Fidelius Charm - Godric's Hollow Destroyed

[justcarol67]

No: HPFGUIDX 158310

Brothergib wrote:
<snip>> 
> It seems likely that the only person PP told about the Potter's 
> location was LV. LV went to Godric's Hollow and killed the James & 
> Lily, but not Harry.
> 
> At some point after, a member of the order came to GH to retrieve 
> Harry. The problem is this - as Harry is still alive and still under 
> the Fidelius Charm, how exactly did anyone manage to find him? Could 
> you find James & Lily now that they are dead?
> 
> There has been lots of speculation that SS was there that night. My 
> only theory is that SS contacted DD to tell him that LV had attacked
GH but SS could find no trace of the Potters. Maybe this is the reason
why GH is destroyed. If the Fidelius charm is placed on the house,
rather than the people, then maybe DD instructed SS to destroy GH, and
then he would be able to find Harry?
> 
> Brothergib
>

Carol responds:

I agree that the only person that PP told about the Godric's Hollow
location was LV. I think he led LV there himself and then hid in rat
form, afterwards retrieving and hiding the wand.

I think that the Fidelius charm ended once the Potters were killed or
once the house was destroyed (blown up by the AK exploding out of
Harry's head or by the explosion of Voldemort himself, AFWK, not by an
Order member). "The Potters are hiding in Godric's Hollow" was simply
no longer true, so the secret had ceased to exist. 

I think that Dumbledore woke up knowing where the Potters had been
hiding (quite possibly he owned the house and had lent it to them in
the first place) and realized that they must be dead or he wouldn't
know the secret. And I think that Snape woke up with his Dark Mark
burning and then watched in astonishment as it nearly vanished, then
ran up eight flights of stairs to tell Dumbledore, who would have been
consulting his mysterious instruments. Together they arrived at the
conclusion that James and Lily were dead but Harry had somehow
thwarted Voldemort. Possibly Dumbledore sent Snape to Hagrid's hut so
Hagrid could rescue Baby!Harry, warning him not to give the baby to
anyone else under any circumstances. That would account at least in
part for Hagrid's long-standing faith in Snape.

For reasons I've stated elsewhere, I don't think that Snape was at
Godric's Hollow or that he knew the location. Had Pettigrew told him
the secret, which is extremely unlikely, he would have told Dumbledore
who the Secret Keeper was (which is what I meant to say in my earlier
post--not that he would have told DD the secret, which, of course, he
couldn't have done). I don't think that either of them knew. If Snape
knew there was a Secret Keeper, and I'm not sure that he did at that
point, he would have learned about it from Dumbledore, who thought
that the SK was Black.

I also think it's quite possible that Snape, despite being only
twenty-two at the time, examined Harry and made sure that he wasn't
possessed (or turned into an accidental Horcrux!). I find the idea
that he helped to place additional protections on Harry (dragon's
blood or something else), but I'm not placing any bets on it.
something may have happened at that point to give both Dumbledore and
Hagrid complete confidence in Snape, but I don't think it has anything
to do with the Invisibility Cloak.

Carol, still sure that the only person at GH besides the Potters and
LV was a rat named Peter, hiding in the shrubbery (or whatever) and
invisible to the Potters