I've just finished the chapter on Silver and Opals where Katie Bell receives the cursed necklace on their Hogsmeade visit. What struck me was a similarity between her reaction to touching the necklace, which is described as green and glittering, and Dumbledore's reaction when he drinks the green liquid in the Cave. (Note--most older opals are not really green. They are more likely to have shades of pink, blue, and even turquoise, but I've never seen one that I would call green. The newer, manufactured opals tend to be more pink and purple.)
Both seem to be seeing or experiencing something that causes them great pain; both seem to be out of touch with the reality around them. Katie's friend, Leanne, and Harry, Ron, and Hermione are unable to bring Katie round to a conscious state, just as Harry is unable to bring Dumbledore away from whatever he is seeing and experiencing.
Snape now has had a chance to look at the necklace, no doubt, in order to try to stop the poison from killing Katie. Does Dumbledore realize that the green potion is something of the same sort and that is yet another reason he wants Harry to get Severus upon their return to Hogwarts?
Katie's first reaction upon touching the opal necklace is that she rises up in the air, eyes closed, face vacant, arms outstretched, before she starts to suffer. That is also similar to the brief moment when Snape AKs Dumbledore on the Tower when Dumbledore rises into the air before fall slowly over the battlement.
It may be nothing at all, but it just struck me when I was reading it this time. And it is the kind of thing that Rowling does--one thing happens, seemingly independent of everything else, but it is really connected to the bigger picture and is a clue that we easily overlook.
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