I remember the book saying that with the fidelius charm, you could stand right outside their window and look in and not see them. So, the house wasn’t invisible. It just wouldn’t register in Voldemort’s mind that they were there.
Also, the Death’s Head would have been glowing above the house - as was standard practice with the Death Eaters. It’d be kind of hard to miss that. If you knew where the Potters lived, and saw the big green head glowing in that general area, you’d probably get a good idea of what happened and where.
I think that a little investigation would have proved that Moaning Myrtle didn’t die because of a giant spider.
In the realm of “The Author Is Always Right”, I just assumed that the authorities in Book 2 had no idea what the creature was that killed Myrtle, or if they did, they thought The Thing Hagrid Was Hiding was a basilisk. I always thought that Hagrid let it go before he was discovered by the authorities - that Tom Riddle discovered Aragog and told on Hagrid to cover his own tracks, but that Hagrid let Aragog go before Aragog was seen by anyone in authority.
And the guy isn’t the quickest or the most articulate, so obviously he wouldn’t have been able to defend himself very well.
Taking people to the Scene of the Crime at the end of book 4 wouldn’t have done much, IMO. They’re STILL willing to turn themselves inside out in order to deny that Voldy is back. Taking them to the graveyard would’ve likely been turned into “Harry set it up to discredit some Very Famous And Influential Wizarding Families (Who Give Us Lots Of Money) Such As The Malfoys” very rapidly. Percy (and pretty much the entire cast of The Powers That Think They’re In Charge) has shown an amazing ability to completely ignore anything he doesn’t want to see or acknowledge, and therefore since the Party Line is “Harry’s nuts and Voldy most certainly is not back” even with evidence staring him in the face he’d deny it.
Ludo Bagman is tolerated, at best. I honestly think he was shoved into the sports position in order to get him into a spot where he couldn’t do much damage.
The foe-glass and dark detectors have only shown up once, so far - in the possession of Alastor Moody (true and false) - and pretty much everyone thinks he’s totally around the bend. I got the impression that The Powers That Think They’re In Charge regard anyone who takes those things seriously to be…well…not exactly playing with a full deck.
Re: The Fidelius Charm
My personal opinion on this one is that lots of people can know where the Potters were, but that only the Secret Keeper can reveal it. (I know, it’s been said before, but stick with me here.) That the charm isn’t so much a memory-fogger or anything, it’s just something that prevents anyone from revealing it.
Here’s how I think it works. Let’s say that Sirius was the SK instead. Wormtail knows where the Potters are hiding out, and desperately wants to tell Voldy. He goes to Voldy and says, “Hey! I know where the Potters are! They’re at…” and here the charm takes over. No words come out, his mouth can’t even shape the right words.
He tries to lead Voldy to them, and whoops, they wind up in Italy. Try again. This time, it’s Siberia. And so forth.
Voldy tries a mind-whammy on him. That part is suddenly scrambled. Can’t even read it from his mind, because the FC is scrambling those thoughts.
The knowledge would be there, but nobody except the Secret Keeper could do anything with it.
This pretty much confirms that whoever performed the charm could give testimony about who the secret-keeper is/was. It is described as “immensely complex” and although both James and Sirus are full-fledged wizards and have a history of aptitude(teaching yourself to be an animagus can’t be easy) I’d be suprised if they can do it.
Here are some other situations and ideas. Could a CSI guy have traced the basalisk? Traced the rooster killer? Put two and two together to figure out they were dealing with a basalisk? Would they have realized that whoever was controlling it must have been a parseltongue or else they would probably have been petrified/killed themselves? Discovered the secret of the diary? Discovered the secret of the Shrieking Shack?
A couple more resources for an investigator. The portaits on the walls of Hogwarts can give information about whereabouts of various people at various times. They’re like video survelience cameras that can answer questions. Plus they appear to have the ability to travel from picture to picture, even off-grounds(as with Phineas Nigellus) and could be very useful.
A resource which nobody but Dumbledore seems to fully appreciate. Mark my words: We’ll see a lot more of this in book 6. Remember when D. was stripped of the headmastership, Wizengamot membership, and his other honors? He said that he didn’t care, so long as they didn’t take him off of the chocolate frog trading cards. He wasn’t joking. So a guy who has a knack for investigation via portraits has a picture of himself in the pocket of every wizarding schoolchild in Britain.
