Occlumency/Legilimency as Metaphor

[junediamanti]

No: HPFGUIDX 81195

A new idea on the Occlumency/Legilimency thing struck me the other 
night and I've been giving the matter some thought since then.  
Here's what I thunk.

This arose from a situation that will be common to any parents out 
there - the what is your teenager really doing thing.

Okay - here's a rather irritating personal digression but I promise 
the elves that it is relevant to topic.

Here chez nous - we have been getting most of the teenage nonsense - 
with the latest being "experimenting with smoking".  My daughter has 
recently taken up with a new best friend who smokes. So being a 
teenage crowd pleaser she has to try it as well.  Now I don't smoke -
 I did heavily until 7 years ago when I kicked the habit with much 
pain and misery.  So I have no desire to see my daughter become 
hooked on a total waste of time, money and a health disaster.  
Anyway, the latest episode ended with a promise that she would not 
do it again.  

On returning home from work (unexpectedly early) on Tuesday I find a 
bit of a give away - her bedroom window wide open.  This from a kid 
who will have the heating on in July if possible.  So being a sneaky 
mother I crept into the house and sneaked up to her room, knocked 
sharply on the door, walked in without waiting for a reply (I don't 
normally like to behave like the KGB but needs must...).  There on 
the windowsill is a cigarette lighter.*  The upshot was a 
conversation when I pointed out just how easy it was for a 
determined and fairly smart adult to read the average teenage mind.  
Did I feel like Snape?  Actually yes (eeeew!).  

Anyway I got to thinking about this later and found it, in 
retrospect, amusing.  I equally remember my mother being able to 
second guess me in an almost eerie way. 

OK here's the point.  Snape is a parental figure in these books 
whether we like it or not.  OK not a nice cuddly parental figure - 
but a rather scary and strict parental figure.  He's the dad or mum 
who always knows that you are up to something - often before you've 
even started it.  And guess what?  Like your mum or dad at their 
spookiest - he can read your mind.  

So is that an undertext for Occlumency and Legilimency - the scarily 
prescient parent figure who always knows when you've been up to 
something you shouldn't.  I would add to this that Harry goes to 
great efforts to conceal certain memories from him - especially the 
ones about Cho - which are just the kind of things a teenager would 
not want adults to know about either.  

Just a thought.

June

*  Oh and by the way the lighter belonged to a friend - and I 
couldn't smell cigarettes on her breath and short of torture could 
not obtain a confession - the saga therefore continues!