Snape/Harry's face in DD's Pensieve

[Julie]

No: HPFGUIDX 89339

--- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, "lizvega2" <lizvega2 at y...> 
wrote:
> I was reading Goblet of Fire last night, and I came to the part 
> where Harry goes to DD's office after the divination-dream-scar 
> hurts/ episode. When Dumbledore is explaining how the pensieve 
> works, Harry notices as he pulls out some thoughts and places them 
> in the pensieve. I don't have my book in front of me, sorry, but 
> either Harry's face turns into Snapes, or Snape's into Harry. 
> 
> I'm sure it's been discussed, anyone have thoughts on what this 
> might mean?  
> 
> "lizvega2"

The quote is on page 598 (US ed.)"Dumbledore added this fresh thought 
to the basin, and Harry, astonished, saw his own face swimming around 
the surface of the bowl.  Dumbledore placed his long hands on either 
side of the Pensieve and swirled it, rather as a gold prospector 
would pan for fragments of gold ... and Harry saw his own face change 
smoothly into Snape's" ...[pensieve memory appears of Snape saying 
the Dark Mark is active again].

I tend to see it as a warning to Harry.   We don't know what thought 
Dumbledore added (and he keeps adding them during his discussion with 
Harry).  It could be of Harry peeking into the pensieve only moments 
before, hence Harry sees his face.  But I do think that Dumbledore is 
in control of what scenes Harry now sees and deliberately chose the 
image of Snape's warning about the Dark Mark.  That could be 
twofold:  first to show Harry that Severus Snape is Dumbledore's in 
hopes of alleviating Harry's attitude towards the man; and secondly, 
to warn against only accepting things when they are obvious, which is 
often when its too late.  The Dark Mark is again visible, that's 
obvious, but Dumbledore says, he didn't need to see the mark to know 
that Voldemort was returning to power.   

Similarly Bertha Jorkin's image--Dumbledore and Fudge were arguing 
over her disappearance when Harry interrupted them--is displayed to 
Harry, with the comment that the point is not that she teased the boy 
for kissing a girl behind the greenhouses, but why was she was there 
in the first place.  

Dumbledore seems to be trying to subtly teach Harry about to see the 
larger picture.  He is showing Harry that small incidents are not 
necessarily isolated events.  That people and events are more complex 
than they appear on the surface.

One question of my own which you've made me notice lizvega2 is that 
in the dream which sends Harry to Dumbledore's office, Harry's dream-
self arrives at the [Riddle]house via the back of an eagle owl, which 
then "fluttered" into a chair (the back of which hides both the owl 
and the chair seat/occupant), afterwhich Voldemort's voice is heard.  
Harry assumes that he just saw Voldemort get a letter by owl.  But if 
Harry is able to "spy" on Voldemort because of the scar-link, then 
why would Harry be connected to the owl's journey rather than seeing 
the owl come to "him" in the chair.  Has Voldemort been possessing 
owls to spy, pre-rebirth?  


Julie