On CSI, they could probably have taken a snapshot of Professor Quirrel back in Book One and “digitally enchanced” it until you could see ol’ Voldy’s face right through his turban…or even right through his own face on the other side.
They’ve done stuff with photo software on that show that strikes me as far more unrealistic magic than Harry Potter & Co. do with their wands.
This opens a huge can of worms. I really, really doubt it works that way. Think about it for a second. It is almost a certainty that Fudge is on the chocolate frog cards as well. The conflicts between the two could become epic if they are both posessed of such a fantastic information gathering network. Beyond that, there are the logistical matters. Imagine 5,000 Dumbledore CF cards(a low estimate if Ron, without a lot of disposable income, has about eleven). The portrait Dumbledore woudl have only a tiny bit of time to spend in each one. The portraits in his office can only be in one frame at a time, so I would guess this applies to CF cards as well. He doesn’t seem the type to neglect to visit cards. Imagine if some kid got a Dumbledore and never ever saw him because his portrait-self was too busy hanging out in Malfoy’s pocket(or someone in Slytherin, Malfoy would probably toss a Dumbledore).
Anyway, two portraits like the St. Mungo’s healer witch, the Ministry wizard, or Phineas Nigellus don’t make it too complicated. Thousdands and thousands of “portraits” for this portrait-persona to deal with seems really unlikely. There seems to be a divide already between wizard photograps and the Hogwarts-style portraits. Harry’s parents have been in several photographs and they didn’t seem to be able to understand what was going on outside the photograph or communicate with Harry like the portraits can. Phineus Nigellus knew Sirus was the last of the Black family line, so presumably he had kept up with the rest of the family. Still, the small photo of Bellatrix LeStrange was the communication vector by which Kreacher got his orders from the Malfoy household, so there may be a way.
Still outstanding CSI investigations[ul][li]What about Ginny? Could they have figured out she was being posessed and how before Harry did(actually, he never did, he was told flat out by Riddle’s embodied memory)? [] Book three, could CSI teams have cleared Sirus? []Could a CSI guy have traced the basalisk? []Traced the rooster killer?(they’ve got blood evidence all over the walls)[]Put two and two together to figure out they were dealing with a basalisk? []Would they have realized that whoever was controlling it must have been a parseltongue or else they would probably have been petrified/killed themselves?[]Discovered the secret of the diary?[*]Discovered the secret of the Shrieking Shack?[/ul]And a couple new ones. Would a CSI investigator have been able to figure out Hagrid had brought back Grawp? What about the Dementor attack on Dudley and Harry? Some evidence beyond Figg’s testimony?[/li]
And another big WTF! How in the heck is it that the Ministry can detect a Hover Charm on a pudding in Privet Drive and have someone dispatched within the hour but they can’t tell that someone has used the Imperius Curse on Barty Crouch when he comes to work every day at the Ministry?
I was thinking more along the lines of the wizarding equivalent of security cameras. Some dark magic detection spells on the ministry offices. After all you wouldn’t want someone casting unforgiveable curses in the ministry hallways. I’d think it would be able to detect the presence of someone controlled by the Imperius curse as well, but maybe not. They did have a lot of trouble telling which of Voldemort’s supporters were genuine and which were under the Imperius curse, so maybe it isn’t easily detectable. Still, the speculation was that Sturgis Podmore was placed under the Imperius curse by Lucius Malfoy while he was hidden in front of the Department of Mysteries, so there would be at least one unforgiveable curse cast within the premises. Harry’s casting the Cruciatus Curse on Bellatrix in the lobby would have been at least the second. I don’t know about you, but if there are spells which allow detection of underage magic and can identify the exact spell cast I would absolutely have this spell on my government offices. I would at least be able to identify the casting of unforgiveable curses within the seat of government. Simple matter of security.
Like I said: Only Dumbledore, in all the wizarding world, seems to have an appreciation for the potential of magical artwork. And I’m sure that the cards work differently, and that Dumbledore will therefore use them differently. I don’t know exactly what he’ll do, but he’ll definitely do it with style.
