Potter's choice of a secret keeper

[grey_wolf_c]

No: HPFGUIDX 43493

--- In HPforGrownups at y..., "Richelle Votaw" <rvotaw at i...> wrote:
> I was rereading the Three Broomsticks scene in PoA, and noticed
> something I hadn't thought about before. McGonagall says that
> Dumbledore himself offered to be the Potter's secret keeper. Why not
> accept such an offer? He was the only one Voldemort feared, it seems
> logical. Why choose someone like Peter Pettigrew instead? Surely if
> Voldemort had gone after him (even if he hadn't already been feeding
> him information) he would have been easier to pry the information out
> of. Compared to Dumbledore certainly. I also think poor Lupin got a
> bad rap in the whole thing. His supposed best friends suspected him
> on what basis?  Being a werewolf?  How prejudiced. Anyway, my main
> concerns here are *why* James and Lily didn't agree to let Dumbledore
> be their secret keeper. Anyone have an answer for me? Or two or
> three? :)
> 
> Richelle

IMO, they didn't choose Dumbledore for the same reason that they didn't 
accept Sirius to begin with: it was too obvious a choice. And 
Dumbledore, after all, is not all-powerful. When the Potters decided to 
go into hiding, Dumbledore was NOT winning. The WW world was loosing 
the batte, and Dumbledore, as far as we know, could only manage a draw 
in his war against Voldemort, since Voldemort fears him, and he fears 
LV, and the outcome of a duel between them is not certain by any 
stretch of the mind. I get the feeling that things were pretty 
dangerous at that time, and Dumbledore was in the middle of things. He 
might not have been as exposed as the Potters or the rest of the old 
gang, but he was in a position were he *could* be killed sooner or 
later (I am assuming that the death of the secret keeper automatically 
cancels the spell). For that reason, they chose someone who LV wouldn't 
ever think of killing: Peter Pettigrew (I don't think Peter was doing 
all that much for D's side, so he wasn't as exposed).

Oh, and they didn't choose Lupin because Sirius suspected he was the 
spy (I assume that Sirius and James thought that Lupin would sell his 
loyalty if LV had promised him, for exmaple, a cure for lycanthropism. 
I don't think so, but they knew him better than I do).

Hope that helps,

Grey Wolf