I think the way the Fidelius Charm works is that you need another person to keep the secret, hence why its called a SECRET. The charm for the Shell Cottage was probably performed by either Hermoine or Harry, allowing Bill to become the Secret Keeper and receive the original secret.

As per Godric's Hollow and Potter's House, the secret was not where the House was located, but where Lily and James were located. Since Lily and James were the only ones that knew the secret, Sirius or Peter had to be told it for the Charm to go into effect. This would also explain why the secret from Dumbledore about the OotP was phrased as "The headquarters for the Order is located at" xxxx, not as "Black Manor is located at" xxxx. The secret was about the headquarters, not the Manor.

 

So its not necessary to be house huh. Good finding ashaik

 

I think JK said at one point that if the keeper dies and the keeper never told anyone of the secret, then the secret dies with them; that does not mean that whatever was being kept is now unprotected, it means that whatever was being kept will now cease to exist.

 

It would go a long way to explaining why the charm isn't more widely used. It's pretty risky. :/

 

Rofl then why Voldemort didn't just AK Peter?

 

Peter wasn't the only one who knew the secret, since the Potters lived there and at least Sirius knew too. Voldemort didn't know Peter was the secret keeper. Peter went to him and revealed the secret. What's the point of AK-ing him?

 

When peter told voldemort the location he included him in the fidelius so going by logic he (peter) was still the secret keeper. The charm didn't "broke", so if the consequence from the death of the SK was the destruction of the 'secret',Voldie actually had every reason to eviscerate him on the spot.

 

Emphasis mine.

 

I don't know if the JKR quote is true or not, but taking it at face value, it says that the destruction of the secret happens if the keeper never tells anyone the secret, and says nothing about whether the person was still the secret keeper or not. Compare that with your own statement: "When peter told Voldemort the location".

Death of the secret keeper after telling the secret definitely does not destroy the secret. That, at least, should be obvious from canon.

 

Dumbledore must have known anyway so all our speculating goes to the water,but maybe at the moment when Peter said "I am actually the secret keeper not Black my lord" Voldemort could have AK'ed him before he continued ? Too farfetched ? Yes, but fuck it its still a valid reason.

 

It's not a valid reason. In fact, it would make Voldemort stupid to assume without any proof that Peter didn't tell anyone the secret. If he was wrong, he would have lost both the secret and the secret keeper.

 

Why would he do that? He has no way of knowing who else has the secret (and we know that at least Sirius would), so he's throwing away the one chance he has at finding the Potters. Instead, he could hear Peter out, and then go there and kill them himself. It's not like he's going to have much trouble with that, after all.

 

Well i did mention that it was farfetched. He was in a fit of rage...........? over the audacity of fate by whom he was reduced to stand on the same level as a mere mortal infant.



Yeah you win

 

But wouldnt he have needed to tell the potters and sirius as well? The potters because they were living there and Sirius to maintain the illusion that Sirius was the secret keeper. Also do we know what happens to the people inside a house when the secret is sealed?

 

Do note that the secret was not "the potter household is X" but that "The Potters live at X". There's a quote from the book that Voldemort could have known which house the Potters lived in, walked up to the glass and looked into the house, and not seen anything.

 

fidelius ~ loyal in latin

in PoA Flitwick says that the secret is hidden in a persons soul.

I think the spell works in a way that you have to completely trust someone with your life, and then he has the power to tell the secret.
Trusting someone gives them power to betray you - the danger of the fidelius as shown with Peter.

 

Another thing to take into consideration is a Fidelius Charm loop.

For example, what if Sirius was the secret keeper to James and Lily's location and they in turn were secret keepers for his location? Unbreakable loop right there.