Godricks Hollow location and Secret Keeping business

[amiabledorsai]

No: HPFGUIDX 148662

--- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, "Steve" <bboyminn at ...> wrote:

> bboyminn:
<Snip most of excellent summation.  Go upthread and read it if you
missed it.>

> If the Potters themselves are the secret, then we should be able to
> see their house and their graves. Only there bodies would be hidden;
> bodies, but not the graves or the house. Just one problem, Harry is a
> Potter and should therefore still be protected by the Secret Keeper
> Charm, yet we can see him. That means that the Potters themselves
> were probably not the subject of the secret.

Amiable Dorsai:
This brings to mind an old question, what is the importance of the
name of the the charm--"Fidelius"?

The obvious root is "fidelitas" faithfulness. What if the charm
requires just that, fidelity?

Perhaps, when Peter violated the trust placed in him by spilling the
secret to Voldemort, he broke the charm entirely. 

That would explain why Muggles were beginning to gather and why the
Ministry's agents could find the place. 

It would also explain something that has always bothered me: Why
didn't the Potters act as their own Secret Keepers?  That would seem
to be the logical solution to the problem of a suspected spy in the
ranks. 

The answer would be that they couldn't, that an act of trust (on their
part) was required to make the charm work.

Amiable Dorsai