Why didn't Voldemort hide his Horcruxes using Fidelius Charm?

Question

I have seen many discussions here about locations where Voldemort hid his Horcruxes. The fans settle down with this: Voldemort chose those locations where he himself could easily reach.

Why didn't Voldemort just vanish his Horcruxes using Fidelius Charm and became Secret Keeper himself? This way only and only he could reach it (making him 100% immortal). And, there's no flaw to it.

Answer 1

To simply put, "because Voldemort likes grandeur", as stated by Dumbledore to Harry
The same reason he wouldn't make his horcruxes ordinary objects that would blend into the environment and would be practically impossible to detect, such as empty potion bottles or grains of sand on the beach

A cave full of inferi and a bunch of dark magic protecting the locket, with the locket being buried deep in a potion that can only be drunk through a magical flask, inside a cave which symbolised one of the first instances of him showing his magical superiority over muggles seems much grander than just hiding it using a spell that makes it undetectable to anyone else. Furthermore, even if he did use the Fidelius Charm, it might be possible for someone like Dumbledore to detect where Voldemort hid it, even if he couldn't actually find it. In the last book while Harry, Ron and Hermione are on the run, Voldemort's followers know where the House of Black was, even if they could not go in themselves to catch him.

Similarly we can understand why he would choose the other hiding places for his horcruxes. Let's go through them one by one:

1. Ravenclaw's diadem at Hogwarts Castle: It can't get any grander than that.
2. Hufflepuff's cup at Gringotts : We don't know for sure whether he chose Gringotts for the cup, but he entrusted it to Bellatrix so we can assume that he knew she would chose a location worthy of such a valuable object. Or he might have just told her to keep it in a nice safe place, and Gringotts might be the nicest safest place she could think of, which also holds her family's fortunes gathered through generations (why she didn't hide it using the Fidelius Charm is anybody's guess, but then again, she probably did not know how valuable an item it was, just like Malfoy didn't. She just knew Voldemort told her to keep it in a safe place, and she did)
3. The diary : Similar to Hufflepuff's cup he had entrusted the diary to one of his most loyal followers. Too bad Malfoy tried to use it for his own gain once he thought Voldemort had gone forever, but that's not Voldemort's fault.
4. Peverrel Ring in the Gaunt House: This one does not hold much grandeur I admit, but it was important to Voldemort, kind of like the diary was. The diary was not a historical object, yet Voldemort used it as one of his horcruxes because of it's personal value to him. In a similar way, he used the Gaunt House to hold the ring because the place had a personal value for him. It was the house of his ancestors, a pureblood line descended from Slytherin.

The remaining parts of his soul are in the snake, Harry and Voldemort himself, but I think it is obvious why they aren't hidden in grand locations.

Answer 2

Since Harry can see into Voldemort's mind (and indeed does see the Horcrux locations when V is checking up on them) , "no flaw to it" doesn't seem accurate. I'm pretty sure the Fidelius charm wouldn't stop Harry, since he's got a part of the Secret Keeper within him.

Now, he might not be aware of this as a flaw, but he's not even aware that anybody knows about his Horcruxes; he sees them as fool-proof already. Voldemort being arrogant and unaware of his own flaws is a constant theme in the series. Putting a Fidelius Charm on his toys goes counter to that.

Answer 3

Sorry but i'm going to commit necromancy on this post because there is a very good reason nobody has mentioned

"an immensely complex spell ... involving the magical concealment of a secret inside a 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." (PoA pg 205/152)

The key word here is 'a' as in singular from a language point of view. If he split his soul then every piece combined is the keeper so his main body would also have to be inside the charm to (and all the other pieces), he would have to be inside the charm himself with all the other pieces to work.

He cant carry out his mission by hiding inside the charm, the wording means that all the pieces are secret keepers combined so if even a single piece dies the spell is broken - you cant have a full cake with even 1% missing.

If the secret keeper dies the charm still remains intact if he hasn't told anyone, but the whole soul is needed for the charm to work, if one part dies he is both alive and dead at the same time and so the soul is no longer complete - which means the charm has to break (not be lost forever).

The spell is dependent on a complete soul that is either alive or dead, not in limbo with UK English the word 'a' changes everything. Its singular so no part could die without breaking it, it can only be hidden forever if all the pieces die (which defeats the point) or if ALL the pieces remain alive

This may not be what JK intended but she is usually good with the wording (her math may be bad, and she created some plot holes but her wording has always been literal and exact)

A spell can either work or fail but it never semi works, the closest we get is the cruciatus curse on Bellatrix, even that was due to him not really wanting to hurt her, the spell worked it just didn't have much strength as he didn't want to. The volume was dialed down but it did work