The missing pieces of the puzzle on sectumsempra and #Malfoid I purposefully kept my first post on it short for accessibility purposes. I'll elaborate here: The sectumsempra scene must happen and it is far more important than even the people who support the scene realise. 1. Harry lacked the understanding of what he was actually wielding: @BewareOfWombat said it very well in his reply to my original post on this topic. The entire audience has been conditioned to think that only the unforgivable spells are deadly up to that point. On top of that, I replied saying that throughout the book, Harry was using someone else's knowledge. He cheated his way through the potions class and went down a dangerous path using someone else's work without understanding it. He did all this long before he cast that spell. He is still a stupid child, he hasn't grown up into a man yet. After cheating his way through that book, not understanding the powers he's wielding, he went in there thinking that sectumsempra was not capable of killing someone. A mistake he would regret instantly. 2. The elephant in the bathroom no one seems to have noticed, not even those who support keeping sectumsempra in: We are currently coming to the end of 2026, and I can say (sadly) with a lot of confidence, that the relations between men and women overall have never been worse. We are at a point in time where there is so much mistrust between the sexes and I am not going to try to lecture anyone or try to play a blame game on this. I just want to acknowledge, this is where we are now. It strikes me as being very similar to the way Harry and Malfoid are driven apart. They were getting close, there was friendship forming and the potential for love and everything that comes with it... they were on their way. Then Voldemort returned and the resulting aftermath of that nightmare tore them apart. Instead of coming together, the two are forced to turn on each other by outside forces manipulating them into a confrontation neither can get out of... it's sounding all too familiar with how things are in the real world. This scene has to happen because it is an allegory of what is happening out there. This scene has to happen because we've already agreed how it's going to end. Harry and Malfoid are going to endure this nightmare and come out the other side. It needs to happen because we, out here in the real world, need to BELIEVE we can do the same. That we as men and women can overcome this trial we're in and come out the other side hand-in-hand. We MUST believe we can achieve that because if we think that sectumsempra is too great to overcome, then it's a sign we believe that the rift between the sexes we see in real life is also something too great to overcome. I don't want that to be the belief people have. We yearn for a reason. Let sectumsempra and the overcoming of that darkest moment between a man and a woman be the light that shines our way to that future we yearn for. 3. The payoff to enduring and overcoming the lowest point in Harry and Malfoid's relationship: THIS is where it gets even better. Like with any good piece of classical literature, the trial overcome needs to have a reward worthy of that trial. This is something that popped into my head when replying to @kasmosd1 in that first thread about this topic. When Snape is healing Malfoid, he takes special care to make sure her organs are fully repaired, meaning that she will have superficial scars remaining on her skin, but her internal organs are pristine. In fact, Snape did something better without realising it, he managed to strengthen Malfoid's internal organs... let's call it an unintentional parting gift he ends up giving to Harry and Malfoid. All of us conjured up a unified vision of Malfoid's ending with Harry. They would get married and they would have children. We then agreed, not just a couple of children, not just three, not five... no... they would have MANY children... enough to "make the Weasleys look infertile." I propose that Snape healing Malfoid's internal organs is how this is achieved. Childbirth isn't easy, having many, MANY children is even more difficult. Women certainly don't need me to tell them that. In this storybook we're writing, let our heroes have the reward they deserve, a reward of children and a happy home filled with many of them. Let it be the man who yearned be the one to give them that gift. Let it be their darkest moment needing to happen be the catalyst for their greatest achievement. Let their children be gifts they cherish for the rest of their lives and bring them closer together. Sectumsempra MUST happen. (EDIT: Grok was being difficult so I couldn't add my own AI generated image until now)