I am reading Artin's notes "Lipman's Proof of Resolution of Singularities for Surfaces" from the book "Arithmetic Geometry". I am very confused by the proof of Lemma $6.5.$ (I am formulating it below in a little bit different way than it appears in the text)
Lemma 6.5: Let $(A,\mathfrak m, k)$ be a normal complete excellent ring of dimension $2$ that defines a rational double point (rational Gorenstein singularity). Denote by $X$ the blow-up of the unique closed point in Spec $A$. Assume that the exceptional divisor $E$ is equal to $2C$, where $C$ is a line in $\mathbb P^2_k$. And let $X' \to X$ be a sequence of blow-ups in closed points $p_1, \dots, p_n$, s.t. $X'$ is regular at evert point of the strict transform $C'$, then $\Sigma_{i} [k(p_i):k]=3$.
The key step is to compute $\deg_C \mathcal O_X(-C)|_C$ (Note that $\mathcal O_X(-C)$ isn't locally free since $C$ isn't a Cartier divisor, but it is always reflexive, in particular torsion-free. Hence, $\mathcal O_C(-C)$ is always an invertible sheaf). Artin claims that it is equal to $-1$, but I don't understand his argument.
In our case, since $2C$ is isomorphic to a double line in $\mathbb P^2$, the degree is the same as for such a line, i.e., $[-C,C]=-1$.
How could one put this into a rigorous argument? It is not clear how to relate $\deg_C \mathcal O_C(-C)$ with this immersion since $\mathcal O_C(-C)^{\otimes 2} \neq \mathcal O_C(-E)$.
P.S. By a rational singularity I mean that for any normal modification $f:X \to Spec A$ we have $H^1(X,\mathcal O_X)=0$. If $A$ is also Gorenstein, it is called rational double point. The latter condition is equivalent to $\dim_k \mathfrak m/\mathfrak m^2 \leq 3$.
P.S.2. In the formulation of Lemma $E$ should be equal to a double line $2C$ with respect to the natural immersion $X \to \mathbb P^2_A$ defined by the sheaf $\mathcal O_X(-E)$.
UPD: Jason Starr mentioned in the comments that if $A$ is defined over a field $k$, then $A\cong k[[x,y,z]]/(F(x,y,z)-G(x,y,z))$, where $F$ is homogeneous quadratic polynomial and $G$ is of degree at least $3$. We can do almost the same without assuming that $A$ is defined over a field. Namely, since $A$ is a rational double point $\dim_k \mathfrak m^n/\mathfrak m^{n+1}=2n+1$. Then we have $3$ generators for $\mathfrak m$ and there is precisely one relation in degree $2$ between them in $gr_{\mathfrak m} A$. Let this relation be $F(x,y,z)=G(x,y,z)$, where $F,G\in k[T_1,T_2,T_3]$ are polynomials of degree $2$ and $3$ respectively ($F$ is also homogeneous). Since $E\cong Proj(gr_{\mathfrak m} A)$ we conclude that $E\cong V(F) \subset \mathbb P^2_k$. Taking into account that $E=2C$ we can actually choose (after a suitable linear change of coordinates) $F(T_1,T_2,T_3)=T_1^2$.
But I still don't understand what is the connection between $\deg \mathcal O_C(-C)$ and the intersection number $[-C,C]$ inside $\mathbb P^2_k$.