Why didn't Dumbledore use the pensieve to view Harry's memories?

[happyjoeysmiley]

No: HPFGUIDX 186008

> > mindi:
> > I was just finishing reading GOF the other day and I was
> > wondering why instead of making Harry relive the whole LV
> > encounter over again to tell what happened, why didn't
> > Dumbledore have him extract his memory of it and view it
> > for themselves in the pensieve? Then they would have been
> > able to show that to Fudge too. Then he would have had to
> > of taken it as the truth, right? Just a thought.
> 
> joeydebs:
> 
> I suspect there is a way to 'falsify' memories (such as Confunding)
> which Fudge would claim Dumbledore did to Harry to undermine him.
> 
> Also, I suspect Dumbledore thought Harry would deal with it better
> if asked to relive it - as a healing process. After all in the
> Muggle world we go to therapists and talk to order and deal with
> major traumas.

Joey:

Interesting thought and discussion! :-)

DD mentioned to Sirius he wanted Harry to talk about it to release the tension so that it will eventually reduce the trauma Harry was facing then (according to him :-)).

Slughorn's modified memory shows that memories can be tampered with.

Even in the case of showing Fudge a clear, untampered memory of Harry's (as Mindi has suggested), I think Fudge will still say it is Harry's hallucination rather than a valid memory of what had really happened. He refused to trust even Snape's proof of Dark Mark getting dark.

Also, I think memories cannot be passed off as solid evidence for/against something, as per WW law - Arabella Figg & Harry had to *narrate* to Amelia Bones what happened on the night of the Dementor attack (OOtP), right? 

Cheers,
~Joey :-)