Who is the adult (Was: Who's to blame for Occlumency?)

[potioncat]

No: HPFGUIDX 100781

Batchevra wrote:
> 
> Snape left the Pensieve where Harry could get to it, also Snape 
showed Harry 
> that he put his thoughts into it. To someone like Harry who is 
curious and 
> will go to seek information wherever he can find it, to do that 
stuff in front of 
> him was like waving a blanket in front of a bull. Snape should not 
have left 
> the Pensieve where Harry could get to it and shouldn't have put 
his thoughts 
> into it while Harry was there. Snape is an adult.


Potioncat:
This sort of connects to something I was thinking about yesterday.  
We don't know how the pensieve works or what its "rules" are.  In 
GoF, IIRC, DD says he was interrupted while using it and failed to 
put it away properly.

In OoP, Snape takes out memories after Harry arrives and puts them 
back in his head as Harry leaves.  (If it were me, I wouldn't put 
that particular memory back...I'd do an "oops")  I don't know if JKR 
has a Magical explanation for this or not.  Perhaps there is a time 
factor...like how long you can leave food sitting out before you 
risk food poisoning...

But, to my real reply to this post:  Snape didn't just "leave the 
pensieve out where Harry could get to it."  Normally he takes his 
memories out, he teaches Harry, he puts them back.  On this day, an 
emergency came up, he told Harry to leave (He indicated the session 
was cancelled.)  and Snape rushed out to help the Slytherin who was 
stuffed in the toilet. (Don't let the humor of this overwhelm the 
seiousness of it.  Pretend it's an Gryffindor.)

Snape rushed out to rescue a student, and Harry stayed and went 
into the pensieve.  Snape can't be blamed for not stopping to 
either return the thoughts or to lock them up.  And it could be 
understood how a 15 year old would have a hard time resisting, but 
he should have.    

It may say something that Snape didn't lock them up on a regular 
basis.  Perhaps he actually trusted Harry. 

Potioncat (who agrees with whoever said, that Occlumency failure 
does not tie into blame for Sirius' death.)