Meh, I dunno; the teachers at Hogwarts have shown instances of talent in multiple areas. I'm sure Snape has an excellent knowledge of Herbology and healing, in addition to his Potions and DADA talent. Sprout probably needs good charms and transfiguration work to handle certain plants; same with the CoMC teacher, unless they're blessed with half-giant strength/invulnerability. We already know McGonagall is a champ; it seems to be required to even be a deputy Headmaster candidate. Flitwick is a dueling champion;I doubt he just used Charms. Anyways, the presence of multiple teachers is to share the work load, while primarily doing what they enjoy most.

As for the healing spells, I don't know how cool that would be as the sole focus of a story - i.e. Healing Spells = The Power He Knows Not. At least that seems like what you're going for. The torture-only angle would be legit, but that's only a few scenes, not a whole story.

 

Snape. A healer? Am I the only one picturing House without the hotness, and less of a genius?

As far as using healing spells in a battle, the idea is okay, I guess, but I don't like how you get there at all. Ginny dying might make Harry want to fight Voldemort or become a healer, but I doubt both would occur.

 

You train for your profession outside of Hogwarts.

It's a school, and I am sure under normal circumstances that it would act like one; not a plot device filled with danger for the protagonist. We hear nothing of other Hogwarts year groups undergoing such dangers as Harry et al went through, and I am sure it wouldn't be hailed as the 'safest place' if such events were a constant to anyone other then the main protagonist.

Myrtle is the only one mentioned, but no where does it state that she was the only one.

It was an example. How about Snape; as Blaise said, if anyone in the staff would have some experience in healing it would be him. Why does he send students to Pomfrey, when we can all agree his nature would rather him sort out the problems asap so he can get back to, and I use the word lightly, teaching.

 

I suppose you are.
1. I'm straight, but even if I was gay, House =/= hotness. Gimp sarcastic drug abuser does it for you, eh ?
2. You don't need a lot of the guesswork House does for magical maladies, when spells can diagnose everything in seconds.
As for Myrtle and Cedeic being the only ones to die at Hogwarts, I call bullshit. Ignoring the Final battle, a bunch of dumbshit kids practicing magic in a school with disappearing rooms and people who may hate you for your parentage? Yeah.

 

Quote for truth.

From what we've seen, there's no specific brand of magic called "healing magic", just as there's no specific brand of magic called "warding". There are simply potions, transfigurations and charms that are used in a healing context. It's the context that makes it healing magic, not the magic itself. Thus if you use the spells in an offensive context, it's not healing magic any more, it's transfiguration/charms/potions used offensively.

That said, I have always loved the idea of Healer!Harry. Proper Healer!Harry, not Healer!Harry using his powers to fight Death Eaters.

 

What would be the plot of just Healer!Harry though? I think there was a fanfiction where he was thing yang of voldemort's yin. Because he needed to balance out the scales of power or something, because Voldemort and he were a special brand of something (wizard, hopefully) but Voldemort had choosen to be a warrior. And it made him insane, so Harry had to choose healer (which would return Voldemort to sanity) or Warrior (where he'd eventually go insane).

 

This is fucking retarded.

 

Yeah, I didn't say it was any good. I just said I read story that involved healer!Harry.

 

It is harder to heal than to destroy. hint pull a trigger blow a hole in a person. It then takes a person whose been specially trained to fix that. Cast a spell that cuts a gash in someone "diffindo" (i think that's the cutting spell Harry used in book 4) you then have to go to a specially trained person to have that healed. pomphrey and in some cases st. mungos. It's always harder to heal than to destroy, no matter the medium. anybody can destroy, reducto does some pretty serious damage to stuff and it seems a pretty common spell taught in school. It takes specially trained people to heal the damage.

And i agree with the person who said healing magic stops being healing magic when it is used to hurt. It then becomes twisted healing spells. You can look at the dark arts as being twisted healing spells. or healing spells being twisted dark arts spells. Which came first? My guess would be the dark arts, they're easier to cast. The healing spells would've come as a response to the injuries caused by dark magic and other offensive spells. Just like healing in the muggle world came about from people being hurt. There would be no offensive healing magic, it'd stop being healing magic and simply be offensive magic. From canon, the only spell that makes sense as being an offensive healing spell would be the bone removing spell, but as someone mentioned there's most likely a much easier cast dark spell that does the same thing, but with more damage. I don't think an offensive healing magic harry can be done well. But a healer harry who can use offensive magic could be interesting. especially if he's smart or innovative and modifies healing magic with runes or something that activates stored spells to heal the holder when damaged. You're in a fight and get hit by a spell that cuts open your chest. The runes on your skin or clothes or whatever activated and healing magic flows out in a stored spell or something and knits the skin back together. instant Juggernaut

 

Hmm, to an extent I agree - magic used in healing is among some of the hardest magic there is. However, I wouldn't quite say that it's as exclusive as you say: remember, Harry fixed a broken nose in HBP with Episkey, and Mrs Weasley would have been capable of reattaching George's ear had it not been caused by dark magic.

I think that the hardest healing is probably that which deals with magical injuries and illnesses, and that "normal" healing is within the grasp of ordinary wizards.

Similarly, I don't think that all destructive spells are that easy. Something like Fiendfyre is said to be very difficult to control.

 

That's true. Fiendfyre also brings up a whole new concept of some dark arts and other spells negating the effects of other spells. Like flame freezing charm(I'm 99% certain that's canon, but I don't remember where it's mentioned or what it's name actually is). Fiendfyre is able to burn anything in its path to ash, if I remember correctly. From my understanding of it, it seems as if it'd be unaffected by the flame freezing charm. I remember the flame freezing charm being mentioned as ways witches got out of being burned at the stake and that one witch enjoyed it so much she got caught several times under different identities. Like I said I'm 99% sure that's canon, but it could also be from one of the very first harry potter fanfictions I read when the series was still being written about between books 4 and 5. If anyone can clear that up that'd be cool.

 

I think the idea of Harry going destructive-healer in the middle of battle when he gets angry is somewhat akin to Molly Weasley defeating Bellatrix Lestrange in a fit of anger because Fred was killed. It's like a sudden OOC burst to employ a plot device. If you want psychotic-healer Harry then better keep him in labs where he tortures/experiments and not in battle where he reverts to destructive-healing due to anger.

I just can't understand how something like destructive-healer Harry be something good from whatever premise you were working on. Harry who swears "never again" after Ginny's death would be likely to follow one of two paths. The first would be to try to prevent deaths which would be the protector role. That way we see enemy-decimating Harry. A side path to this one would be that he would be doing minor healing at the end of battles helping a bit here and there. The other path would be healer Harry who stays away from battles and heals people who get mortally messed up in battles. Your premise, the way you defend it, leans more towards this second Harry and I just don't see any way this healer Harry could be in the middle of a battle unless of course he was ambushed and the most likely thing he would do is find a way out and leave the fighting to others.