A Thought about the Secret Keeper Switch

[pippin_999]

No: HPFGUIDX 116980


Pippin:
>  but maybe  Sirius and James were expecting Voldemort to 
come after Sirius  another way. I think they expected that the spy 
in the Order would  try to trick Sirius into giving him the secret. 
Sirius would  pretend  to fall for it, and when Voldemort attacked 
the wrong place, it  would prove who the spy was. Thoughts?<


> Carolyn:
> This begs all the old questions about how widely known the 
SK plan  was amongst the Order.<

Pippin:
We know that at least Sirius, James, Lily, Dumbledore and Lupin 
knew about the SK plan, and that Lupin was told about the plan 
but not the switch. Obviously James and Sirius suspected Lupin, 
and perhaps others as well, but couldn't prove who the spy was.

Carolyn:

> It also raises some curious questions about how James & 
Sirius  thought others saw them. Why would any member of the 
Order think they  could trick Sirius? He's supposed to be not only 
uber-smart, but  James' loyally devoted friend.<


Pippin:
I didn't phrase that very well --  as we learned in OOP, it wouldn't 
be enough for the spy to be told the secret. It had to be in 
transmittable form so that it could be passed on to Voldie. This 
was where the trickery would come in. 

The spy was a close friend of the Potters, someone who would 
expect to be let in on the secret. Believing himself unsuspected, 
he would  offer some plausible and innocent sounding reason 
why he should be given the secret in writing.  Sirius 
would pretend to hand over the secret (it could even be the actual 
secret), but when Voldemort  showed up to attack, he wouldn't be 
able to find anything, and the spy would be exposed.

In the event, the plan was not carried out fully, because instead 
of trying to use the spy to extract the secret from Sirius, 
Voldemort was able to discover for himself who the real 
Secret-Keeper was.   I, of course, continue to believe that Peter 
was himself betrayed, but that's not necessary for the 
understanding of this theory.
 
Pippin