I read this on Rowling's website, and something's confusing me:
What happens to a secret when the Secret-Keeper dies?
JK Rowling: I was surprised that this question won, because it is not the one that I'd have voted for… but hey, if this is what you want to know, this is what you want to know!
When a Secret-Keeper dies, their secret dies with them, or, to put it another way, the status of their secret will remain as it was at the moment of their death. Everybody in whom they confided will continue to know the hidden information, but nobody else.
Just in case you have forgotten exactly how the Fidelius Charm works, it is
"an immensely complex spell involving the magical concealment of a secret inside a single, living soul. The information is hidden inside the chosen person, or Secret-Keeper, and is henceforth impossible to find -- unless, of course, the Secret-Keeper chooses to divulge it" (Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban)
In other words, a secret (eg, the location of a family in hiding, like the Potters) is enchanted so that it is protected by a single Keeper (in our example, Peter Pettigrew, a.k.a. Wormtail). Thenceforth nobody else – not even the subjects of the secret themselves – can divulge the secret. Even if one of the Potters had been captured, force fed Veritaserum or placed under the Imperius Curse, they would not have been able to give away the whereabouts of the other two. The only people who ever knew their precise location were those whom Wormtail had told directly, but none of them would have been able to pass on the information.
Okay, if that's the case and the secret remains as it was, even if the keeper dies, who actually *saw* the Potters on the night of their death? Weren't they under the charm and, therefore, invisible -- even if dead and invisible?
I'm assuming that Hagrid didn't know their location, since he wasn't (I think) a close friend of the Potters. So how exactly did he see their bodies, if they were under the charm, and also how could he have rescued Harry from the rubble of his house? Dumbledore couldn't have revealed the Potters' location to Hagrid, only Wormtail could.
Maybe I've read the books wrong or something, but wouldn't Wormtail only have told the secret to Sirius, Lupin, Dumbledore, and the Deatheaters; therefore, still keeping the secret from everyone else? Because once Vold. killed Harry's parents, I'm wondering who could actually *see* their dead bodies? Shouldn't their house, as wrecked as it was, still be hidden under the charm? If it was, and not many people were privy to the secret location, they wouldn't have been able to find the Potters.
Also, was it their house that was under the charm, or was it the Potters themselves? Either way, I don't understand how certain people could see them dead. Maybe once the Potters were pulled from their house (I'm assuming it was the house under the charm, not the people), they became visible again, and not covered by the charm...
What am I not understanding here?
What happens to a secret when the Secret-Keeper dies?
JK Rowling: I was surprised that this question won, because it is not the one that I'd have voted for… but hey, if this is what you want to know, this is what you want to know!
When a Secret-Keeper dies, their secret dies with them, or, to put it another way, the status of their secret will remain as it was at the moment of their death. Everybody in whom they confided will continue to know the hidden information, but nobody else.
Just in case you have forgotten exactly how the Fidelius Charm works, it is
"an immensely complex spell involving the magical concealment of a secret inside a single, living soul. The information is hidden inside the chosen person, or Secret-Keeper, and is henceforth impossible to find -- unless, of course, the Secret-Keeper chooses to divulge it" (Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban)
In other words, a secret (eg, the location of a family in hiding, like the Potters) is enchanted so that it is protected by a single Keeper (in our example, Peter Pettigrew, a.k.a. Wormtail). Thenceforth nobody else – not even the subjects of the secret themselves – can divulge the secret. Even if one of the Potters had been captured, force fed Veritaserum or placed under the Imperius Curse, they would not have been able to give away the whereabouts of the other two. The only people who ever knew their precise location were those whom Wormtail had told directly, but none of them would have been able to pass on the information.
Okay, if that's the case and the secret remains as it was, even if the keeper dies, who actually *saw* the Potters on the night of their death? Weren't they under the charm and, therefore, invisible -- even if dead and invisible?
I'm assuming that Hagrid didn't know their location, since he wasn't (I think) a close friend of the Potters. So how exactly did he see their bodies, if they were under the charm, and also how could he have rescued Harry from the rubble of his house? Dumbledore couldn't have revealed the Potters' location to Hagrid, only Wormtail could.
Maybe I've read the books wrong or something, but wouldn't Wormtail only have told the secret to Sirius, Lupin, Dumbledore, and the Deatheaters; therefore, still keeping the secret from everyone else? Because once Vold. killed Harry's parents, I'm wondering who could actually *see* their dead bodies? Shouldn't their house, as wrecked as it was, still be hidden under the charm? If it was, and not many people were privy to the secret location, they wouldn't have been able to find the Potters.
Also, was it their house that was under the charm, or was it the Potters themselves? Either way, I don't understand how certain people could see them dead. Maybe once the Potters were pulled from their house (I'm assuming it was the house under the charm, not the people), they became visible again, and not covered by the charm...
What am I not understanding here?
