harry potter - Why didn't Bellatrix use Legilimency on Hermione?

When Bellatrix found Harry and Hermione, she finds the Sword, and tortures Hermione to see if she took anything out of her Gringotts vault.

Couldn't she have done it 10 times quicker by using Legilimency?

Answer

A couple of reasons spring to mind:

We don’t know that Bellatrix is a Legilimens.

It’s been speculated that she was – as she taught Draco Occlumency, and it would have been useful for practice – but this isn’t confirmed in canon. We do know that it’s quite a tricky branch of magic, and not generally taught. It’s quite plausible she doesn’t know how to do it.

As a corollary, Bellatrix will know that Hermione is an unusually skilled witch. It’s plausible that Hermione is a capable Occlumens, who could fool Bellatrix. Given the gravity of the situation, Bellatrix may prefer to use more tried-and-tested techniques.

Bellatrix has sadistic tendencies.

She often takes pleasure in the suffering and pain of others. Given the choice between extracting truth via tricky magic, and via extreme pain, she’s bound to go for the latter. Cruciatus seems to be her signature spell (see also: Neville’s parents).

Torturing Hermione can help to motivate the others; Legilimency doesn’t.

It’s very obvious that Ron cares about Hermione – he offers to take her place in the interrogation, and can hear her being tortured:

Hermione screamed again from overhead, and they could hear Bellatrix screaming too, but her words were inaudible, for Ron shouted again, “HERMIONE! HERMIONE!”

So if Hermione refuses to talk, Bellatrix can go to Ron instead: tell me what I want to know, and I’ll stop hurting Hermione. Although Harry’s experiences with Legilimency were unpleasant, they weren’t comparable to torture.

I’m sure this technique is a very effective motivator, especially among families. That may lean her towards using torture as an interrogation technique, even if it’s not always optimal.

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