Re: Unanswered Questions

On Feb 17, 11:00 am, nyst...@xxxxxx wrote:
fries...@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx wrote:


I believe the secret was the location of James, Lily, and Harry.
Not the location of the house.

Presumably, it was the location of the house where James, Lily, and
Harry were hiding.

No one can see the house, or anyone or anything inside it, except for
of course those in on the secret..

It cannot be the current location of James, Lily
and Harry themselves, because they will constantly be moving around.
Imagine the problems James and Lily would have caring for Harry if
they had to be constantly calling up Peter to tell them where he was
at the moment.

Hence, our old thread of why didn't James hang onto his cloak so he
could secretly make trips to the quickie mart to restock the nappie
supply.


People knew that before, and would assume
they may choose to be in their home.

We don't know that anyone knew that before.

We don't even know that GH was their home before going into hiding.
It was probably already a secret, undetectable, unplottalbe place,
otherwise, the neighbors would have already reported the strange
dissappearnace of the house.

It appears that the place
to be rendered secret must already be a secret place at the time the
spell is cast.

It was probably already a secret, undetectable, unplottalbe place,
otherwise, the neighbors would have already reported the strange
dissappearnace of the house. Of course, the Potters being a rich,
pureblood family may have owned such a house.

Otherwise, there would have been no need to use the 12
Grimmauld Place -- a horribly unpleasant place -- as the secret HQ of
the OOTP. The advantage of that place was that it's location had
already been a secret. Only Sirius and Kreacher, and then Dumbledore,
knew its location. It's location has since been revealed to about 20
more people.

I'm surprised Bellatrix and Narcissa wouldn't know, especially since
Kreacher stays in touch.

And wouldn't the neighbors be
surprised if a house suddenly disappeared (since they would not be
able to see it, but had for years previously)?

Not necessarily, as the example of 12 Grimmauld Place demonstrates.
Another option is for the secret location to be newly constructed.

So, the secret was more
likely the actual location of the people, so that the people could
not be seen.

And that includes Harry. Thus my question. How could somebody not
in on the secret be able to see and retrieve Harry.

Right. That makes no sense. Therefore, the secret cannot have been
"the actual location of the people." Otherwise, not only would Hagrid
have trouble retrieving Harry, but Lily might have a trouble finding
him to change his diaper, the Dursleys would never notice him on their
front doorstep, and his teachers would always mark him absent in
class. Good work figuring this out.

Exactly. To make the secret work, they can know the location or
suspect it, but they still can't SEE them. It would be like they
were invisible to them.

To make the secret work, it must be a single fixed secret, not
information that keeps changing with every passing moment. Otherwise
how could Pettigrew know where Harry was, in order to tell Voldypants?
Therefore, the secret is the location of the hiding place.

So, even if Dumbeldore and Hagrid knew in advance,
once the FC was done, they would not be able to see them.

The spell prevents all secret-holders but one from revealing the
secret. You cannot provide any good reason why persons who obtain the
information by one method should be treated any differently, under the
spell, from those who obtain the information by another.

Knowing in advance would NOT be a valid explanation.

As far as we know, from the information in the books, it would. At
least, it fits well enough with the definition of the Fidelius Charm.
It fits with the fact that they chose an already-secret place as OOTP
HQ. If the spell could wipe minds, DD could have chosen a much nicer
place as OOTP-HQ.

They either had
to be told or should not be able to see Harry.

And when, according to you, did Pettigrew tell the Dursleys (not to
mention a ton of other people)?


.