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

[rowena_grunnionffitch]

No: HPFGUIDX 100852

--- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, "potioncat" <willsonkmom at m...> 
wrote:

> 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.    

   Let's put this in Muggle terms; what would you think of a student 
who went through a teacher's private letters? And this is a hundred 
times worse. In justice to Harry I suspect Dumbledore's calm reaction 
to his accidental intrusion in GoF kept him from realizing just how 
bad prying into people's private thoughts is. Still, considering his 
own reluctance to let Snape see some of his memories....
 
> It may say something that Snape didn't lock them up on a regular 
> basis.  Perhaps he actually trusted Harry. 

   I suspect that prying into a pensieve is such an appalling 
violation of wizardly mores that not even Snape believes his least 
favorite student capable of such a thing.
 
> Potioncat (who agrees with whoever said, that Occlumency failure 
> does not tie into blame for Sirius' death.)

   A good point. Looking back we can see the mistakes that led to 
this disaster but nobody could have been expected to see them at the 
time. Harry has no reason to believe his connection to Voldy 
endangers anybody but himself. He might therefore logically reason 
that he has a perfect right to take the chance if he sees fit.

   I'm sure we can all understand Dumbledore's reluctance to tell the 
already burdened Harry about the prophecy. 

   Not only is Snape steaming over the flagrant violation of his 
mental privacy but he knows perfectly well the lessons aren't doing 
any good. So, he might ask DD, how can stopping them make things any 
worse?

   And expecting Sirius to sit tight while Harry's in danger is as 
unreasonable as expecting Snape to simply overlook his psychic 
violation. 

   Nobody foresaw any of this to lead to Voldy invading the MoM and 
Sirius' death nor do I see how they could be expected to.