Pensieve question...

bibphile bibphile at yahoo.com
Tue Aug 12 13:30:09 UTC 2003


No: HPFGUIDX 76693

--- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, "Karen" <ktd7 at y...> wrote:
> Do we know if the pensieve works more as a video recorder or as a 
> personal recollection of events? In Snape's penseive, Harry saw 
> Snape following James & Co. He was concerned that Snape wouldn't 
> stay where he could see his father, but Snape stayed near them. It 
> appeared as though Snape was deliberately staying in 
viewing/hearing 
> range of the group 

I don't think Snape was within earshot of them.

"Harry managed to keep Snape in sight while straining his ears to 
catch the voices of James and his friends." (US pp. 643)

I sounds like Harry was considerably closer to James than Snape and 
Harry could barely keep Snape in sight and hear James at the same 
time. There's no way (except magic, which we have no reason to 
suspect) that Snape can hear James.

He was within sight of them, but he was so absorbed in his exam 
paper that I don't even know if he was aware of their presence until 
they called out his "name." 

Karen:
> If the penseive records memories from the user's perspective, can 
> those memories be trusted as fact, or are they tainted by the 
user's 
> own feelings? 

I don't think it does.  If we were limited to what Snape couls see 
and hear, we wouldn't know James was doodling "L.E." on his paper. 
James was three aisle over from Snape. Snape certainly wasn't 
looking on his paper.

Karen:
> If the penseive works like a video recorder, it would be a 
> convenient way to find out from any person whether they are 
telling the truth about a given event without having to use a 
veritas potion.  If it is a video recorder, then why couldn't the 
MoM use it with Harry to find out if Voldemort really returned or 
not?
>

They don't want the truth.  They want comfortable lies.

bibphile





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