Fidelius Confundus

[Steve]

No: HPFGUIDX 183450

---  "Jen Reese" <stevejjen at ...> wrote:
>
...
> 
> Jen: I don't think LV could break the Charm in some way or he
> would have done so long before as you say.  I still believe 
> that sentence was meant to be taken literally, that the 
> Fidelius was broken when Peter told the location of the 
> Potters to the enemy they were hiding from. ...
> 
> JKR seeems more interested in metaphor & symbolism in her magic
> than internal consistency though: ....  There's a dramatic 
> impact to the full revelation of what Peter did by revealing 
> the secret & breaking the bond of trust that the Potters had 
> made with him.  He didn't just pass the secret on to another 
> person as he might do with a friend as well, he actually 
> shattered the magical bond with the Potters when he betrayed 
>the secret to their would-be murderer.  ...

bboyminn:

Here is a slightly new take on based on something I posted in
a previous response to CJ. Maybe the Potter's Secret was a 
compound secret. For example, when Bill hid Shell Cottage, 
maybe he only included the House and Grounds. As in, 'I
swear I will not reveal the location of Shell Cottage to the
enemy'. Now, when the Potter were hidden, maybe it went more
like this, 'I will not reveal that the Potters are hiding at
their home in Godrics Hollow'. In this last case, both home
and the Potters are part of the secret.

Now consider this, and keeping in mind the compound secret
described above, maybe when Peter revealed the Secret to 
Voldemort the spell wasn't fully broken. But from Voldemort's
perspective, him being the person they were hiding from, the
spell was broken for him. They were hiding from him, now he
could find and see them, so, in a sense, the spell was 
specifically broken. 

Now when the Potters were killed, all aspects of the compound
secret had ceased to exist, and the spell was fully broken.
Though that doesn't explain Harry. Perhaps in constructing 
the spell someone so young as Harry didn't count, or perhaps,
some one so young has Harry wasn't included on the assumption
that if his parents were safe he would be safe. 

Still, Voldemort saying the spell was at that time broken
might have only been a qualified statement, as in, they are
hiding from me, and now I can find them. Since I (Voldemort)
can find them, the spell is no longer in operation with 
respect to me; no longer in operation (functionally) =
broken.

steve/bboyminn