Ungrateful Werewolf ( Was Re: Character Given A Reprieve)

[justcarol67]

No: HPFGUIDX 175680

guzu wrote: 
> 
> I am with you on this confusion. I was further confused by the
revelation in DH that you can go into hiding and be *your own* secret
keeper for the Fidelus Charm (DH page 390 UK edition). Both Arthur and
Bill are their own secret keepers. So assuming this is not an author
oversight, could there have been anything else going on with the
Marauders Secret Keeper Fiasco? Could it have been a strategy to try
to figure out whose loyalties were where, but it worked way too well?
> 
> 
Terri replied:
> I was thinking that they would have made someone their secret keeper
just in case they needed some help.  If they were their own Secret
Keeper and they get sick or something, who would take care of Harry? 
As a parent, I could see wanting a way that someone could get help to
me if needed.  An adult could be their own Secret Keeper as they are
more self relient.

Carol responds:
I think they needed someone else to be the Secret Keeper because they,
not their hiding place, were the Secret. Their house is not invisible
like 12 GP to those who don't know the secret (other than Muggles),
but *they* are. Flitwick says in PoA that Voldemort could have pressed
his nose to their window and could not have seen them as long as the
charm was unbroken. The DEs can't press their noses to 12 GP's window
because they can't see it even when they know where it is because the
location of the Order HQ rather than the Order itself is the Secret.

I also think that the Potters, who could not leave the house without
being seen (thanks to Dumbledore's borrowing the Invisibility Cloak!)
needed someone who could reveal the Secret to chosen friends, say
Lupin or Dumbledore or other Order members, should the need arise,
except, of course, that they didn't trust Lupin and thought that he
was the spy (and Pettigrew himself was motivated only to reveal it to
the very person they were hiding from, if LV can be called a person).

So the Potters *were* the Secret, Pettigrew was the Secret Keeper
(whose lack of fidelity broke the Fidelius Charm), and Black was the
only person who was told the Secret. (No doubt he was present when the
charm was performed or perhaps performed it himself as "bonder" though
I always assumed that it was Lily who performed it.) DD cannot have
been told (unless he was sent a note and didn't know Pettigrew's
writing from Black's) or he would not have thought that Balck was the SK.

Carol, noting that if the Potters had been their own SKs, whether the
house itself had been hidden or not, there could have been no betrayal
and no story