Use of the Pensieve in Legilimency

[junediamanti]

No: HPFGUIDX 72734

--- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, "Wendy St John" 
<hebrideanblack at e...> wrote:
> 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>), 

Well not about Dumbledore anyway...
 
> 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?).
> Wendy St John
> hebrideanblack at e...

Taking your idea a bit further, is the Pensieve like a "thought 
database" and therefore capable of being ordered or manipulated to 
produce a report?  By which I mean nothing so crude as MS Access but 
that you can put a question if you have enough information and it 
will come up with the appropriate thought records for your study.

Hence Dumbledore's "I could have made that connection without your 
assistance" meaning "I figured that one out anyway" - but not all 
connections may be so obvious so the Pensieve might throw out a 
series of connected thought vignettes which the clever and 
sufficiently well informed could interpret into significant patterns.

June