Harry's. It's not hard for me to believe that the hexes, jinxes, and curses were a little more savage at that time. So it's not hard for me to believe that the inventor of Sectumsempra did use the curse more than once during his time at school. 

Lily complains to Sev that his 'friends' used dark magic on Mary McDonald, it seems they weren't expelled. Why couldn't Snape have used Sectumsempra a few times and not gotten expelled? Snape knew what the curse did, he didn't have to chop off a person's arm with it. Besides, Harry *did* use Sectumsempra at Hogwarts, and he did a bang up job on Draco with it, and Harry didn't get expelled.



> 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. <snip>
> It's clear that Molly didn't perform Snape's complicated
> countercurse. 

Mike:
Like I said above, it's not a killing curse. Clearly it doesn't perform exactly as it's Latin name implies, it doesn't 'cut ever'. Or maybe it does cut ever but it doesn't bleed ever. Maybe you can't ever repair the cut, but you can stop the bleeding from the cut and you are left with an open wound, or in George's case, without an ear. That is unless you know the countercurse.


> Carol:
> 
> 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.

Mike:
How about if they can stop the bleeding, but they can't heal (or cure) the wound?


Mike, who knows that JKR has inconsistencies but doesn't find this particular case as one of them. :-)