Legilimency v. Occlumency

[justcarol67]

No: HPFGUIDX 188001

Rick wrote:
>
> Why would LV ("perhaps the most accomplished legilemens the wizarding world has ever known") choose Snape (a "most accomplished occlumens") as his No. 2, his right hand man?  
> 
> Rick Kennerly
>
Carol responds:
Because Snape's Occlumency is so subtle that Voldemort can enter his mind, see exactly what Snape wants him to see, and not even realize that part of Snape's thought or memory is being hidden from him. (Contrast Draco, whose crude Occlumency is both slow and obvious. IOW, the Dark Lord either doesn't know that Snape is an Occlumens or doesn't know that Snape would dare to use Occlumency against *him.*

That LV really is the greatest Legilimens in the world seems clear from his excursion into poor Gregorvitch's mind. He enters the wandmaker's mind as if it were a Pensieve. He seems to do the same thing to Snape in "The Dark Lord Rising" (DH), and Snape just stands there calmly and lets him do it, knowing that LV will think he's seeing the whole memory when, in fact, Snape is concealing a crucial piece of information.

Snape asks Bellatrix in "Spinner's End" if she thinks he has "somehow hoodwinked" the greatest Legilimens in the world, and she, of course, can't admit even to herself that Snape (or anyone else) could hoodwink Voldemort, and yet that's exactly what he's been doing, at least since the end of GoF and probably long before.

Superb Occlumens? That's an understatement. If Snape can hoodwink Voldemort, and he obviously can, clearly he's the greatest Occlumens in the world.

So LV chose Snape as his right-hand man knowing him to be a capable and highly intelligent Wizard, believing him to be loyal, and without a clue that Snape either could or would dare to use Occlumency against him. He can't imagine someone as good at Occlumency as he is at Legilimency any more than he can imagine someone else discovering the Room of Requirement or getting past the defenses that protect the locket Horcrux in the cave. If you think you're better than everyone else, you underestimate everyone else.

And another thing--Snape's life depended on his concealing that particular ability. Quite possibly, he had to conceal other abilities as well, appearing competent and intelligent but not as brilliant as he really was or Voldemort would perceive him as a rival rather than a talented henchman and kill him off. Just a thought.

Carol, wondering whether Voldemort knew that Snape could fly