Harry's memories of that night at Godric's Hollow (was Re: Petunia and Dementors)

[Ceridwen]

No: HPFGUIDX 148126

Jen D:
> But now I just don't think any of the trio 
> has the expertise to probe a person's memory. It's very confunding 
> that the two most accomplished people have both left the scene.

Ceridwen:
I'm not convinced that DD and Snape are the only two people in the WW 
who know how to use a Pensieve (this time I think I spelled it 
right!).  That wouldn't make a lot of sense in a world full of adult 
witches and wizards.  Only two out of how many thousands?  And, one in 
his hundred and fifties, the other in his thirties?  Someone else may 
be able to do it.  Heck, maybe the Pensieve salesman can demonstrate?

Jen D.:
> And another question. How do wizard memories work? They seem 
> somewhat omniscient. After all, in "Snape's Worst Memory" Harry 
> could spend time where he wanted to be, near his dad and Sirius, not 
> simply with Severus. Does that mean that Severus gave the Marauders 
> such close attention or that a wizard memory is more like a video 
> camera, taking in the whole scene? 

Ceridwen:
Here again, I'm not sure if it's only wizarding memories that would act 
like this when put into a Pensieve.  Too bad we don't have Pensieves to 
do it with!

But, yes, the memories that are floated in a Pensieve are omniscient.  
According to the Leaky Cauldron/Mugglenet interview posted after HBP:

***
ES: I thought for sure that it was your interpretation of it. It didn't 
make sense to me to be able to examine your own thoughts from a third-
person perspective. It almost feels like you'd be cheating because 
you'd always be able to look at things from someone else's point of 
view.

MA: So there are things in there that you haven't noticed personally, 
but you can go and see yourself?

JKR: Yes, and that's the magic of the Pensieve, that's what brings it 
alive. 

ES: I want one of those!

JKR: Yeah. Otherwise it really would just be like a diary, wouldn't it? 
Confined to what you remember. But the Pensieve recreates a moment for 
you, so you could go into your own memory and relive things that you 
didn't notice the time. It's somewhere in your head, which I'm sure it 
is, in all of our brains. I'm sure if you could access it, things that 
you don't know you remember are all in there somewhere.
http://www.mugglenet.com/jkrinterview3.shtml
***

(me again)
So I do think that a  baby's memory would be just as 'third-person' as 
anyone else's.  Even though the baby can't speak, or put actual meaning 
even to the words they may catch, their brain picks it all up and 
records it in the form of a viewable memory.  And someone who didn't 
understand a foreign language would also retain the memory of the 
words, which a later viewer who speaks that language would be able to 
understand, as Harry understood the Parseltongue in Bob Ogden's memory.

Ceridwen.