.....Damn it.

[basslyoon]

I just found an enormous plot hole in Harry Potter. Why couldn't Harry just give his memory of meeting Voldemort or his memory of Dobby floating the pudding or his memory of fighting the Dementors in Little Whinging to the Minstry and have them watch it via penseive? Seriously....debate over

Comments

[leia131]

I get the impression, though I haven't read it in a while, that the penseive is either one of a kind, or a rare enough thing that Dumbledore has either the only one, or one of the only ones. They aren't really mentioned except for the one he has. Also, if the Ministry had one, they would obviously use it all the time, because of what you said. I assume they must either not know about or not trust this kind of magic.

Also, though it was obvious that Slughorn had changed his memory, it might be possible for a better wizard (sorry Sluggy) to change memories with a little more finesse.

Also also, from a literary standpoint, we want to see that the ministry is corruptish, and bunch of dickheads, so even if someone had suggested the penseive course of action, they would have made some excuse and said no.

But I've never thought of this before, and you kind of have an awesome point. I mean, why don't they just use truth serums? People can resist them etc. but it seems like it might help. The answer is because the Ministry sucks. ;)

[basslyoon]

I don't think the pensieve is a "one and only" because we have no knowledge as to whether the pensieve Snape used during occlumency lessons was in fact Dumbledore's. Plus, other wizards - though contacted by Dumbledore for that express purpose, true - seem to know about the device like it's a regular thing in the wizarding world.

I suppose the thing about the Ministry is true, and also was probably purposefully done. It really is all about the Ministry being dickheads so that makes perfect sense. They wouldn't allow anything that might actually prove Harry's innocence - they probably knew the whole time he wasn't lying - I hadn't thought of it like that.

Also, Dumbledore does say, after viewing Slughorn's memory, "It is, as you will have noticed, very crudely done," in regards to the corrupting of the content, which implies that there is probably a more elegant way to change it.

Interesting....

[leia131]

We are such huge dorks. I love it. I seriously have to re-read all seven, so I can be more up on the details about this stuff. :)