Use of the Pensieve in Legilimency

[Wendy St John]

No: HPFGUIDX 72732

Hello, Everyone,

While I was lying in bed, thinking about Dumbledore (No . . .  not *those*
kinds of thoughts, get your minds out of the gutter <g>), an idea popped
into my head about the Pensieve. I wonder if perhaps part of its function
is as a tool for Legilimency. 

First, we learn in GoF that the Pensieve is not just a repository for
memories, but actively assists the user in making connections between
thoughts:

"The Pensieve," GoF, page 519, UK Edition: "Harry saw his own face change
smoothly into Snape's, who opened his mouth, and spoke to the ceiling, his
voice echoing slightly, 'It's coming back .  . . Karkaroff's too . . .
stronger and clearer than ever . . . ' 

'A connection I could have made without assistance, Dumbledore sighed, 'but
never mind.' "

This scene implies to me that the pensieve was not just feeding memories
back, but was doing it in a particular pattern based on an actual
connection between the two events/people involved in the memories.

Later, in OoP, we learn that Legilimency is not "mind reading" per se, but
that the skilled Legilimens can "delve into the minds of their victims and
. . . interpret their findings correctly." (OoP, page 469, UK edition).
What if the skill for this does not necessarily reside wholly in the mind
of the legilimens? Could the pensieve be a tool for helping the legilimens
make these interpretations? 

Could Harry, for example, put his memories of the things he saw in Snape's
head (I'm thinking of the man and cowering woman, boy shooting flies, and
bucking broomstick - NOT what Harry saw in the pensieve) into a pensieve
and allow it to help him understand the meaning? If that is possible, then
perhaps the pensieve could show back the memories in a particular order -
or show just relevant parts of each memory - which would make an connection
from things which seemed unrelated at first glance. Most likely it would
require more "raw data" than just three short snips of memory for anything
to come up that wouldn't be obvious, but when if we consider someone like
Dumbledore, who may have a vast store of memories he has obtained by
delving into the minds of others, it seems more likely that such a thing
could be possible.

It would make the pensieve seem FAR more useful, in my opinion - a tool
which would help you sort out what others are thinking? How cool would
*that* be! <g> Just think, if Ron had access to this, he might actually be
able to figure out what's going on with Hermione, for a change. <G> (Does
that sound like I'm shipping them? I'm not. Honestly. But it *would* be
dead useful, wouldn't it?).

Cheers! And now I'm back off to bed. (How sad is it that I'm thinking about
HP while going to sleep? <G> And even sadder that I got OUT of bed to write
and post this <GGG> At midnight, no less. Ah well. I'm obsessed. But you
wouldn't need a pensieve to figure *that* out!) 

:-)

Wendy St John
hebrideanblack at earthlink.net