Fantastic Beasts 3 Debunks A Harry Potter Snape Spell Theory
WARNING! Contains SPOILERS for Fantastic Beasts: The Secrets of Dumbledore.
Fantastic Beasts: The Secrets of Dumbledore debunked a Harry Potter theory about Severus Snape (Alan Rickman) creating Sectumsempra's counterspell, Vulnera Sanentur. Fantastic Beasts 3 saw Gellert Grindelwald (Mads Mikkelsen) rise to power and then fall once more as Dumbledore and his team curb his ascension to Supreme Mugwump of the International Confederation of Wizards. In an attempt to fool the ICW, Grindelwald killed a baby Qilin to harvest her power, then brought her back to life using an all-too-familiar spell.
In Harry Potter and The Half-Blood Prince, Harry (Daniel Radcliffe) discovered Snape's Potions book from the time he was a student, although he only learned about the book's owner at the end of the movie. During a dark encounter with Draco (Tom Felton), Harry tried out one of the spells in Snape's book on him: Sectumsempra. This curse immediately brought Draco to the floor, as deep wounds opened up in a matter of seconds, filling the bathroom floor with his blood. Snape rushed in and cast a counterspell on Draco, healing his wounds: Vulnera Sanentur. He said nothing to Harry, but after Snape killed Dumbledore (Michael Gambon), Harry tried to cast Sectumsempra on him, to which he replied, "You dare use my own spells against me, Potter?" Snape was thus revealed as the inventor of Sectumsempra.
Snape's line had viewers assume that both Sectumsempra and Vulnera Sanentur were the Potions master's creations, but Fantastic Beasts 3 debunked this theory. After killing the Qilin and harvesting her Seer powers, Grindelwald resuscitated her via necromancy, then cast Vulnera Sanentur on her, healing the neck wounds he'd inflicted earlier. Since Snape was born in 1960 and the events of Fantastic Beasts 3 took place in 1932, it's safe to assume Snape wasn't the inventor of the healing spell Vulnera Sanentur. Apart from clearing this mystery, The Secrets of Dumbledore finally made the spell canon.
The Harry Potter books didn't directly mention the name of Snape's healing spell, saying: "he knelt over Malfoy, drew his wand and traced it over the deep wounds Harry's curse had made, muttering an incantation that sounded almost like song." As the spell was only heard in the sixth Harry Potter movie, Vulnera Sanentur wasn't canon until Fantastic Beasts 3 made it so. Granted, proving the spell was being used decades prior proves its significance.
Severus Snape remains a central figure in the Harry Potter universe as the Fantastic Beasts franchise continues to bring several odes to the character, as well as to the beloved late actor Alan Rickman. Fantastic Beasts: The Secrets of Dumbledore saw Credence take on Snape's style, wearing dark robes and long hair, and when Credence reunited with his father Aberforth (Richard Coyle), he asked him, "Did you ever think of me?" to which Aberforth replied with an all-too-familiar "Always." Grindelwald using Vulnera Sanentur on the Qilin only goes to show that the Wizarding World is not done paying tributes to Snape's great character.