Spinner's End

[justcarol67]

No: HPFGUIDX 156861

houyhnhnm wrote:
<snip>
> 5.  Why DD took the memory about visiting TR at the orphanage 
>     out of a bottle instead of out of his head.  (That's 
>     the passage Rowling read at Radio City, btw--??)
> 
> It kind of ruins Snape's character and it destroys some of the 
> touching moments between Harry and DD. Would Rowling sacrifice 
> character to plot?  NEVAHHH! :-P
>
Carol responds:
So you're conceding that polyjuiced Snape/DD ruins the plot! Hooray!

But that's an interesting point you made in number 5. Since the
Pensieve is usually empty when DD or Snape pours memories into it
(unless, as in GoF, DD is adding them all together to "sift" them), I
don't think that memories are actually stored in the Pensieve itself,
as some posters seem to believe. DD obviously bottles other people's
memories rather than putting them into his own head, but it's
interesting that in this case, he would bottle his own memory. (Yes,
I'm assuming that DD is himself in this scene.) It gives me hope that
he bottled several more, including the important conversations with
Snape and the eavesdropping incident, for which we have two or three
partial and conflicting accounts.

Maybe DD wills Harry the memories and the Pensieve, but for some
reason Harry is delayed in viewing or receiving them, so that we don't
get the truth about Snape until near the end of the book. Or maybe
Harry views them one at a time throughout the book because his rage
prevents him from dealing with them all at once. It would give us
interesting respites from the Horcrux hunt. Maybe he has to talk with
DD's portrait before he can force himself to view them.

Carol, just speculating in the second paragraph but willing to provide
canon for the first paragraph if anyone wants it <winks at Ken>