Getting the secret out... PP instead of SB

[Matt]

No: HPFGUIDX 77860

--- Melpomene wrote:
> 
> Even if the order DID know the location--let's assume 
> this legendary spy said to Dumbledore; "P.Pettigrew 
> told voldemort that the potters are at godrics hollow 
> and we're going to get them on halloween"--if what we 
> think we know about this charm is true it wouldn't 
> have mattered a damn. Because he didn't hear it from 
> PP HIMSELF, Hagrid should have wandered all over those 
> smoldering ruins and found nothing. No bodies, no Harry.

I guess I have to side with CW's theory --
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/HPforGrownups/message/77848 --
that the deaths of James & Lily (possibly coupled with the failed
attempt to kill Harry, or the destruction of the house) broke the
charm.  If Peter had told Hagrid or Dumbledore of the Potters'
location, it would have been impossible for them to go on believing
(as at least Hagrid and apparently DD still did until the climax of
PA) that Sirius was the one who betrayed the Potters.  I suppose slips
of paper conveyed from Peter to Sirius for delivery, a la DD's in OP,
would work in theory, but it seems farfetched -- wouldn't a recipient
wonder why Sirius would write it down, and mightn't someone like DD be
attentive enough to recognize Peter's (doubtless ratlike) handwriting?
    Also, the news spread *so* fast that it seems unlikely that the
perception of what had occurred was limited to a few people.