Snape and the Pensieve (Was: Snape's stalling)

[justcarol67]

No: HPFGUIDX 116985


Pippin wrote:
> <snip>
It occurs to me that if  Snape has access to Dumbledore's 
> pensieve, he could easily have found out quite a few things the 
> trio thinks he doesn't know about...like who set him on fire and 
> who raided his supply closet...oh, yes. I like it. ;-)

Carol responds:
Can you clarify your thinking here, Pippin? As far as I can see, the
Pensieve is used either to study one's own memories (Dumbledore's
normal use of it) or to temporarily protect certain memories from
being accessed by an unfriendly person or enemy (Snape's use of it in
OoP). the Pensieve doesn't appear to be used for longterm storage of
memories; IOW, DD wouldn't leave his own memories in the Pensieve when
he lent it to Snape. IIRC, the Pensieve is empty when Snape removes
the three memories from his head and places them in it to prevent them
from being accessed by Harry (and possibly by Voldemort).

The Pensieve does not seem to be used for the study of *other
people's* memories--except for the occasions when Harry is drawn
inside it. Nor have we seen any evidence that even Dumbledore can draw
memories from inside another person's head, which would be necessary
if Snape were to study the Trio's thoughts via the Pensieve.

Snape is a superb Occlumens and very astute at drawing conclusions
(which doesn't prevent him from occasionally being seriously
mistaken), but, Harry's perception that he can read minds to the
contrary, AFAWK he can only perform Legilimency using a spell directly
on the other person, as he does in the Occlumency lessons to simulate
what Voldemort could do *without* such a spell.

So exactly how might Snape discover the Trio's thoughts by using the
Pensieve? Wouldn't he have known that someone other than Harry stole
the polyjuice potion ingredients and the gillyweed if he could do so?
Are you only talking about OoP since there's no indication of his
borrowing the Pensieve before that book? Or am I misreading what
you're saying here?

Carol