Knowing it was Snape (was: What has Snape seen)

[eloise_herisson]

No: HPFGUIDX 119088


> SSSusan:
>I don't understand why Snape 
> has to be IN each memory.  I have all kinds of memories of people 
> and places and events, and sometimes the pictures I have in my mind 
> are of those *other* people and places:  my grandfather smoking a 
> pipe; my mom & dad playing tennis; my brother graduating from med 
> school.  I'm in the audience, as it were, and I don't believe that 
> if someone accessed my memories they'd see ME; rather, they'd see 
> those other individuals *as I saw them*, but I'd be nowhere in 
sight.

The way that JKR deals with Pensieve "memories" is a bit odd, though.
When Harry dips his head into Dumbledore's Pensieve, he witness the 
hearings as if he himself were there, not from Dumbledore's own 
perspective, in fact he *sees* Dumbledore there. If he were truly 
inside Dumbledore's own recollection then a) he wouldn't be seeing 
Dubledore himself and b) (more crucially) he would know Dumbledore's 
thoughts at the time. In the same way, he sees Tom Riddle when he 
accesses his memories via the Diary. In other words the memories all 
seem to be narrated in the third person rather than the first person  
and also are without the emotional resonances and personal insights 
that our own memories have for us.

~Eloise