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A wizard performing mind-reading
Harry Potter: "He can read minds?"
Severus Snape: "You have no subtlety, Potter. You do not understand fine distinctions. Only Muggles talk of 'mind-reading'. The mind is not a book, to be opened at will and examined at leisure. Thoughts are not etched on the inside of skulls, to be perused by any invader. The mind is a complex and many-layered thing, Potter ... or at least, most minds are ..."
Severus Snape explains "mind-reading" to Harry Potter[src]

Mind-reading was the magical ability to perceive the thoughts or feelings of others through extrasensory means. According to Severus Snape, this term was used only by Muggles and was a notably inaccurate description of Legilimency (as there are far broader possibilities for this ability).[1] Nonetheless, the magical art of Legilimency could achieve mind-reading, as could the mental connection that was shared by Voldemort and Harry Potter,[1] which resulted from a piece of Voldemort's soul that lodged inside of Harry's body.[2]

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  1. 1.0 1.1 Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, Chapter 24 (Occlumency)
  2. Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, Chapter 35 (King's Cross)
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