Checking your work
This was part of a post I made over at the Wizarding Wireless Podcast Forums.
HBP, Chapter 3 wrote:
"Well, Harry," said Dumbledore, turning toward him, "a difficulty has arisen which I hope you will be able to solve for us. By us, I mean the Order of the Phoenix."
Note that Dumbledore goes out of his way to state the full name of the organization.
It's the same thing for the location-- Dumbledore says "number twelve, Grimmauld Place" when he just as easily could have said "Sirius' house" or some other generic phrase.
Tossing all the thematic / story reasons for the Dursleys to go to Grimmauld Place aside, Dumbledore's wording seems like a big clue. A secret keeper needs to be someone with a lot of discretion. Even if the secret was somehow out of play because the Order had temporarily vacated the house, it had been two weeks or less since they stopped using it. Considering how long he would've been avoiding saying it, the phrase "number twelve, Grimmauld Place" should not have crept back into Dumbledore's casual conversation that quickly.
So unless Dumbledore is a mediocre secret keeper and the Potters were right not to use him for their secret, I'm forced to conclude that Dumbledore intentionally revealed the secret to the Dursleys. Because any time the equation doesn't come out Dumbledore = awesome, you've done the math wrong.
HBP, Chapter 3 wrote:
"Well, Harry," said Dumbledore, turning toward him, "a difficulty has arisen which I hope you will be able to solve for us. By us, I mean the Order of the Phoenix."
Note that Dumbledore goes out of his way to state the full name of the organization.
It's the same thing for the location-- Dumbledore says "number twelve, Grimmauld Place" when he just as easily could have said "Sirius' house" or some other generic phrase.
Tossing all the thematic / story reasons for the Dursleys to go to Grimmauld Place aside, Dumbledore's wording seems like a big clue. A secret keeper needs to be someone with a lot of discretion. Even if the secret was somehow out of play because the Order had temporarily vacated the house, it had been two weeks or less since they stopped using it. Considering how long he would've been avoiding saying it, the phrase "number twelve, Grimmauld Place" should not have crept back into Dumbledore's casual conversation that quickly.
So unless Dumbledore is a mediocre secret keeper and the Potters were right not to use him for their secret, I'm forced to conclude that Dumbledore intentionally revealed the secret to the Dursleys. Because any time the equation doesn't come out Dumbledore = awesome, you've done the math wrong.