Legilimency

The sad fact is that even if Sirius had told the truth under the influence of the potion, Mr. Crouch could still have insisted that he was using trickery to render himself immune to it.

Next up is Legilimency.

Dumbledore was an accomplished Legilimens, which basically means he's capable of examining thoughts and memories in ways that ordinary wizards can't.

We know that this branch of magic can reveal information that people are attempting to conceal, and Dumbledore himself uses his understanding of the mind throughout the series.

So, why can't Dumbledore just read Sirius's mind? The problem here is that Legilimency isn't as straightforward as people think.

You don't just start reading someone's thoughts and immediately receive a completely accurate record of past events.

Memories and perceptions can be manipulated, and a sufficiently accomplished occlumens can resist attempts to penetrate their mind.

But he's up to his own shenanigans, because at the same time, Voldemort's quest for the Elder Wand takes him to the foreign wand maker Gregorovitch, who claims to not know the location of the wand and that it was stolen.

But Voldemort uses Legilimency on him to get a picture of a blond-haired young man leaping from a window.

This will eventually turn out to be Grindelwald.

You'd think he'd recognize him, but he doesn't, and so Voldemort dwells on the blond-haired youth for months, until December 24th, 1997, when he gets an early Christmas present and a trap laid for Harry at Godric's Hollow comes to fruition when Harry makes contact with who he believed to be Bathilda Bagshot, but is actually an infusion of dark magic with Nagini hidden within the skin of Bathilda Bagshot.

You're so wise.

The last take we put out there was about- The Sorting Hat and like could you perform Legilimency against the Sorting Hat? And there was lots of good takes.

This was the best one I thought.

LemurKing1 said, "My idea is that the hat doesn't actually have any intent or consciousness.

[laughs]

And I, I can follow that.

I will say though that maybe you can't do Legilimency on the hat because it doesn't have eyes, and it's not a human, and it doesn't have a mind in the same way that we have a mind.

So there is not the same way to read it, you know?

Oh, the moment where he's...

He, Snape uses Legilimency against him, and doesn't even...

Like, it's not even sneaky.

Oh, my God.

And I find how dominant Snape is here actually pretty hot.

Uh-huh.

But, like, the combination of that dominance and Harry contributing by being thoroughly guilty gives us a feel for what Snape has to overcome when Voldemort uses Legilimency on him.

Mm.