Snape & Harry's Memory Perspective Question

[kiricat2001]

No: HPFGUIDX 83983

I had a thought about the memories that Snape and Harry see in each 
other's minds during the Occlumency lessons, in particular, the 
viewpoint in which the memories are seen.  

In Harry's first lesson, the memories that Snape brings up all seem 
to be remembered from Harry's perspective.  (p.534, US edition).  
Harry watches Dudley riding a new bike, Ripper chases him up a tree 
and he sees the Dursleys below him laughing at him, he sits beneath 
the Sorting Hat, Cho draws nearer to him. 

In a later lesson, (p. 592), Harry sees the shouting hook-nosed man, 
a cowering woman and a crying child. He sees a greasy-haired teen 
shooting down flies. A girl is laughing as a scrawny boy tries to 
mount a bucking broom.  Harry assumes that the boy in each of these 
visions was Snape.  

What I'm curious about is the nature of perspective.  When breaking 
into another's mind, does the one breaking in see the memories with 
the same perspective that the memories' owner sees?  Or does the 
Legilimens see the memory as if it were like thoughts trapped in a 
Pensieve, where the perspective is that of an outside observer?  When 
Snape sees Harry's memories, is he seeing all the action from the 
outside, or is he looking through Harry's eyes? Is he seeing the dog 
barking and snapping at his own heels (as Harry would), looking down 
from his perch into the upraised faces of the laughing Dursleys, or 
is his point of view from off to the side?

Since we're dealing with magic, perhaps a Legilimens does see 
another's memories from the position of outside observer, rather 
seeing these events the way the person who experienced remembers 
them.  But, if a Legilimens is gaining access to the memories exactly 
as their target remembers them, then they would see it from the 
target's perspective.  If that's the case, then the memories Harry 
got from Snape would also have been as seen through Snape's eyes.  
And, that would mean that what Harry saw were events that Snape 
himself had observed. Harry assumes he's seeing Snape, but maybe 
that's not the case.  Maybe Snape was neither the shouting man or the 
frightened child, but someone who had just walked into the room to 
see that.  Snape could have been a sibling of the child in the 
memory, for instance.

I don't know what any of this means, other than my life would be 
simpler if I dropped right off to sleep at night rather than 
indulging in Potter speculation. But, so often JKR paints a picture 
that seems quite clear and obvious, only to reveal later on that what 
we thought we saw and understood was completely wrong.

Marianne