Skip to main content

harry potter - What happens when Veritaserum and a Fidelius Charm meet?


The title kind of explains the question.


If a Secret Keeper was given Veritaserum, what would happen? What if the Veritaserum was willingly taken?


EDIT:


Given the answers here, I'm not sure which to pick as they both use canon sources. I will give this question another 24 hours for votes to pour in before accepting.



Answer



The first thing I'd say is that Veritaserum is only one tool. It may be magic, but it is not invincible, it is not infallible. Rowling has gone on record saying:




[Veritaserum works best on] the unsuspecting, the vulnerable and those insufficiently skilled (in one way or another) to protect themselves against it.


Source: accio-quote



As such, in no sense can Veritaserum be relied upon to always force the truth out of someone. That, I think, is worth bearing in mind.


Secondly, the magic of the Fidelius Charm to me is rather beautiful. It's about fidelity, loyalty, trust and friendship.



'An immensely complex spell,' he said squeakily, '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. As long as the Secret Keeper refused to speak, You-Know-Who could search the village where Lily and James were staying for years and never find them, not even if he had his nose pressed against their sitting-room window!'


Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban - pp.152-3 - Bloomsbury - Chapter 10, The Marauder's Map




To me, the element of choice there is all-important. The spell is broken if your Secret Keeper betrays you. It's about betrayal, infidelity, treachery.


Of course, you could choose to betray someone under duress. I would argue that if the information was tortured out of you - well that would be forgiveable, but you have still elected to give your friends up. I mean, the torture might send you out of your mind, you might lose all control and hardly know what you were saying any more, but it's still a decision you take. Overriding that autonomy with a potion that would just send your secrets pouring out of you would be different, to me. That wouldn't be betrayal. If I'm tortured into giving up your whereabouts, I have given you up - however understandably. But if somebody finds where you are by searching my house and discovering the information - well, I've been a bit careless, but I have not given you up.


So I would argue that to break the Fidelius Charm, it would have to be elective. You would have to make a decision - however constrained and inevitable that decision was. As such, Veritaserum, which would not enable you to make a choice, would be defeasible by that. It would not be able to get that information out of you.


So, Veritaserum can be fought by certain means. If you do not have those means or have failed to employ them, it will reveal your secrets without you having any control over them. As such, when it works, it cannot force a betrayal. As such, it cannot break a Fidelius Charm. As such, that is another means by which it may be fought.


Having said that, I think it's an interesting question whether extreme torture would also be vulnerable to that. I would argue that if the torture got so extreme that you lost all control, that too might not break the Fidelius Charm, because it's not a choice. However, up to a certain point in the torture (and it gives me no pleasure to speculate on where that line might be drawn), in giving up the information, you would be choosing to sacrifice your friends' lives to save you from pain. Which would be betrayal, however understandable. Which would break the Charm.


Comments

Popular posts from this blog

harry potter - Did Dolores Umbridge Have Any Association with Voldemort (or Death Eaters) before His Return?

I noticed that Dolores Umbridge was born during the first Wizarding War, so it's very likely she wasn't a Death Eater then (but she is pretty evil -- who knows?). After that Voldemort was not around in a way that could affect many people, and most wouldn't know he was planning to rise again. During that time, and up through Voldemort's return (in Goblet of Fire ), did Umbridge have any connection with the Death Eaters or with Voldemort? Was she doing what she did on her own, or was it because of an association with Voldemort or his allies? Answer Dolores Umbridge was definitely not a good person. However, as Sirius points out, "the world isn't split into good people and Death Eaters". Remember that he also says that he doesn't believe Umbridge to be a Death Eater, but that she's evil enough (or something like that). I think there are two strong reasons to believe that: Umbridge was proud to do everything according to the law, except when she trie...

futurama - How much time is lost in 'Time Keeps on Slippin''

In time Keeps on Slippin' , Farnsworth creates a basketball team which he matures by abusing Chronitons. This leads to time skipping forward by random, but ever increasing amounts. How much time was skipped in this way? Answer Unfortunately, I don't think a good estimate can be made for this, for two reasons: Many of the time skips move forward by an indeterminate amount of time. At one point, the Professor mentions localized regions of space skipping forward much more than others. We then see two young boys on the street below complaining about having to pay social security, only to suddenly become senior citizens and start complaining about wanting their money. Thus, each individual could have experienced a different amount of time skippage.

aliens - Interstellar Zoo story

I vaguely remember this story from my childhood: it was about an interstellar zoo that came to Earth with lots of bizarre and unusual species, and humans would file through and gape at all the crazy looking creatures from other planets. The twist came at the end when the perspective shifted to the other side of the bars and we discovered that the "creatures" were traveling through space on a kind of safari. They thought they were the visitors and we were the animals. Neither side knew that the other side thought they were the zoo creatures. Answer Got it. Zoo, by Edward D. Hoch. Published in 1958. Link to Publication History Link to PDF

tolkiens legendarium - Did Gandalf wear his Ring of Power throughout the trilogy?

After Gandalf discovered that Sauron was back and sent Frodo on his quest to Rivendell, did he continue to wear Narya (one of the Three Rings)? It seems like a huge risk to continue to wear it after the Nazgûl (Ringwraiths) started to try and reclaim the One Ring; if they managed to get the ring to Sauron, couldn't he be corrupted by his power? Whatever powers Narya bestows upon him couldn't possibly be worth the huge risk, could it? Answer When Sauron forged the one ring and put it on his finger, the other ring bearers were immediately aware of him and his intentions and removed their own rings. There is no reason why they couldn't merely do so again. As soon as Sauron set the One Ring upon his finger they were aware of him; and they knew him, and preceived that he would be master of them, and of all they wrought. Then in anger and fear they took off their rings. "Of the Rings of Power and the Third Age," Silmarillion