Memories in a pensieve

[Phinea Rogue]

I was thinking about the pensieve where Snape stored his memories and there are quite many things not clear about pensieve.

How does a pensieve work? We know that it stores memories, but is it an exact memory, seen through the eyes of the person whose memory it is? Then it should be like watching a film of your life, nothing more. I'm thinking about this because when we see Snape's worst memory, there's so much in it - he knows what James writers on the parchment (L.E.) - how can he know that? There are the conversations between the Maradeurs - okay, he may have been listening to them, spying on them, but still... the whole conversations?

Are the memories in pensieve actual events or are they what Snape remembers, brooding over them and embellishing them? Are the conversations made up in his imagination or were he listening to them?

[Errol]

This is a very confusing topic, but here is what I think.

I think that if Harry were to stand next to Snape the whole time he was in the pensive then he would of seen it in Snape's point of view. Harry was also in eyesight of Snape the whole time. Here is where it get confusing... I think whatever Snape remembers and is stored in the pensive is almost like his whole surroundings are also stored there. Which means that if Harry wanted to go listen somewhere else he could, but I think that there are certain boundries(like out of Snape's eyesight).

Sorry if its hard to understand.

[Broccoli]

It can't be Snape's exact memories, because Harry doesn't watch the scenes through Snape's eyes. To me it is like real events that took place and Snape doesn't have to be fully aware of them.

[Phaerie]

I think that they are pretty much snapes memories. We all actually remember a lot more than we could ever recall. Some people have argued that we never forget anything we see or hear, we simply just don't have the mechanism to retrieve it all.

maybe when you put memories in a pensieve all those extra details that you couldn't bring to conscious thought normally are dragged up with the bits you can remember. Hence allowing Harry to see all the extra bits.

However there is no way Snape would have been able to see james paper, though he could have imagined what he was writting. So this suggests they are not true memories but almost snapshots of time.

There is also the concept that iour memories are coloured by our experience. Memory is never a perfect recollection of an event. Memories tend to be distorted and become more so over time. for example the fish that "got away" gets bigger and bigger each time the memory is recalled. Hence wouldn't the events Snape remembered happening possibly be inaccurate, maybve to make him seem like more of a victim

[Nightcrawler]

I would imagine that the events inside a pensive are pretty much the exact smae events that would have happened in real life, and are not clouded or distorted because of what a person may wish to remember. Harry followed around the Maraurders and I believe he heard them mention that Lupin was a werewolf. I don't think Snape learnt about this until Sirius tried to feed him to Lupin. Perhaps some elements of the memory are more "vivd" than others, and perhaps things may start to blur the further Harry walked from Snape, but I'd say overall the memorys are as close to the truth as possible.

[Broccoli]

Harry followed around the Maraurders and I believe he heard them mention that Lupin was a werewolf. I don't think Snape learnt about this until Sirius tried to feed him to Lupin.

Hmm... If it is so, a pensieve is a great source of information! One only need to put his memories inside and can hear people's secrets!

[Phinea Rogue]

Harry followed around the Maraurders and I believe he heard them mention that Lupin was a werewolf. I don't think Snape learnt about this until Sirius tried to feed him to Lupin.

Hmm... If it is so, a pensieve is a great source of information! One only need to put his memories inside and can hear people's secrets!

If it's so, it's also a great source for spying - putting memories of a DE into a pensieve - everything would be there, wouldn't it?