Question from a newbie: Taking memories out of your head?

[ibchawz]

No: HPFGUIDX 164080

Dana wrote:
I have seen many suggestions that Snape removed these memories from 
his head to protect them from being seen by Harry. Can anyone tell me 
why so many think that the pensive is a memory elimination device? 

ibchawz responds:
I see the pensieve memories working 2 different ways.  First, one may 
make a copy of the memory to place in the pensieve.  This works much 
like the "copy and paste" feature in many computer programs.  The 
copying leaves the original intact and allows for multiple copies to 
pasted.  The second way is to remove the memory from the mind and 
place it in the pensieve.  This is the same as the "cut and paste" 
feature.  For example, if you are typing a paragraph and want to move 
an entire sentence from the beginning to the end, you would use this 
method.

ibchawz