More than one aspect of Lord Voldemort’s plan to become immortal in the Harry Potter series has been critiqued by fans, including why he didn’t turn less conspicuous objects into Horcruxes, or hide them with an apparently impenetrable spell. Tom Riddle a.k.a. Voldemort, played to perfection by Ralph Fiennes in the Harry Potter movies, is the overarching villain of the story who carries a mythos of being undefeatable but plays into the story’s biggest themes with his weaknesses. While Harry and his friends have strength in love and friendship, Voldemort, despite his retinue of followers, acts alone.
Voldemort’s seven Horcruxes each contain a piece of his soul, preventing him from being killed in his mortal body. However, there are points in the story where it seems like this mission only further endangered Voldemort’s person, as it made his soul very unstable and prone to further damage. All the Harry Potter movies build up to Harry, Ron, and Hermione’s hunt for the Horcruxes and the final battle with Voldemort, and smaller plot details that undercut this drama would be a disservice to the story — but some readers may be missing the point of the villain’s isolation.
The Fidelius Charm Could Have Hidden Voldemort’s Horcruxes, But He Doesn’t Use It
The Fidelius Charm Is Explained At Length In The Prisoner Of Azkaban Book
Namely, it has been pointed out that Voldemort could have hidden the Horcurxes so that neither Harry nor Dumbledore could ever have found them, using what is known as the Fidelius Charm. This spell is thoroughly explained in Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban, as it is vital to the backstory of one of James and Lily’s best friends betraying them to Voldemort. The charm is described as “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.”
Sirius was believed to be the Secret-Keeper of James and Lily’s home, so everyone thought he must have given their location to Voldemort. However, the Potters actually made Peter their Secret-Keeper at the last minute in an attempt to misdirect Voldemort. The Order of the Phoenix also uses the Fidelius Charm to conceal various safe houses in the later books. It’s generally suggested that this spell is pretty much impossible to bypᴀss; the Secret-Keeper has to give up the information willingly. Thus, it would have been an effective way to hide the Horcruxes, but Voldemort never used it.
The Harry Potter Villain Didn’t Trust Anyone Enough To Be His Secret Keeper
He Kept Information From Even Bellatrix Lestrange & Lucius Malfoy
Voldemort commands an inner circle of Death Eaters and a larger army of followers, but he doesn’t completely trust any of them and wants the true secret of his immortality to belong only to him. He never told any of the Death Eaters about the existence of the Horcruxes, which was deduced by Regulus Black. and later Dumbledore. Thus, Voldemort could have used the Fidelius Charm to protect the Horcruxes, but this would have meant trusting someone enough to protect a piece of his soul.
Voldemort seems to have wanted more to leverage the defenses of Malfoy Manor and Gringotts but not actually reveal his vulnerabilities to another living person.
He notably gave one of the Horcruxes (the diary) to Lucius Malfoy and another (Hufflepuff’s cup) to Bellatrix Lestrange, but without clarifying what they were. Voldemort seems to have wanted more to leverage the defenses of Malfoy Manor and Gringotts but not actually reveal his vulnerabilities to another living person. He theoretically could have said he wanted to set up a Fidelius Charm to protect these objects still without explaining their true nature, but this measure might have raised Lucius and Bellatrix’s suspicions.
Both probably thought that their Horcruxues were tools of some dark magic or other and not something that could actually harm Voldemort (Lucius seems to have known that the diary would trigger the opening of the Chamber of Secrets). The very name of the spell, derived from the Latin “fidel” meaning “faithful,” implies that it requires a certain amount of trust pertaining to that vague theory of magic the books always allude to. But Voldemort doesn’t want to depend on anyone, controlling his followers through fear more than anything else.
This Is Another Example Of Voldemort’s Pride & Lack Of Love Being His Downfall
Voldemort Might Have Lasted If He Had Truly Trusted Someone (Bellatrix, At Least)
The Harry Potter books constantly stress that Voldemort’s weakness lies in his inability to trust or love, and by the end of his life, he is barely a person at all, having destroyed his own soul and completely isolated himself to be a cruel, indestructible tyrant that everyone in the world would fear. In contrast, Harry and his friends gain physical protection from their love for one another and keep fighting a terrifying force because they want a better world for each other. In the end, this triumphs, and it seems like Voldemort trusting someone just once might have actually saved him.
Voldemort sometimes misses even the most logical strategies in his quest to be something other than a mere man.
For instance, while Lucius maybe eventually would have dared to fight Voldemort to protect his family, Bellatrix was zealous enough that she would have taken that secret to her grave. Even if he would have mostly been manipulating her twisted love for him, Voldemort could have used Bellatrix in this way and no one would even have gotten to one or more of the Horcruxes. But, as has been discussed by the Harry Potter fandom, Voldemort sometimes misses even the most logical strategies in his quest to be something other than a mere man.
Harry Potter
- Created by
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J.K. Rowling
- First Film
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Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone
- First TV Show
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Harry Potter
- Cast
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Daniel Radcliffe, Emma Watson, Rupert Grint, Tom Felton, Alan Rickman, Matthew Lewis, Bonnie Wright, Evanna Lynch, Maggie Smith, Michael Gambon, Richard Harris, Ralph Fiennes, Helena Bonham Carter, Alfred Enoch, Harry Melling, Gary Oldman, Robert Pattinson, Warwick Davis, Oliver Phelps, James Phelps, David Bradley, David Thewlis, Katie Leung, Jason Isaacs, Imelda Staunton, David Tennant, Jamie Campbell Bower, Timothy Spall, Robbie Coltrane, Eddie Redmayne, Jude Law, Katherine Waterston, Ezra Miller, Dan Fogler, Alison Sudol, Johnny Depp, Mads Mikkelsen
- TV Show(s)
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Harry Potter
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