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I've recently discovered that Chapter 12 of Deathly Hallows tells us that Grimmauld Place has been hidden to muggle eyes for a long time:

The Muggles who lived in Grimmauld Place had long since accepted the amusing mistake in the numbering that had caused number eleven to sit beside number thirteen.

This suggests that the building has been hidden for longer than The Order has used it for. This means that it must have been hidden prior to Dumbledore's Fidelius Charm on it.

However, chapters 3 and 4 of Order of the Phoenix seem to very strongly imply that the house became visible to Harry only when he had learned the secret that was the target of the Fidelius Charm:

Harry looked down at the piece of paper. The narrow handwriting was vaguely familiar. It said:
The headquarters of the Order of the Phoenix may be found at number twelve, Grimmauld Place, London.
[...] Harry looked around at the houses again. They were standing outside number eleven; he looked to the left and saw number ten; to the right, however, was number thirteen.
"But where’s — ?"
"Think about what you’ve just memorized," said Lupin quietly.
Harry thought, and no sooner had he reached the part about number twelve, Grimmauld Place, than a battered door emerged out of nowhere between numbers eleven and thirteen

So what is actually responsible for hiding the house? Deathly Hallows seems to say that it can't be Fidelius, but Order of the Phoenix strongly implies that it must be.

The natural guess is that there are two layers of protection - whatever existed previously and then the Fidelius Charm - but, if that is the case, then why does Harry knowing the secret - something that doesn't actually mention the existence of the house - defeat all of these protections? Are we to believe that the only other relevant protections on the house are strictly anti-muggle? If so, then how can we explain The Order being concerned about Bellatrix being able to find the house in Half-Blood Prince, where the Fidelius Charm (which, by assumption, is the only relevant charm protecting the house) should have protected it fully?

J. Mini
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  • I always figured it's similar to the Leaky Cauldron / Diagon Alley or even the Quidditch World Cup type charms. It's there but you can't see if you aren't a wizard. Fidelius is a further protection keeping even wizards ignorant of a location – NKCampbell Dec 02 '20 at 18:31
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    @NKCampbell Hence my final paragraph. Yours is exactly the guess that I was expecting, but am asking this question to address. – J. Mini Dec 02 '20 at 18:45
  • yup - pure speculation - no evidence from me :) – NKCampbell Dec 02 '20 at 19:10
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    Keep in mind Grimmauld Place was also the home of a very famous, very wealthy, and very ancient wizarding family (the House of Black). I'm sure over the hundreds of years they've lived there, they've made substantial efforts to keep it hidden. Also keep in mind that Bellatrix Lestrange is part of the House of Black, so she has almost surely been there before. – TylerH Dec 02 '20 at 19:23
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    I'm (professionally) amused by the fact that the locals didn't consider 12 to be on the other side of the street, between 10 and 14. – Spencer Dec 02 '20 at 20:19
  • Could two years not be considered "long since"? – Alex Dec 03 '20 at 02:07
  • @Alex Only if the Fidelius Charm can make people forget things that they already knew. Are you suggesting that, upon the sudden disappearance of an ancient house in their street, the local muggles only thought that the error in the street's numbering was odd? – J. Mini Dec 03 '20 at 13:45
  • @Spencer - in various places in England, the numbers were assigned starting at one end of the street, going up one side and down the other side in order. This, of course, caused problems later if the street were extended further on. – Jon Custer Dec 03 '20 at 21:48
  • @JonCuster That, and several other arrangements around the world, including some places that were thought to be "regular". I frequently had to explain these complications to customers. – Spencer Dec 03 '20 at 21:56
  • @Spencer - and then there are places like the greater Phoenix area where the road name stays the same, but the numbering resets every time it enters a new 'city' without any indication to a non-resident that one just crossed the line... – Jon Custer Dec 03 '20 at 22:04
  • @Spencer Exactly. In a lot of former British colonies all the odd numbered houses are on one side of the street and all the even numbered ones on the oposite side. I've never been in London, but would have thought the habit originated there and so it would be the same. – Gwyn Dec 06 '20 at 12:34

2 Answers2

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Grimmauld, 12 was used for ages by Black family as a residence.

The charm hiding the house from Muggles was not Fidelius, but some other (unspecified) Muggle repelling charm commonly used by Wizarding folk to hide their dwellings.

Although it is not explicitly explained in the books, the current Magical law (The Secrecy Act) required any Magical family to use all necessary precautions to prevent Muggles from seeing them doing magic. The best way to do it in a big city would be to make the house totally inaccessible to Muggles. Same way as The Ministry of Magic, Hogwarts, Gringotts and other major Magical buildings in London. As it is explained with Hogwarts, the charms (unspecified) make the place invisible and unplottable, i.e. it is magically hidden from any maps or navigation equipment muggles use.

So, Muggles do not see the house at all, they see houses 11 and 13 adjacent to each other, with no gap.

A similar enchantment is described in Deathly Secrets, where Muggles see some war memorial instead of a monument to James and Lily Potter.

After the house became The Order HQ, however, Fidelius Charm made the house invisible to Wizards/Witches as well, unless they were given access by the Secret Keeper.

