[HPforGrownups] Fidelius (Re: Chapter Discussions: Chapter 4, Number Twelve, Grimmauld Place)

[HimemyaUtena at aol.com]

No: HPFGUIDX 83969

In a message dated 11/1/2003 4:36:13 PM Eastern Standard Time, susiequsie23 at sbcglobal.net writes:

[Susan] 

> I may just be being dense here [that has certainly happened here 
> before!], but I thought the whole reason for Sirius's suggesting 
> Peter as SecretKeeper was that he [Sirius] DIDN'T want to be in the 
> know.  He'd said he would have been too obvious a choice for that, 
> right?  So if Peter told Sirius *anyway*, then what's the 
> point of 
> using Peter?

If you refer to the beginning of Order of the Phoenix, I believe the idea is that the actual secret keeper has to be the one to reveal the secret. Or else it doesn't work. Dumbledore is the secret keeper for the Order. Only he can tell Harry where the Order is. The other members of the Advanced Guard know where the Order is, but even if they tell Harry, Harry still won't be able to see it. Not until Dumbledore tells him in one form or another.

So...even if Peter told Sirius where the Potters were living, and Sirius was tortured by Voldemort and actually told him the address, Voldemort would still be unable to find them because the secret keeper (Peter) didn't reveal the address.

I hope that makes sense.

Adrianna