I added a poll to this post I wrote about “What Albus Dumbledore Should Have Done to Protect the Sorcerer’s Stone?” The article used to be published on HubPages (it was first posted on on 10/01/2014), but I decided to move it to my Potter Plotholes Tumblr blog instead.
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Honestly, there are so many ways the Stone could have been protected that wouldn’t have had any risk to the students, or really much risk at all. Of course, this is assuming the Stone should have been protected at all.
First off, why does the Stone need to be in Hogwarts at all? Why does Dumbledore need to be involved? Hell, why was it even in England in the first place? Flamel is french, and according to Potter canon, he lived in France at the time of the first book. If he and his wife weren’t already prepping for death – in which case, the whole ‘protect the Stone’ thing was utter nonsense, because they had already decided to die anyways and could/should have just destroyed it instead of sending it off to Gringotts in London – then why wouldn’t they have it within easy reach in order to keep producing the Elixir of Life. The thing they need in order to keep living. Which they presumably wanted to do.
By all rights, the Stone shouldn’t have been in Gringotts at the time that Harry and Hagrid went to London. In the conversation between Harry and Dumbledore at the end of the book, Dumbledore heavily implied that the decision to destroy the Stone didn’t occur until after Harry had his confrontation under the trap door. Of course, Dumbledore being Dumbledore, this doesn’t actually mean that the Flamels made their decision then, however, but the timing of that conversation is crucial to how the Stone should have been dealt with.
Say the Flamels didn’t decide to die until after the Quirrellmort confrontation. If that’s the case, then the Stone really should have never left France to begin with, assuming the protection of the Stone from Voldemort’s plans was the actual sole goal here. It’s unknown how much Elixir they had saved up for “setting their affairs in order”, however, if they wanted to keep living, then at some point they would need to retrieve the Stone from its protections in order to make more. Logically speaking, this means the Stone should have stayed in easy reach. Better yet, keep it on their property, and involve no one else in its protections. The fewer people who know anything, the safer it would be. Ideally, they should have just locked the Stone in a box or drawer, then Hidden it, or the room it was in, under the Fidelius charm. Or, if the charm can only work on full structures, build a tiny little structure – hell, no bigger than a dog house – on their property, stick it in there, and stick that under Fidelius. Simple, no one else need be involved – because the Flamels themselves could be the Secret Keeper – and even if a thief broke into their house, the thief could never find it.
And, you know, access to the thing that lets them keep living their lives.
One would have to assume that Voldemort is not the first would be thief in over 600 years, and that the Flamels would be skilled enough to prevent themselves from being tortured into giving up the Secret.
Of course, that was assuming the Flamels had not already decided to die. If the Flamels’ decision actually came before the Stone was sent off to England – which I personally believe, just based off how events unfolded in the book – then they should have never sent it away at all. Presumably their stash of Elixir for setting their affairs in order was already made before the events of the book – because once the Stone was hidden it would be rather difficult for them to make more – so then why bother with the whole big production? Better yet, why risk the lives of all those children just to set a trap for a known genocidal terrorist who is known to kill children? It’s stupid. They should have just destroyed the stone themselves, and saved everybody the stress and risk and danger.
TL:DR Dumbledore should have never been involved with the Stone. The Flamels should have either put it under the Fidelius themselves if they wanted to live, or just destroyed it. It was their responsibility, no one else’s.
@magicaltimelady44 – yes, yes, yes to all of this. Completely agree.
Even if the Sorcerer’s Stone really needed to be in Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry for some reason (though I also believe that it really shouldn’t have been put in a school full of children), then why would Albus Dumbledore say something about it?
Okay, so he didn’t outright say the stone was hidden in Hogwarts. However, during the opening feast, he basically hinted at such when he talked about how the third floor corridor was forbidden on pain of death.
I mean, why would he say something like that to a bunch of kids? Children are naturally curious, so words like this could tempt them to check out the third floor corridor.
This is especially so for those prone to being troublemakers such as Fred and George Weasley. I mean, what if he never said anything? What if he just kept quiet about it?
Sure, it’s possible that students wandering around might stumble across the corridor should they happen to get lost or whilst exploring, but that’s another thing.
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