The Order's concern about Bellatrix was due to the fact that she might challenge Sirius's (and later, Harry's) inheritance of the house, and enter it as a rightful owner. There is some hole in this protection scheme connected with wizarding inheritance laws conflicting with magical loyalty, and it is due to the fact that the house had many layers of enchantments placed upon by generations of Blacks, and has its own sense of loyalty. You may compare it to Kreacher, who is extremely loyal to the family, but has to obey Harry as his rightful master.

Harry fits all the requirements to gain access to the house. In the events of Order of the Phoenix, he is recognized by the Fidelius Charm, and other protection recognizes him as a guest of the house owner - Sirius Black, who is a rightful heir to the House Of Black. Later, with Sirius's demise, the ownership transfers to Harry by Sirius's will. So again, he fits all the requirements as the rightful owner and the Order member.

TimSparrow
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  • I can't see how this is an answer to the question. If anything, this answer only restates my premises. Please reread the final paragraph of the question, which addresses the idea that there are two layers of protection on the house. – J. Mini Dec 03 '20 at 22:02
  • Your last paragraph is another question, Will answer that, too – TimSparrow Dec 04 '20 at 13:28
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    @J.Mini again, there is no direct explanation how the protection works, so we may only use logic and analogy – TimSparrow Dec 04 '20 at 13:46
  • This still isn't enough. If the house has multiple layers of protections on it (as you've accepted in your explanation of the concern about Bellatrix), then why does Harry knowing the secret - something that doesn't actually mention the existence of the house - defeat all of these protections? – J. Mini Dec 04 '20 at 19:24
  • @J.Mini he does not. Protections are meant against intruders; Harry is a rightful owner of this house by will of the previous owner, who was a rightful heir of the House of Black. Thus, he is NOT an intruder. And he is trusted to be accepted by the Fidelius charm. – TimSparrow Dec 04 '20 at 19:31
  • If the Fidelius Charm matters to the house being visible to other witches/wizards, then why are The Order concerned about Bellatrix showing up? – J. Mini Dec 04 '20 at 19:40
  • @J.Mini as I said, she could have access to the house as a family member, which could break the Fidelius charm. That could also apply to Narcissa.

    Since we do not know the exact nature of the house protection, we can only speculate. Apparently, Dumbledore & Co did not know it either.

     – TimSparrow Dec 04 '20 at 20:17
  • Here we see clearly the problem of asking more than one question at once... both answers are adequate answers to ONE of your questions but did not consider the second question... the possibility to answer one without answering the other shows: this should be split in two separate questions. One about why muggles can‘t see it and one about why they fear that Bellatrix could find it... – Tode Dec 05 '20 at 14:26
  • @TorstenLink The problem is that if you ask them separate, you get two incompatible answers. – J. Mini Dec 10 '20 at 21:48
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No, the Fidelius Charm only comes on top of it

This is what Sirius has to say about Grimmauld Place:

"It's ideal for Headquarters, of course," Sirius said. "My father put every security measure known to wizardkind on it when he lived here. It's unplottable, so Muggles could never come and call - as if they'd ever wanted to - and now Dumbledore's added his protection, you'd be hard put to find a safer house anywhere. Dumbledore is Secret Keeper for the Order, you know - nobody can find Headquarters unless he tells them personally where it is - that note Moody showed you last night, that was from Dumbledore..."

(Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, Chapter Six: The Noble and Most Ancient House of Black)

"Unplottable" means that Muggles can't see it - the way they can't see Hogwarts or any of the other Wizarding Schools - and the Fidelius Charm makes sure wizards can't see it either unless being told by the Secret Keeper.

Philipp
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  • This falls in to my final paragraph. If the Fidelius Charm makes it invisible to witches and wizards, why was there any concern about Bellatrix showing up at the house? – J. Mini Dec 05 '20 at 13:34
  • I can't remember that specific concern - where does it happen in the book? I will then dig deeper – Philipp Dec 05 '20 at 14:04
  • The relevant details are in this question: https://scifi.stackexchange.com/q/238829/112139 – J. Mini Dec 05 '20 at 14:06
  • Looking at that question and its accepted answer, I can't see which question is still open? – Philipp Dec 05 '20 at 14:16
  • If the Fidelius Charm is responsible for making the house invisible to witches/wizards, as your answer to this question states, then why does The Order believe that Bellatrix would be capable of showing up there? The answer to the linked question assumes that the Fidelius Charm is not responsible for making the house invisible to witches/wizards, so it avoids this trap, which your answer does not. Your task is to resolve the issue of "if the Fidelius Charm is hiding the house from witches/wizards, why are The Order concerned about Bellatrix?". If in doubt, see my question's final paragraph. – J. Mini Dec 05 '20 at 15:21
  • To be nitpicking - your question clearly states if it was the Fidelius charm that has hidden the house from the muggles, which I answered, to which a clear, unambiguous answer exists. Your second question is already answered in the quote of the question you linked: They have no idea how the enchantments will be "inherited" with Sirius's death and who could therefore have access to Grimmauld Place, and how these former enchantments would interfere with Fidelius. – Philipp Dec 05 '20 at 19:11
  • Your answer already states that Fidelius is what's keeping the house hidden from witches/wizards. If you believe that, then the interaction between Fidelius and the charms already on the house is irrelevant. – J. Mini Dec 05 '20 at 20:52