Pensieve ? (was Snape's treatment and pensieve /James v Snape)

[kiricat4001]

No: HPFGUIDX 138349

--- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, "dumbledore11214" 
<dumbledore11214 at y...> wrote:
> > 
> > Fabian now:
> >  About "Snape's Worst Memory", to what extent do you think the 
> Pensieve 
> > shows what really happened? Does it 'remember' things the way 
they 
> > happened, or the way someone remembers the events? Since Snape 
> removes 
> > his 'worst' memory for every Occlumency lesson, it makes me 
think 
> that 
> > the memory is in the way it was in his minds. Which means that 
any 
> > insult he might have made to James/Sirius/Lupin, might have been 
> removed 
> > from it. And if it's not, then Harry's father is really not a 
nice 
> man 
> > at all, no better than the grownup Snape I'd say.
> 
> 
> 
> Alla:
> 
> Well, even though JKR indeed said that Pensieve is objective, I do 
> think that Snape MAY have been played with the memory itself 
before 
> he put it into pensieve( just as Slughorn did with his) And I 
think 
> he indeed downplayed at least his responces. Just speculation of 
> course.

Marianne:
Okay, so this Pensieve thing still makes my head hurt.  We have 
Slughorn's modified horcrux memory that DD has in one of his nifty, 
little memory bottles.  DD then tells Harry to get the real, 
unadulterated memory from Slughorn.  

What does this mean?  Slughorn's purported memory is captured in in 
a bottle.  We are told that this is a modified memory. Yet, he still 
apparently has the real memory in his brain, because DD gives Harry 
the task of retrieving it. Does this mean that the memory that one 
can capture and put in a bottle for further examination sometime in 
the future is a copy of the memory that is in one's head?  

So, do wizards have a choice of what to do with memories?  Can they 
remove a copy, modified or completely true, of what is in their 
brain and put it in another container (bottle, Pensieve, whatever) 
while still maintaining the original, correct memory in their 
heads?  I'd say the answer to that is "Yes", since that's apparently 
what Slughorn did. Are Pensieve memories really only copies?  Or are 
only the "bottled" memories copies, modified or true, of what's in 
one's mind?

Marianne, who had a really bad night's sleep and is probably 
rambling...