Who knew that Peter was the Secret Keeper? (Was: After all this time...)

[Talisman]

--- In the_old_crowd at yahoogroups.com, "Rebecca Bowen"
<dontask2much at ...> wrote:
> I think that when the house exploded/imploded or what-have-you,
the identity
> of  the Secret Keeper for the Potters didn't matter anymore.  I
>base this on canon in SS/PS:
>
> "No, sir -- house was almost destroyed, but I got him out all
right before
> the Muggles started swarmin' around. He fell asleep as we was
flyin' over
> Bristol."
> Taken at face value, one could assume that those within the
vacinity of the
> GH residence could see the wreckage, based on Hagrid's response to
DD and no one would have told them, I don't think.  Perhaps the
charm was broken with the explosion.
>

Sure. It's clear that--by the time Hagrid got there--anyone could
find the place. This points back to Anne's suggestion that the
secret was carefully (and perhaps a bit oddly) worded.

Rowling has just gone to the bother of telling us that one Potter
couldn't give away the location of another.  In the same manner, I
don't see why one Potter death should destroy the protection for
any surviving Potters.

Say, if James left the house from time to time, and something
unfortunate happened, Lily and Harry should still be protected.

You would think the wording would take care of such scenarios--with
Harry's life being the most protected of all. But this appears not
to have been the case.

Moreover, if the secret simply gave the Potter street address as
being the hiding place for J, L, and H (jointly and severally) there
would be no reason for the secret to be voided by destruction of the
building.

The plot of land under the rubble would still be identified by the
street address, and any remaining Potter would have been protected.

Of course, in the event that such a surviving Potter was unable to
leave the hiding place under his own power, said Potter would have
been *protected* from rescue by DD & Co.  Can't have that.

If DD instructed the parties involved to use wording that released
the secret once the house had been damaged...or upon the death of
any one Potter...or of a particular Potter... my, wouldn't he be a
far-sighted and cunning old darling, indeed.

Of course Sirius--who wasn't being particularly obedient--might just
have done a sloppy job in giving Wormtail a secret that was voided
as soon as the Potters plural no longer existed.

Still, can you transfer a Fidelius Charm if you have substantially
changed the original wording? Wouldn't that be a different secret?

And, DD does seem to have dispatched Hagrid without needing to
verify the location, himself....

On a related matter, the argument that DD and Hagrid knew the
location of the Potters, thanks to Sirius's pre-transference
disclosure, has already been negated by Rowling.

It's a nice enough argument, but JKR speaks specifically of the
Potters' situation in her FAQ Poll answer:

*The only people who ever knew their [the Potters's] precise location
were those whom Wormtail had told directly...*

That deflates the Wormtail-handed-out-little-notes theory, as well.

Increases the interest in just who was at GH that night though,
doesn't it?

Talisman
For the Fellowship of the D.U.S.T., reminding you that I did call
the F.A.Q. poll answer, with canon, back in the beginning of January,
in messages 3707, 3712.

Since the topic has re-emerged, I'll answer Neri's objection re: If
the secret dies with the keeper, why wouldn't LV just make people
his Hx SKs, and then kill them, thus insuring no one could ever find
the blasted things again:

Because you never know who's going to come back as a ghost, that's
why.

Indeed, it's not at all clear that you would know whether your
victim *had* come back as a ghost, unless they wanted to contact you.

I imagine LV expects most people to fear death, as he does.  That
being the case, he'd expect almost anyone to leave a ghost behind.

Once you've shot your wad, SK-wise, it's out of your hands.  You
can't decide to make another SK for the same secret, because you can
no longer ever tell anyone, yourself.

So there you sit, in your Dark Lord lair, wondering whether a half-
dozen pissed-off ghosts--who are far past fearing you now--are out
there looking for a suitable champion whom they can lead to your
precious little soul buckets.

Sure you've got six chances to make your plan work--and it would
only take one ghost-less death to CY nasty A--but you'd just never,
ever, know...