The Malfoys/LeStranges seemed to appreciate these possibilities when they used Bellatrix’s photo to communicate with Kreacher. They were able to give detailed instructions(be in front of the fire at these times, distract Sirus, etc.) through the photograph. If we see a lot more of it I’d guess we’ll all be getting headaches.
Are we sure Kreetcher was communicating via the photograph? He could have been talking to portrait of Sirius’ mother. (It’s been a while since I read the book and can’t remember.)
Also, in the parts about Winky, we find out that houselves have magic “different” from that of Wizards. Could it be that houselves are slightly mind-reading enabled? That would explain why they are such excellent servants and are bound to such secrecy.
I don’t have my copy in front of me, but IIRC it is when Dumbledore is relating to Harry how he found out what Kreacher was up to. I think the chapter was “The Lost Prophecy.” It was noticed earlier(when Hermoinie gave Kreacher a blanket) that Kreacher had one of the photos of Bellatrix in his “den.” Dumbledore told Harry that Kreacher took advantage of Sirus’s “GET OUT!”, after Mr. Weasley was attacked and Harry showed up in 12 Grimnauld Place, to run to Narcissa Black-Malfoy’s place. After that they used some other means of communication. The photograph seemed to be the link from what I recall.
I suspect, though, that many of the higher-ups would bristle at having that sort of security placed upon them. It seems like it would be politically difficult to convince major officials that their offices are going to be constantly (magically) monitored in case they do something bad.
At any rate, the monitoring is clearly very selective: Hagrid’s used magic several times, and he’s not supposed to - but no one’s ever caught on. And the kids make their careers out of using magic and sneaking into places that ought to be monitored. There’s clearly some reason that it doesn’t work. The best I can figure is that either the students themselves are somehow enchanted (though even this doesn’t seem quite plausible, since the enchantment wasn’t able to determine that Harry was innocent) or that perhaps it only works in the Muggle world. It’d probably be hard to zero in on any spell in a place like Hogwarts or the Ministry of Magic, since there’d be hundreds of other spells and magical objects in the way.
Still, though, the more I think about it, the clearer it becomes that the Restriction on Underage Sorcery is not consistent with the rest of the books. Not that everything in Harry Potter is consistent, but it seems quite difficult to reconcile these two things.
As for the Fidelius Charm, I agree with others’ interpretations of it - those who know the secret simply can’t divulge it, and Harry’s experiences at 12 Grimmault show that it hides secrets from outside discovery (much the same way the Leaky Cauldron is hidden from Muggle passersby.) But I suspect it’s contingent on the cooperation of everyone who knows the secret initially. I doubt you could, for instance, use the Fidelius Charm to hide the secret of making meringue, and leave everyone on earth unable to whip eggwhites. All the participants would have to initially agree to it (though obviously not, as Peter Pettigrew has shown, agree with pure intent.)
> Honestly, Rowling writes plot holes large enough to drive a truck through. Not
> that I don’t enjoy the books, but continuity or sense isn’t her strong point.
This is the most reasonable post in this thread. These books simply make no sense. I’ve dutifully worked my way through all five books and I’ve concluded that it’s impossible to find any consistency in the background, the plot, or the characters in these books.
Interference makes sense. Still, since they can determine the exact spell performed(hover, patronus, etc.) they should be able to have someone sit at the office(like Magalda Hopkirk does) and monitor the output from the dark magic detection spells and weed out the chaff. Much like a security guard sits and stares at monitors all day which show nothing but innocent activity, but it is still worth it because of the .01% of the time something really bad happens.
I tend to think the detection spell is on the person, not the residence. Wizarding households would be setting off alarms all the time if it were on the residence. They wouldn’t have been able to detect Harry using the Patronus Charm against the dementors since he was away from the house if it was on the residence. Still, if it was only on him, how did it detect what Dobby did? If it covered him and some short distance away from him you would still get lots of false positives in wizarding households.
It could also be that the underage magic rules are ignored for most wizard children doing ordinary magic and the Ministry is keeping a special eye on Harry (for the obvious reasons) or on all muggle-born children. The later inconsistency is due to Harry’s disappearing standing as the nice boy who stopped Voldermort. Or possibly due to Fudge’s interferance.