“Good afternoon, Harry,” said Dumbledore.
Harry stared at him.
Then he remembered: “Sir! The Stone! It was Quirrell! He’s got the
Stone! Sir, quick —”
“Calm yourself, dear boy, you are a little
behind the times,” said Dumbledore. “Quirrell does not have the
Stone.”
“Then who does? Sir, I —”
“Harry, please relax, or
Madam Pomfrey will have me thrown out.”
Harry swallowed and
looked around him. He realized he must be in the hospital wing. He was
lying in a bed with white linen sheets, and next to him was a table
piled high with what looked like half the candy shop.
“Tokens
from your friends and admirers,” said Dumbledore, beaming. “What
happened down in the dungeons between you and Professor Quirrell is
a complete secret, so, naturally, the whole school knows. I believe your friends Misters Fred and George Weasley were responsible
for trying to send you a toilet seat. No doubt they thought it would
amuse you. Madam Pomfrey, however, felt it might not be very hygienic,
and confiscated it.”
(Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone)
In the context, ‘a complete secret’ seems to mean ‘an incident already well-known’. But I don’t find any explanation in dictionaries. What does it mean?
Best Answer
The sentence represents a bit of irony on Professor Dumbledore's part. By “[it is] a complete secret” he means that what happened is, officially, entirely a secret. “So, naturally, the whole school knows” suggests that at Hogwarts the deepest secrets are soonest known, because so many are interested both in hearing and telling them.