strange question about harry: was, Re: [HPforGrownups] Dumbledore as Potter's Secret Keeper

[grey_wolf_c]

No: HPFGUIDX 38646

Jarrod Jicha wrote:
> What I would like to know is why is Harry so important?  Why did were 
> the Potters so important.  I know that Harry lived because of his 
> mother, or whatever the reason, but why him?  Why not Ron, or 
> Hermione, or even Ginny?  Thoughts on this one?
> 
> Jarrod

The easiest answer to the question is, of course, that Harry is 
important because he single-handedly and at the tender age of one 
managed what no other Wizard had been able to do: defeat Vodemort, end 
his Reign of Terror and bring peace to the Wizard community.

However, this question was brought up when it was being talked about 
how the Potters where important, and probably want to know why *the 
Potter family* is important. Well, don't feel alone -so do we. It's on 
a high priority, at that, to discover exactly why the Potters needed to 
have a Fidelious charm cast on them (or better still, why Voldemort 
wanted to kill them). It has been speculated that one of the 
relevations of OotP (which JKR promised would tell us more things about 
Harry's parents) would be that little tidbit of information. 
Unfortunately, I doubt we will know it before book seven: it's far to 
central to give it away this soon, but then again, you never know. Any 
other thing is just theories and speculation. Which nonetheless, I'm 
going to give you.

First, let get out some canon and wave it around:
	- The Potters performed the Fidelius charm, selecting as Secret 
Keeper one of the Marauders (Peter, although Sirius was considered and 
he pointed at Peter himself), even though they suspected one of the was 
a traitor (Lupin had the "honour")
	- Sirius himself was thinking of "going into hidding" (whether by 
using a Fidelius or simply going dog and living off rats, we don't 
know).
	- Another of the members of the "old gang", Mrs. Figg, has been 
posing as a muggle for 14 (or maybe more) years in Privet Drive.
	- Dumbledore knew about most of these things, but not the 
particular details (he knew that Sirius had been considered as secret 
keeper, but didn't know of the last-minute change)

(Keep in mind that the rest is IMO)
What does this give us? It seems that the "old gang" where in trouble, 
and were running all over the place ducking for cover. Things, as far 
as we know, were probably not going well for the "good side" and while 
they planned their return, they needed protection. Notice that I 
mention that Mrs. Figg could have spent more than 4 years as a muggle, 
since I doubt it's a thing it's easy to simulate for a wizard (then 
again, maybe she's muggle-born). If this is so, she was just 
re-assigned (since she knew the role so well) to Privet Drive to keep 
an eye on Harry, but could have been posing for a much longer time.

On the other hand, other listees believe that it was only the Potters 
that were important, and they went into hidding for a variety of 
reasons. One of the most popular is that the first Trelawny prediction 
had something to do with the last Griffindors descendants (that would 
be Harry and his father), or some other variation, which would explain 
why Lilly could have been spared (Voldemort says so, but I've always 
believed it was the sort of false promise an evil overlord makes before 
swooping in for the kill). By making only Harry's paternal family to be 
important (whether because they're True Griffindors or some other 
genetical reason), it's automatically deduced that Harry, being the 
last remaining member of his family, should be important *even if he 
hadn't beaten Voldemort*.

Hope that helps,

Grey Wolf