Guilty Again (Was Death chamber/ancient magic)

[pippin_999]

No: HPFGUIDX 82043

Talisman writes: 
>>Pettigrew had been LV's spy for over a year. (PoA 374)  The 
Godric's Hollow attack occurred "barely a week after the Fidelius 
Charm had  been performed [on Sirius]," (PoA 205), therefore 
likely only days  after the "switch" to Pettigrew.  Pettigrew ran 
straight to his master.
> 
> Everyone knew there was a spy in the Order (e.g. PoA 375) I do 
not  believe Pettigrew could have fooled DD for a year. <<

Maybe it was Lupin <g> But in any case this does not take 
Occlumency into account. Snape tells us that a skilled 
Occlumens can not only block Legillimency, he can do it so that 
the Legillimens does not know he is being blocked. 

That would explain how Snape could fool Voldemort, and it also 
explains how a succession of Dark Wizards, from Pettigrew to 
Fake!Moody, could fool Dumbledore. Legillimency breeds a 
certain over-confidence in its practitioners, and Voldemort is not 
the only victim. Note that Harry, who seems to be a natural 
Legillimens (is *that* the significance of Lily's eyes?) thinks he 
can tell who the wrong sort are for himself, but is fooled by the 
same people who can fool Dumbledore. 

It would be folly for Voldemort to send anyone to spy on close 
friends of Dumbledore who was not a skilled Occlumens.  
Pettigrew knows that Dumbledore is looking for the spy.  He  
also knows that his three friends are hiding the secret that he is 
an illegal animagus and was running around Hogwarts with a 
werewolf. I don't think Peter would have felt very safe if there was 
a chance that Dumbledore would discover all  this in his friends' 
minds. So I argue that all the Marauders must have been 
Occlumenses, (Occlumentes?), and that they accquired this skill 
when they were studying to become Animagi.

We've long wondered about  Dumbledore's verbal arabesque, 
"not least keeping it from me" (quoting PoA from memory) when 
he talks to Harry about Sirius being an Animagus. Pip!Squeak 
speculates that it means that Dumbledore *did* know about the 
Animagi. But  I think what we are hearing is Dumbledore skating 
around the thin ice of Occlumency; a subject he very much 
wanted to avoid. Guilty, indeed, but only of being overprotective.

It would appear that for an Occlumens to conceal a falsehood 
successfully, as Snape can, he would have to be able not only to 
lie convincingly, but to block the memory of having lied as well. 
But does  a Legillimens detect a lie when someone tells the  
truth in fact but not in essence? Evidently not.

Pippin