Pensieve = Security Camera?

[Brenda]

No: HPFGUIDX 102784

>>> Ally wrote in Post # 102369 "Re: Pensieve in Court & Magic Eye":
>>> Well, the impression I get is that the pensieve shows everything,
even the things you may not conciously be aware of your memory
recording. So, if I walk into a room to get a book, I might be
focused only on the book and remember only the book, but in fact, my
senses would be taking in a lot more that I mentally discard b/c its
not important to me at the time. The pensieve allows you to see
everything that happened, even the things you weren't aware you saw.
Why would DD use it as a tool to gain better insights into events if
it was an unreliable recording? I think it brings your memories into
clearer and more accurate focus. <<<


Bren now:

This above post by Ally got me thinking.  In "Snape's Worst Memory", 
Harry went into Snape's Pensieve, supposedly from Snape's POV.

But was it really just Snape's POV?  In the Pensieve, Harry sees and 
hears...

1. The little friendly winks between James and Sirius during DADA OWL 
exam - But I believe Snape was sitting ahead of them, putting his 
head down so close to desk?  So even if Pensieve picked up "things 
you may not conciously be aware of your memory recording", James 
grinning at Sirius, Sirius giving thumbs up to James, James drawing 
the Golden Snitch & "L.E."... this shouldn't BE in his memories.  It 
is *impossible*.  Visual information in humans is picked up by our 
eyes only -- eyes that face in rostral/anterior direction and eyes 
that cannot receive visual information no more than... well 
definitely not from the back.  Sure, other species use Superior 
Colliculus (SC) for vision and turning response and whatnot, but 
human SC has lost most of its visual functions and it is too well-
embedded in cortex to actually pick up photons, etc etc.  So I think 
it's safe to conclude that Snape didn't witness the interaction 
between James & Sirius, nor did his senses pick it up unconsciously. 
(Unless wizarding eyes work differently, like that pair of buzzing 
blue Magic Eye.)

2. The Mauraders talking -- and not just a simple "Hi, How are you" 
talk, they talk about Lupin being a werewolf!  And I believe Snape 
was a few feet behind them or something.  I always assumed, from PoA, 
that Snape never found out about Lupin's true nature when he was at 
Hogwarts.  If he did by any chance, I would say around Year 6 or 7, 
not earlier.  And as we all know, OWLs are written at the end of 5th 
year.  This leads me to believe that if Snape indeed heard about 
Lupin being a werewolf, he would've been SO *delighted* -- it was one 
of his must-fulfill missions!!  Do you think it's possible that 
his "unconscious" senses picked up something that his conscious mind 
had been DYING to find out for so long?  And it went unnoticed?!?!  
Do you guys know when Sirius' prank took place?


So my conclusion is that the Pensieve might be more than a mere 
recording of one's memory.  It seems like a final-edition scene of a 
certain event/period collected from a set of security cameras that 
were filming all over the place.  We got to see the Mauraders in 
Snape's Pensieve because Harry chose to follow them.  Snape certainly 
wasn't near enough to pick up everything, conscious or unconscious, 
yet HArry gets to see every *intimate* details of the Mauraders 
interacting.  This reminds me of a viewer zooming in to see one 
particular section of a photograph, and the presented details will be 
independent of where the lens' focus was.  As long as the section one 
wants to see was part of the picture.

I'm speculating this because it opens up a quite juicy possibility.  
I wonder if we get to see Dumbledore's Pensieve again?  Or Snape's 
that has his "memories" as a DE?  And what happens if Harry decides 
to explore every inch of it?  He could pick up LOADS of information 
that way!  Loads I tells ya!!

What do you think?

Bren