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After coming back from his duel with Voldemort, Harry was scorned at by Cornelius Fudge. There are 2 questions here:

I'm talking about Barty Crouch Jr.'s confession in point 1

  1. Why didn't Harry, Snape, McGonagall or Dumbledore extract their memory of the event? I know memories can be tampered with, so that Fudge might have used that as an excuse if one of the 4 mentioned extracted it, but 4 separate, identical memories would be much harder to tamper with and keep identical, wouldn't they? Especially as Harry probably has no idea on how to tamper with memories.

  2. Why didn't Harry extract the memory of what happened at the Graveyard with Voldemort? It would give Dumbledore much more insight and knowledge into what happened, instead of going off of Harry's account of it? I don't think the magic to extract a memory would have been hard either, seeing all the difficult magic Harry has done previously.

  • First you need to be willing to believe that there's a memory worth viewing. – Michael Jun 05 '20 at 18:55
  • @Michael what do you mean? –  Jun 05 '20 at 19:00
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    As I recall, Fudge was dismissive of the whole idea. He wasn't interested in hearing an uncomfortable truth - much easier to cling on to his idea of reality where Voldemort was never coming back. I don't take the time to read detailed accounts of alien abductions for much the same reason - I don't think it's a good or sensible use of my time. – Michael Jun 05 '20 at 19:05
  • @Michael True, but it would have been good to have been used by Dumbledore in a meeting with Ministry of Magic officials. Surely just because Fudge dismisses the idea doesnt mean the rest of the Ministry of Magic would? It would nullify Fudge's assertions... –  Jun 05 '20 at 19:08
  • Like Slughorn showed us 2 books later, you can "alter" memories. He would've just said it was fake and moved on. – tilley31 Jun 05 '20 at 20:49

1 Answers1

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  1. Viewing a memory takes time; for anyone (Fudge in this case) to out the effort in, he has to believe that it's worth it. There are some premises that I think are so unlikely, I won't invest the time in reading/viewing accounts that allege to support them - alien abductions as an example. Fudge was in this position with regards to Voldemort:

    But now a short, angry wizard stood before him, refusing, point-blank, to accept the prospect of disruption in his comfortable and ordered world – to believe that Voldemort could have risen.

    Others in the Ministry might have been more receptive, but Rita Skeeter had clearly had an impact - it may well be that many would be equally dismissive, and those willing to listen would trust Harry and Dumbledore anyway.

    Fudge shot Harry another look, and Harry suddenly understood. ‘You’ve been reading Rita Skeeter, Mr Fudge,’ he said quietly.

  2. I don't think the technique is mentioned. It's likely Harry could learn it, or possibly Dumbledore could extract the memory. Was it necessary though? They seem to get the meaning of the ritual through Harry's description and can start talking immediately, without needing the time (minutes? Hours? Days?) for Harry to learn how to extract his memories.

Machavity
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Michael
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  • The pensieve was already introduced, when Harry previously entered trials for the Lestranges, Ludo Bagman and Barty Crouch Jr, but I can accept that yes, Fudge would dismiss it. He as unbelievably did so on Harry's trial in TOOTP, outright dismissing witness requests. –  Jun 05 '20 at 19:31
  • The Pensieve was known and Harry had viewed messages - don't believe he had learnt to extract memories to be viewed by others? – Michael Jun 05 '20 at 19:32
  • No, he did not. –  Jun 05 '20 at 19:41