Snape's Worst Memory

[houyhnhnm102]

No: HPFGUIDX 150700

steven1965aaa

> Having reflected a little more after reading these 
> posts, I think the really significant question is why 
> Snape is concerned to prevent Harry from seeing this 
> particular memory.  Any thoughts?

houyhnhnm:

Maybe there is something in the memory that would expose a lie Snape
has told Voldemort.  Surely he must have scores of such memories, but
I can't help thinking that Snape's greatest concern would be that in
Legilimencing Harry and thus opening Harry's mind further to
Voldemort, he is putting himself at greater risk.  Maybe this memory
was formed at such an impressionable age and is so emotionally charged
that he can only shield it from Voldemort by outright repression
rather than the selective type of half truth/half lie Occlumency Snape
customarily practices with Voldemort when it is only his adult
experiences he is trying to conceal.  Voldemort would never think to
look for such a memory, but Harry's mind, should he break through
Snape's defenses, might go straight to it because it concerns him so
nearly.

Alternatively, I have thought that Snape may have removed this memory
at Dumbledore's suggestion (It is Dumbledore's pensieve after all.)  I
know there has been previous discussion about whether a memory removed
from someone's mind is still accessible to the person except in the
pensieve.  Slughorn's memory suggests that only a copy is removed and
the original memory remains in the person's mind, but Slughorn's
memory has been tampered with.  Maybe it can work both ways.  The
memory transferred to the pensieve can be a copy or it can be the
original memory.  Or, even if the memory in the pensieve is only a
copy, its presence in the pensieve still renders the owner more
objective in some way.

Then it would make sense for Snape to remove this memory when he is
trying to teach Harry Occlumency, not for its possible effect on Harry
(do you think Snape *really* expects Harry to break into his mind?),
but for its effect on Snape. Dumbledore wanted Snape to be able to put
aside his old hatreds in order for the Occlumency lessons to be
successful.  Perhaps he instructed Snape to remove this particular
memory because it's presence would undermine Snape's ability to put
aside his hatred of James.  If that is true, then I would expect that
at least one of the other two memories has to do with the Prank.

If this was Dumbledore's plan for the Occlumency lessons, it seems to
me that it was succeeding.  Snape was much more professional and
objective with Harry than in any other encounters between them.  What
Dumbledore did not count on, or could not prevent, was Harry's
unwillingness to let go of his visions, and the sheer bad luck of
Snape's being called away when he was.