Cuts and Shortcuts

It seems as if many people have the feeling that Sectum Sempra is going to play some role in book 7. It's not an unforgivable; even if Harry's use of it seemed very rash it was in self defense. Given it's effectiveness it would seem the perfect tool to "take out" Voldemort once the Horcruxes are finished as Merlinus has suggested. What exactly does the spell do? Some people have noted that the spell seems to cause an endless bleeding. But that seems to be a better description of what it does to a human. Assuming sectum is Latin for "cut" - which is one meaning - my translation of the spell is "let this be cut always". A member of the Keenspot forums, Feign, writes about Sectum Sempra: "It's the one dark spell everyone needs to know. Personally, I'd use it for everything from opening doors to slicing meat and veggies for my dinner." There's little doubt he's joking - he later submitted a "fanart" of Harry dressed as Uma Thurman's character from Kill Bill to illustrate a possible wizard slashing spree. (I'll let the reader dig this up himself/herself - I'd rather not link to it, thanks.) But I think he made an interesting point. Couldn't Sectum Sempra, although seemingly dark, be an all-purpose spell and more of a morally neutral weapon than Avada Kedavra? Remember Hermione's argument with Umbridge - a counter-curse can be the same spell as a curse, but be justified in its use as a defensive counter-measure. I believe Dumbledore wanted Harry to at least know about this spell. And I think Dumbledore knew everything written in the margins of that potions book. He was very clever to arrange the entire thing - he doesn't tell Harry that Slughorn is the new potions professor and that he'll be able to take potions, thus he turns up at school without a book, therefore he somehow "coincidentally" gets Snape's book with all the extra stuff? Dumbledore is not the only person to do this to Harry. Here's an article with another take on Snape's worst memory. The author, Maline Freden, argues very convincingly that Snape wanted Harry to see the entire scene; Snape probably found out about Harry going into Dumbledore's memories, which I think also might have been purposeful on Dumbledore's part. I think that the potions book is another example of Dumbledore "setting the stage" and wanting Harry to see all those notes. Contrary to what Harry says at the end of HBP I don't think they are condemnatory of the present day Snape in the slightest and I doubt Dumbledore ever thought so. This is where I'm going to wander into the territory of insane speculation. But I can't quit thinking about this based on the other Latin meanings given for sectum: "to cut, hurt, wound, amputate, divide, part." I believe that Sectum Sempra is the spell to create a horcrux. When used in some kind of self-directed manner, it can divide or part the soul itself. Then the true meaning of the words Sectum Sempra, "let this be divided forever", completely shines through as an irrevocable damnation. Remember Snape's words to Harry: "Who would have guessed that Harry Potter knew such dark magic!"? But didn't Snape invent Sectum Sempra? Nowhere is that proved, that is merely an assumption. Lupin points out that levicorpus was one of those spells which goes in and out of style. Snape could have known about the many and varied uses of Sectum Sempra and possibly uses the spell to cut James Potter's face in the pensieve scene. He might not have known about horcruxes at the time of the margin note. So why does Dumbledore want him to know it and if he did, why didn't he just tell him? This is where I cop out and say "I don't know." You might as well also ask "Why does this even matter?" I'll only reply that there definitely exists a concerted effort in the books to emphasize over and over again the difference between body and soul and especially bodily death and damnation (death of the soul.) St. Francis wrote in the Canticle of the Sun: "Praise to you, my Lord, through our Sister Bodily Death from whom no one living can escape...." Then he goes on to mention the "second death" or damnation. Thus when amateur apparators leave behind important body parts it's seen as no big deal - this can be repaired using magic. But the soul is meant to remain whole and is utterly ruined when divided as Voldemort did. This brings me to my last point regarding "shortcuts". When alchemy is used in a spiritual sense to transform the soul from a leaden state to a golden quality it takes seven tenuous and tedious steps. Voldemort opted for "short-cuts" and a demonic travesty on the seven step method by cutting his soul into seven pieces. It seems like all forms of evil can be seen as shortcuts to power and those who fight evil must resist the temptation to take these same kinds of false roads. Well, I've pretty much contradicted my former theory about wandless magic, but I suppose the mind can be safely divided as well as the body especially in Potter predictions. This post is already longer than I like to read, let alone write, so I'll let others speculate about whether Lily Potter loaded her wand or Harry's baby-buggy with a Sectum Sempra or two on that fateful night....