replying to Lupin as a mind reader

[justcarol67]

No: HPFGUIDX 157307

wynnleaf wrote:
<snip>
> Oh, and the Sectumsempra chapter shows Snape using legilimency without
> any mention of his using his wand.  There are examples of wandless
> magic periodically throughout the books and legilimens appears to be a
> spell that a powerful wizard can use wandlessly.

Carol responds:
I think that the spell Legilimens and the skill Legilimency are two
different things. The spell ejects memories from the mind of the
person it's cast on, whereas Legilimency is, as you say, wandless
magic involving eye contact. Snape uses the spell in the Occlumency
lessons to force Harry to defend himself, using any spell he can think
of, or, better yet, using his mind to block it. Of course, as Snape
tells Harry, the mind is not a book, and Legilimency has its
limitations, revealing only what the person being Legilimensed is
feeling or remembering at the moment as far as I can tell. It seems to
be used chiefly to detect falsehoods and can evidently, like
Occlumency, be turned on and off at will, meaning that neither Snape
nor Dumbledore is *always* penetrating Harry's mind when he speaks to
them. (Harry can generally sense when they're looking into his eyes,
ad Draco tells Snape, "I know what you're doing!" With LV, however, 
Legilimency may be undetectable and it would be safest for Snape to be
in Occlumency mode at all times when they're together, assuming that
he's DDM.)

I also think that some Legilimens (Legilimentes?) are more skilled
than others (Voldemort is supposed to be the greatest Legilimens in
the world, but he's probably matched by Dumbledore. Snape also appears
to be quite good at it, but perhaps not in their league as a
Legilimens). The degree of mastery of Occlumency (for which I don't
think there's a corresponding "Occlumens" spell) also varies. Lupin,
who doesn't hand out praise casually, calls Snape "a superb
Occlumens," and Snape would certainly need to be one to fool LV,
concealing memories and emotions that "contradict the lie" without his
Occlumency being detectable. Draco, OTOH, clumsily and obviously
blocks Snape's Legilimency attempt. (If Draco tried that with
Voldemort, he'd be Crucio'd on the spot. I speculate that Snape could
have forced the truth from Draco using the Legilimens spell, or
penetrated his clumsy and obvious Occlumency in some other way, but
doing so would have undermined his already shaky relationship with
Draco and perhaps have revealed that he was loyal to Dumbledore, not
to LV. Why else try to discover the plan that LV doesn't want Snape to
know? Sorry for the digression.)

BTW, the Latin noun "mens" means mind. A Legilimens is a person;
Legilimency is the wandless magic the Legilimens practices. The same
is true for Occlumens (the person) and Occlumency (the magic). (BTW,
the adjective demens, dementis means insane--hence, the Dementors.)

Regarding Lupin as a possible Legilimens, I've also noticed the "mind
reading" references in relation to him, but I think they *may* simply
reflect Lupin's psychological astuteness and his knowledge of Harry's
past, rather like the way that Fred and George can intuit each other's
thoughts, but not to the same degree. (Don't Ron and Harry also
sometimes read each other's minds, in the figurative sense, by
exchanging glances, as Black and Lupin also do?)

Carol, trying to clear up the concept and the terminology without
really answering the question in the subject line