Files labelled ‘Pensieve Memory’ refer to memories extracted from the Hogwarts Pensieve between 2019 and the present. The Pensieve, one of only several in Western Europe, was a magical artefact of indefinite age housed in the Hogwarts School Headmaster’s Office, located there, according to some histories, from the time of the school’s founding in A.D. 990. The Pensieve was a vessel capable of storing and replaying extracted memories. Traditionally the repository of the Hogwarts Headmaster, it was used extensively by Albus Dumbledore during his long tenure as a storage facility for memories deemed useful, historically relevant, personally overwhelming, or otherwise impertinent. At the time of his death in 1997, Dumbledore’s Pensieve contained uncountable metal images, scrambled and intermingled, virtually unreadable to anyone but their deceased owner. They remained within the Headmaster’s Office for 22 years, protected by numerous enchantments; many of Dumbledore’s considerable contributions to wizarding Britain were believed to be lost to time and death.
In 2019, under uncertain circumstances and by an unknown actor (or actors), the Hogwarts Pensieve literally ‘leaked’, its fluids extracted in their entirety and made accessible to cybernetic processing. A team of London-based independent journalists and artificers gained access to the leaked material and began processing it in early 2020; the results, publicly released for the first time, are the cornerstone of the PENSIEVE PAPERS. Memories were carefully separated, processed, and analysed using state-of-the-art cyberware. They are presently only available via text – though, as memory processing technology continues to advance, it is not impossible to imagine audio, visual, and even immersive memory experiences in the near future that will allow us to be better understand the events leading up to the deaths of Tom Riddle and Albus Dumbledore.
Pensieve memories are tagged with their approximate date, their location, and all parties present. Occasional additional information is included for the purposes of context and clarity. Memories are occasionally altered, but more often contain unedited glimpses into the interpersonal intrigue of the Headmaster’s Office during the latter years of Dumbledore’s administration. These memories do not portray the objective ‘truth’, and they are, like all accounts, prone to the biases of their recorders – but they are nevertheless an invaluable resource for piecing together a balanced narrative of the relationship between the Department of Mysteries and Hogwarts School in the 1990s.
THE PENSIEVE PAPERS 