How important is the right sluggish memory?

[littleleahstill]

No: HPFGUIDX 142026

--- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, "lucianam73" <lucianam73 at y...> 
wrote (much snipped):
>
> 
> Dumbledore said in HBP, Chapter 'A Sluggish Memory':
> 
> 'It is most important that we secure the true memory, Harry... how 
important, we will only know when we have seen the real thing.'
> 
> What if they haven't seen the real thing? What if the memory 
Slughorn gave Harry was not the one he'd been hiding, but the cover-
up?
> 
> But Dumbledore would have known it was not the foggy memory, 
wouldn't he?
> 
> Not necessarily... Please follow me:
> 
> Note that amongst all Harry's meetings with Dumbledore to see 
those memories, the only one that occurs by chance, and not by 
previous appointment. 
> 
> > Well, when Harry hears (by chance?) Dumbledore's in Hogwarts and 
runs to his office to show him the memory he's just got, he breaks a 
pattern. And we have evidence something is indeed different: when 
Dumbledore pours the contents of the bottle into the Pensieve this 
time, he uses his left hand. In all previous Pensieve sessions he 
had used his right hand (the injured one) to handle the bottles. 
> 
> I'm not saying it's an impostor pretending to be Dumbledore (could 
it be, though?). I think something else happened. The breaking of 
the 'precise time pattern' means, in my opinion, that the Dumbledore 
in that specific Pensieve session (the one right after the burial) 
was somehow different than the 'other Dumbledores' in all other 
Pensieve sessions. He had, or more likely, lacked, information 
the 'other Dumbledores' had. 
> 
> 
> I think Dumbledore has been Time Travelling all through HBP. >> 
Lucianam

Leah:

I loved this post, and I do think you could be right about the time 
travel. It makes a lot of sense of the canon evidence we have 
concerning DD in HBP, and I would be very surprised if we don't see 
it again in book 7.

However, I have to agree with the others who have responded that the 
after the burial memory is the right one. If it wasn't then Harry 
would presumably have to spend valuable book 7 time retrieving a 
third memory from Slughorn, which would be a revisting of theme that 
would occupy, I think, too much dramatic space.

However, you make some good points about the difference between this 
and the other pensieve-viewing sessions in terms of DD's 
preparedness and mental state.  While it was unlikely that JKR would 
show Harry sitting on the true sluggish memory until DD arranged a 
meeting, there seems no good reason why Harry should not have burst 
in upon a DD who had just had a good nap and was mentally 
refreshed.  As you point out, JKR carefully tells us that DD has 
been away, that he returned an hour before 'looking tired' and that 
he has since been occupied with business. When DD responds to 
Harry's knock, he 'sounded exhausted'. (UK, page 461).

I wondered therefore if this was a 'Spot the Difference' puzzle. DD 
has had no chance to review this memory against the false one.  If 
he had done, would he have spotted a difference that he failed to 
notice in his weary state?  The description and speech of the first 
sluggish memory is repeated carefully in the second memory, with the 
obvious exception of the filled in foggy portions.  I found just one 
potentially interesting difference.  In 'A Sluggish 
Memory', "Slughorn pulled himself out of his armchair and carried 
his empty glass over to his desk as the boys filed out.  Riddle, 
however, stayed behind.  Harry could tell he had dawdled 
deliberately, wanting to be last in the room with Slughorn.  'Look 
sharp, Tom', said Slughorn, turning round and finding him still 
present'..." (UK, p347).   In 'Horcruxes',"One by one the boys filed 
out of the room. Slughorn heaved himself out of his armchair and 
carried his empty glass over to his desk. A movement behind made him 
look round; Riddle was still standing there. 'Look sharp, Tom, you 
don't want to be caught out of bed..." (UK p463).  In the first 
memory, we (via Harry) look directly at Riddle; Harry sees what he 
is doing and guesses what he is up to. Slughorn seems to finish what 
he is doing, and then,  on completing his task and turning around, 
to notice Riddle.  In the second memory, the focus is on Slughorn, 
and he appears to turn round not because he has finished at the 
desk, but because he is alerted by Riddle's movement.

This seems to be the only difference in focus between the two memory 
descriptions, and I noticed it more because when viewing DD's memory 
in 'Lord Voldemort's Request', Harry is alerted by a sudden movement 
of Voldemort's (UK p 417).  I'm afraid I don't have any current 
suggestions as to the significance of the difference, and perhaps it 
is 'only a mouthorgan', but I wondered if anyone out there has any 
thoughts.

Leah