[HPforGrownups] Re: Dumbledore's ability to see Invisible things?

[Wendy St John]

No: HPFGUIDX 73280


Ginger wrote:

"Good points, but I wonder if it doesn't have anything to do with 
Dumbledore being skilled in Legilimency?  The cloak would not block 
out Harry's thoughts.  Dumbledore would still pick up on the 
patterns.  

Of course Snape also has this ability, so he should have detected 
Harry and Ron in CoS (p.259) when they snuck out to see Hagrid.  But 
then, again, they got past Snape because he sneezed.  Maybe the 
common cold has an effect on Legilimency?  Or Dumbledore's just 
better?  Or I'm starting to ramble?"

Now me (Wendy):

This is the same thing I was thinking - that Dumbledore can detect Harry's
thoughts, even though he can't see him under the cloak. And I don't think
that Snape' apparent inability to detect H & R causes a problem with the
theory. I think it's the fact that Dumbledore is better. Although Snape
appears to have some skill at Legilimency, it's *occlumency* at which he is
superb. I really don't think these two skills are interchangeable. They may
be related, and there may be those who are good at both, but I think it's
more likely that most people who have studied them are good at one *or* the
other. I also wonder if these are subjects Harry would have studied later
at Hogwarts, or if this is really advanced and specialized magic that many
witches and wizards never study at all. If it were me, and I knew this
magic was out there, I think I'd sure as heck want to have a go at learning
it <g>, but maybe that's just me <g>.  

:-)
Wendy