Occlumency

[meltowne]

No: HPFGUIDX 75249

--- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, "evangelina839" 
<evangelina839 at y...> wrote:
> Interesting. :) I reread the chapter to see if there really was 
anything to support my 
> "timing" speculation in there, and Snape waits (which all of you 
probably already 
> realised ;)) until it's time for the practical lesson, to remove 
his memories. So if it 
> really was his feelings for James he wanted to have put aside, then 
he didn't care 
> about having it in the way while explaining the theory of 
Occlumency, but at least got 
> them out of the way when it was time for practice. And I don't 
know, but to me it 
> seems that he was a little nicer after using the Pensieve. He 
didn't point it out that 
> Harry wasn't calling him "sir", there was some credit for Harry's 
achievement 
> (although as a near-insult, "that was not as poor as it might have 
been"), and there 
> were not as many nasty comments as before (such as calling Harry 
a "lamentable 
> potion-maker", implying that his mind isn't complex, etc...).

WHich suggests that this is NOT Snapes worst memory, as the chapter 
title suggests, but something that would get in the way of the 
lesson; that makes sense.  Harry assumes it's in the pensive because 
Snape doesn't want him to see it (and so do we), but maybe Snape 
didn't think Harry had the skills to see the worst in Snape's memory -
 he was teaching him to BLOCK an attack, not to attempt one himself.  
So maybe the Pensieve was to protect his from his OWN reaction to 
that memory.

I think Snapes reaction is not so much because Harry saw the specific 
memory, but because he snooped and violated Snape's privacy.  If 
Snape was worried about Harry accessing his memory, he probably would 
have put the childhood memory in the pensieve too.

Melinda