Allusion to Legilimency in book 1

[gecko]

I was rereading book 1 when I stumbled upon this sentence:

...yet he sometimes had the horrible feeling that Snape could read minds.

Is this something JKR put in on purpose, so that we could pick it up, now that we know Snape can indeed read minds? Also, I wonder if Snape reads the minds of all his students, or would Dumbledore have forbidden him to do that?

[Scellanis]

ooo....brilliant...maybe that solves the theory relating to whether snape knew Harry was a parseltongue or not.....if snape had read his mind and seen that boa constrictor in the zoo incident then snape would have known so the snake in the dueling thing may have been done on purpose to reveal Harry's talent.....

[Gwared]

If I remember that scene correctly, Snape was surprised to hear Harry speak parseltongue and stop the snake.

I thought if you were an occululemency (sp?) expert then the best you could do was tell between truth and lies? Not read minds; the Harry/Voldermort thing was a special case I thought.

[AccioNiffler]

not to sound picky, but just wondering... I thought that occlumency seals your mind against intrusion, and legilimency is the one like mind reading?

Harry also mentions about feeling like Dumbledore could see into his mind in the earlier books (I don't remember wich one right now), so maybe that wasnt just a feeling, it was true, Dumbledore could see what he was thinking

[gecko]

Your correct AccioNiffler, I just checked it, occlumency is indeed the sealing of one's mind, and legilimency is 'the ability to extract feelings and memories from another person'. I got that from http://www.hp-lexicon.org/occlumency.html

Sorry about it all. By the way, the lexicon states that legilimency is used to extract feelings and memories from someone, so that's more than only sensing if someone's lying!

Would DD use Snape (or if he's himself a good legilimens, would he do it himself) to check the students? It seems he doesn't, but why not? Surely someone like Draco Malfoy could tell a lot about what his father was doing?

[AccioNiffler]

I'm sure that DD doesnt look into the students minds if he doesnt have to because its kinda seedy and dishonest. DD a good guy, probably the most good good guy in the books , which means he has respect and stuff for the kids, which means he doesnt go around reading their minds all day. Snape on the other hand.... I could see him reading a mind or two, lol

[June]

But don't you need a spell to try to read someone's mind? That's what Snape did... he used an incantation, a spell, to try and break into Harry's mind during the Occlumency lessons... so I think legilimency in its more elemental form, is more on whether a person can know if another person is telling the truth. It seems to need a lot of concentration too, and not something one can do all the time, or on the spur of a moment.

Besides, legilimency is to extract memories and feelings, and not to read minds in the strictest sense. It's similar, but not exactly the same, I should think. It means that you can tell whether if a person is lying to you, and how he is feeling at that moment than knowing exactly what's he's thinking at that exact moment you use legilimency on him. Make sense?

[gecko]

Yeah I guess that's more true. Do you think that Snape might be head of the Slytherin house so that he can keep an eye on those kids, and maybe check if they haven't got too much wrong feelings? It sounds like something I wouldn't want a teacher to be doing with me, but if they want to reduce the amount of Voldemort-followers (as they seem to be coming mostly from slytherin), it might just be done..

[lucill]

I was rereading book 1 when I stumbled upon this sentence:

...yet he sometimes had the horrible feeling that Snape could read minds.

Is this something JKR put in on purpose, so that we could pick it up, now that we know Snape can indeed read minds? Also, I wonder if Snape reads the minds of all his students, or would Dumbledore have forbidden him to do that?

Hey, that's funny, I also came across this when I reread hp book 1-4 (after I read phoenix). And guess what: In The Chamber of Secrets there is another passage mentioning Snape's "ability":
"This wasn't the first time Snape had given Harry the impression of being able to read minds."
Maybe JKR just wanted to give some clues to which she could refer later? O mean so that this Occlumency-thing wouldn't seem like some sort of made-up story ?

[gecko]

Hey that's cool! I have just finished PS and am now busy in CoS, so I'll stumble upon the same thing you found! Also, with now 2 referalls, I think she has thought of the Occlumency/Legilimency a long time ago. Amazing woman she is indeed..

[lucill]

Yeah, she is really amazing! I adore this style of hers! *Who doesn't*:lol:

[werebane]

she is an amazing woman

[Marcus Baker]

This will tell harry to think twice when Snapes around.....

[HuffleDuck]

Statement like reading mind have been repeating many times in book 1-4. It's like a big set up for book 5. and now looking back at book 1-5.. there might be clues that will be a big set up for book 6?

[Eol]

Snape is the occlumens, not the leglimens. ie. he can't read other's minds but can sheild his own mind from others, unless leglimency is an ablity he has that we will learn about in the future.
It also made me wonder how Dumbledore knows Snape is on their side. While undoubtedly Dumbledore is an excellent leglimens, Snape is said to be an excellent occlumens, so Dumbledore might not have been able to see into Snape's mind.