[HPforGrownups] Re: Penseive Ponderings

[Gail Bohacek]

No: HPFGUIDX 42685

Not long ago I was flipping through GoF to my favorite "scenes", and when I 
got to the chapter where Harry slips into Dumbledore's penseive, I got to 
thinking about the mechanics of the thing.

(I'm at work, so forgive me for not giving direct quotes from canon)

So, from what I understand, the penseive is a receptacle which holds one's 
thoughts, having been drawn from one's mind by a wand...then one may view 
his/her thoughts at leisure.

But we know how fickle one's memory can be.  To give an example from the 
books:

Okay, picture this...Sirius Black is facing Peter Pettigrew on a crowded 
Muggle-filled street.  Peter says, "James...Lily...How could you?" and 
blasts the street behind him, killing several people, and slips out of sight 
into the sewer as a rat.  Now, the only person who really "saw" and 
understood what went on was Sirius, since he could describe the scene (from 
memory) to Lupis and the others in the Shrieking Shack.

But there where witnesses...those who said that it was Sirius who pointed 
the wand, blew Peter into little bits, etc.  What if we where to penseive 
their minds?  I don't think that we would necessarily see the 
"truth"...because the penseive (as I understand it) is not like a video 
recorder which captures the action, live, as it happens...but like I 
mentioned before, shows our memories (which in the case of the witnesses, is 
flawed).

To go further...could someone produce a false memory in the penseive?  What 
if somebody with a very keen imagination (or somebody having hallucinations 
perhaps?) can produce in his/her mind a situation that is distorted from the 
truth or just plain fantasy?  Could one draw this false memory from one's 
mind and view it in the penseive just as one could a real memory?

Just thinking.

-Gail B. who wants a penseive for her birthday.

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