Own Secret Keeper? (Was: Ungrateful werewolf)

[Judy]

No: HPFGUIDX 175713

On the topic of on why James & Lily needed a Secret Keeper,
Guzu wrote: 
> > 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. [SNIP] 


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? [SNIP] 


Carol responded:
> 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 
> cas long as the charm was unbroken. ...
> 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. [SNIP] 

Alas, I think this is just one of JKR's many inconsistencies.

If you can be your own Secret Keeper, as Arthur and Bill are, then I 
see no reason why James or Lily couldn't be the Secret Keeper.

If James and Lily just wanted to let someone else know where they 
were, so that that person could take care of Harry if they became ill 
for example, then they could have just TOLD the secret to Sirius or 
Dumbledore, without making that person the Secret Keeper. That way, 
Sirius, Dumbledore or whoever would have been able to come to the 
house and take care of Harry (or whatever needed to be done), but 
could not have revealed the Secret to anyone else.

If James', Lily's, and Harry's *locations* were the actual secret, 
rather than the location of the Godric's Hollow house, then why 
couldn't James leave the house without his cloak? If "where James is" 
is the secret and Voldemort couldn't even see him with his nose 
pressed against the window, then presumably Voldemort couldn't see 
James even if he left the house, either.

I don't see any way to fill this plot hole. JKR could easily have 
made the Fidelius Charm consistent simply by (say) having Arthur be 
the Secret Keeper for Bill & Fleur, and Bill be the Secret Keeper for 
Arthur & Co, but she didn't bother.

I don't see any way to make the secret of #12 Grimmauld Place 
consistent, either. If Hermione can let a Death Eater in by accident, 
Snape could certainly have let a whole slew of them in intentionally. 
(And even if he wouldn't let Death Eaters in, because he is 
Dumbledore's Man, the Trio don't know that, so it made no sense for 
them to stay at #12 Grimmauld Place for so long.) 

As someone here said, JKR's idea of the Fidelius Charm seems to 
change not only from book to book, but from chapter to chapter. 

-- Frustrated-at-plotholes!Judy