Possibly important question about Snape (spoiler)

[pegkerr]

I was wondering whether that Pensieve that Snape used in OotP was borrowed from Dumbledore, or whether it was Snape's own? Because if it's Snape's own, he was in too much of a hurry to retrieve it when he left. And if so, and if he didn't think to summon it after himself, that means there is a bowlful of Snape's memories sitting around locked in one of his office cupboards. An oversight? Will Rowling use it, or will she hope people think it was Dumbledore's borrowed by Snape before Occlumency lessons and not worry about it? Or (most probable of all) if it was Snape's he probably meticulously emptied it after every use?

Thoughts?

Edited to add: As several have pointed out, Harry recognized the Pensieve as Dumbledore's. Humph. No help there.

It would have been too easy anyway.

Comments

[tiellan.livejournal.com]

I'm not much of a HP fan, but I did read OotP and I thought the Pensieve was Snape's own.

[prunesnprisms.livejournal.com]

I hadnt' thought about it yet, but it's a valic point.

[cheshyre]

In OotP, Harry "recognised it at once -- it was Dumbledore's Pensieve"
And I think there's at least one other reference to it as "Dumbledore's"

Interesting thought, though.
BTW, have you seen JKR's interview @ The Leaky Cauldron Some interesting tidbits in there.

[chance88088.livejournal.com]

I'm pretty sure they said it was borrowed, but I also thought people didn't make a real practice of leaving their memories in bowls - in particular I thought Snape specifically took the memories out shortly before each lesson with Harry.

[franticgoddess.livejournal.com]

Though someone already mentioned it, it is Dumbledores:

"Harry recognized it at once-Dumbledore's Pensieve." (pg. 529, the US version)

I like the idea that it's Snape's though. That would have been cool!

[kijjohnson.livejournal.com]

Whoever it belongs to, I can't help but think that Harry's gonna learn a whole lot about Snape's deal with Dumbledore in that Pensieve. We know memories last after the death of the individual.

[cheshyre]

or learn it from Dumbledore's portrait.

I'm just wondering whether Harry will retrieve the Potions text to read the rest of the marginal notes. That could be a massive help in understanding the "enemy".

[amethistdolphin.livejournal.com]

+but did he recognize it or did he think it was the same... I think what you say is pretty valid, but it really depends on what she has in mind...

[heavenscalyx.livejournal.com]

While the text says that he recognized it as Dumbledore's Pensieve, how many other Pensieves has he seen? I mean, is there only one out there? Are there thousands of effectively identical, mass-produced Pensieves? Is every Pensieve a hand-made unique and special snowflake?

I expect that if JKR said it was DD's Pensieve, it probably is, because she has a tendency to simplify that way. But it would be much more interesting if there were a Pensieve factory somewhere that Harry ran into next book, causing him to make some comment about Snape's. So then Hermione, the brains of the operation, could realize what it might mean and thence to Hogwarts we go.