Snape, Legilimency and end of "Prisoner of Azkaban"

[psychic_serpent]

No: HPFGUIDX 77876

--- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, "aamonn2000" <aamonn2000 at y...> 
wrote:
> Just one question : why didn't Snape used his Legilimency skills 
> at the end of PoA to find out the thuth about Sirius and Peter (or 
> to discover what happened after that ?)

What makes you think he didn't?  In fact, it seems quite possible 
that he DID, or else I don't see how to explain his accusation that 
Harry had something to do with Sirius getting away, although the 
thoughts he might have been accessing in Harry's mind might have 
been quite jumbled at the time, due to the number of things he'd 
just been involved in, including conjuring a Patronus to get rid of 
a huge number of Dementors.  (I think many of us used to assume that 
he automatically blamed whatever he could on Harry, but his reading 
Harry's mind is far more plausible, really, given that he CAN do 
it.)  Dumbledore might also have been using HIS Legilimency skills 
to communicate with Sirius and put the kibosh on any further 
accusations of that sort--to shut him up, in other words.  We see 
that Snape is VERY frustrated about the way it all turns out, yet he 
stops pushing and storms off after Dumbledore says very little 
(aloud, that is).

While rereading the first book with my daughter last night, I came 
on a part where Harry suspects that Snape can read minds.  And now 
we know that that's true thanks to the fifth book!  The Occlumency 
angle really puts ALL of the Harry/Snape interactions in previous 
books in an entirely new light, IMO.

--Barb

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