OoP: Pensieve Speculation

[Jesta Hijinx]

No: HPFGUIDX 67478


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Okay:  I had a thought about Pensieves.

So far we've seen people using them on themselves exclusively - Dumbledore 
and Snape, right?

They seem to be useful for people who either have *so much* to remember they 
might have trouble concentrating or storing new information or remaining 
untroubled by memories when they have to focus on other things.

1)  I wonder how sophisticated a sorcerer one really has to be to use them?  
Dumbledore and Snape are both pretty talented, advanced wizards.   Does one 
need a license to be able to do this?  Does one have to qualify on the 
apparatus?  Be of a certain age?  Be a professional educator?  Be in a 
position that might necessitate legitimate removal of memories - i.e., an 
educator seeking to retain some privacy from students?  Is one simply born 
with the talent and that's it?

2)  Why doesn't Snape simply *leave* the painful memories out of his head 
and in the Pensieve?  I don't know if it's something that would harm the 
integrity of other mental functioning - it doesn't seem to hurt Dumbledore - 
and frankly, I'd think the painful teenaged memories are something he'd like 
to store somewhere else for good.  I can't see that they'd do him much good 
on a daily basis except to fuel a grudge that should have long ago been set 
aside and laid to rest.

3)  Is it possible that someone else has used the Pensieve on Neville at an 
early age - or that he was taught to do it as soon as he was able - to 
remove some of the painful memories about his parents?  Perhaps he was with 
them, as Harry was with his parents - he had his grandmother to go to, and I 
suspect that some of what's been revealed at the end of this book has a 
*lot* to do with how hard his grandmother and aunts and uncles have pushed 
him:  for his own protection.  Mrs. Longbottom Sr., as we were shown, is a 
regal and domineering old lady - but she seems perfectly gracious, 
well-mannered and has a good memory for detail.  She showed excellent 
manners in approaching Harry and Hermione and meeting them, and definitely 
is not prone to the "pureblood mania" that infects some other denizens of 
the WW.  I quite *liked* Mrs. Longbottom Sr. - but then I expected to.  That 
sounds odd, but I remembered that we were seeing her only through Neville's 
puzzled eyes.  Anyway, if anyone could use a Pensieve on someone else, I'd 
suspect she might have done it on Neville:  put aside some of the painful 
memories of his parents until he's of an age to face them - then perhaps she 
will offer to restore them, or insist that they be restored.  Part of me 
wonders if those gaps are reasons that Neville has such trouble remembering 
things - because some memories had to be removed to save his sanity and keep 
him from disabling grief.

Just some thoughts,
Felinia

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