[HPforGrownups] Musings on discrepancies/anomalies (?)

[Amanda Geist]

No: HPFGUIDX 68915

D.G. pondered:

> 1.  I'm very surprised that entering someone's private memories via a
> Penseive isn't a very serious violation, punishable by expulsion.
> Dumbledore didn't even PRETEND that Harry had done anything wrong
> when Harry plunged into his memories, and even Snape kicked Harry out
> of his office rather than threaten to discipline him (granted that
> since Snape had been charged with tutoring Harry, he might not have
> been able to carry out that threat.

Several things may have affect this. One, we have no idea how common
Pensieves are. We don't know whether Snape has his own, or whether (as Harry
seems to think) he's using Dumbledore's. So Pensieve etiquette may not be
high on most people's radar.

Secondly, when Harry fell into Dumbledore's thoughts, it was a total and
complete accident. He did it in ignorance. I am an "intent counts" type of
person, and I suspect Dumbledore is as well--not to mention that we now know
Dumbledore was having trouble communicating things to Harry. He may have
been relieved that Harry had somehow managed to find some things out on his
own; the onus was removed from his hands for at least some facts and
history.

The circumstances were entirely different when Harry looked at Snape's
thoughts; he knew what they were, what he was doing, and how to do it, and
proceeded anyway. That was a violation.

That said...I am far from convinced that Snape told Dumbledore that this
happened. What Dumbledore gives as his understanding of what happened--that
Snape was unable to overcome his feelings about James--does not exactly
summarize what happened. To tell Dumbledore that Harry had stuck his head
into very private memories may well have itself felt humiliating to Snape,
and I think there's a very good chance that to the end of this book, only
Snape and Harry know what happened. Ergo, even if Harry did commit a crime
(in addition to committing a serious breach of privacy), I don't think Snape
would "prosecute," as it were.

> 2.  Maybe I'm misunderstanding somethinng -- but according to Snape's
> own memories, he took his exam parchment out of the classroom and
> continued perusing it underneath a tree, as his classmates hung
> around nearby.  How could this be?  I thought all parchments were
> collected after the exam time was over.

You know, I had this same thought when I read the book and had to go back
and check. Penalty of reading too fast to find out what happens. He's
reading the *test* paper, not the paper with his answers. This was an essay
test, essentially; the parchments, the equivalents to those little blue
books, were turned in, but evidently the students were allowed to keep the
test papers themselves. Snape was reviewing the questions, probably mentally
going back over his answers.

I wondered, on a slightly related note, *why* he lingers near the foursome.
Is he so involved in re-reading that he does not notice? He certainly
doesn't seem to be near enough to eavesdrop, nor did he stop reading and get
up to leave at any particularly key place in their conversation. I have
concluded for myself, that he just didn't notice; this was the DADA exam,
and we have had JKR confirmation that he does favor this discipline, and I'm
betting his mind was just honestly elsewhere.

~Amanda