The Fidelius Charm for the Potters & Voldemort

[Mike]

No: HPFGUIDX 179277

> davegl69
>
> What I haven't ever been able to figure out is why wasn't James 
> the Secret Keeper? -<snip>- Then in Deathly Hallows the Weasleys 
> cast it at aunt Muriel's and Shell cottage and  Mr. Weasley and
> Bill are the secret keepers.
> 
> So is it me or is there a major plot hole there?

Mike:
I think part of what we were supposed to get from the whole Godric's
Hollow fiasco, was that the Potters (or maybe specifically, James)
and Sirius were both inexperienced and too clever for their own good.

They think up this great plan, whereby they put the unlikely Peter 
in as the SK, when everyone expects and they have actually told some 
that Sirius would be the SK. This way, if someone goes looking for 
them, supposedly it will take time to figure out that the Potters 
are hidden by a Fidelius. Then they would have to go look for the 
most likely SK for the Potters and Sirius was in hiding himself. 
Nobody would ever think that the Potters installed little Peter 
Pettigrew as their SK, so nobody would go looking for him. 

It all sounds so clever when I lay it out like that, doesn't it? In 
fact, it sounds sort of like something that Dumbledore would come up 
with, which may be what they were going for. 


You want a Fidelius plot hole? How about asking why Voldemort didn't 
hide at least one of his Horcruxes with a Fidelius? Surely he knew 
the charm. If he makes himself the SK, someone trying to find it is 
caught in a catch 22. Voldemort isn't going to tell, so the only way 
to find it is to kill him and hope to get the secret out of someone 
else who knew it. Except you can't kill Voldemort while he has the 
Horcrux, so you have to eliminate the Horcrux first.

For a guy that operates in secrecy, I'd have thought this would have 
been a no-brainer. But then, I guess that was exactly what Voldemort 
turned out to be, a no-brainer.

Mike