Who is R.A.B. and where is Slytherin's Locket?
 by David Haber
 In the dramatic climax of Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, Dumbledore and Harry recover a locket from Voldemort's secret cave. Only after Dumbledore "dies" does Harry open the locket and find the note from R.A.B. But who is R.A.B., and where is the locket now?
 > Read the full articlePages: << < 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 ... > >> Reader Comments: (Page 3) Alot of people go by their middle names. There could be other characters that go by their middle or last name. Maybe they could be RAB.;) Posted by Brandi from Provo, Utah on October 9, 2006 3:54 PM
Does anyone else think that Regulus (yes, R.A.B. I think too) could possibly be alive and in hiding? I feel very strongly that DD is hiding someone. His attempt to convert Malfoy on the tower convinced me that someone, maybe several people, have been made to appear but are not. "He cannot you if you are already . Come over to the right side, Draco, and we can hide you more completely than you can possibly imagine. What is more, I can send members of the Order to your mother tonight to hide her likewise. Nobody would be surprised......." pgs 591 & 592 HBP american hard cover Posted by tracy on October 9, 2006 5:10 PM
OOooo...hmmmm. but if Regulus is alive that would have made Harry's inheritance of Grimauld Place & Kreacher kind of an impossibility wouldn't it? Posted by tracy on October 9, 2006 7:00 PM
Interesting theory and proof to the hiding of Regulus; however, I thought he might be alluding to himself in that passage. I have held a theory of my own for quite some time that Albus and Aberforth changed places temporarily and that Albus's was staged. Based on the previous quoted passage, ""He cannot you if you are already . Come over to the right side, Draco, and we can hide you more completely than you can possibly imagine. What is more, I can send members of the Order to your mother tonight to hide her likewise. Nobody would be surprised......." pgs 591 & 592 HBP american hard cover
Just my 2 cents worth. And Regulus hid the locket in the one place he knew Voldemort could never find it, Grimmauld Pl. Why? Because if you recall, Grimmauld Pl, was unplottable, and only those given the address by the secret keeper would be able to find it. Posted by Christine from Fairfax, VA on October 9, 2006 8:58 PM
Memory tells me Phineas (Exheadmaster) portrait stated that Black had been the LAST living member of the Black in OOtP. I'll have to double check. If this is so, then RAB is . Posted by John from Riverside, CA on October 9, 2006 9:46 PM
But isn't a little obvious that RAB is Regulus Black what with all the different initials in different languages? What are the names of Bloody Baron in these languages? Posted by Aditi Dani from Nagpur, India on October 9, 2006 11:07 PM
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I'm as convinced as I can be that RAB is Regulus - at least till I see it in writing in book 7. I like how it's changed in the different languages - that's tricky for story-tellers to plan around. In what language does "Vadar" mean "father"? I forget, but I know that must have been a big clue for them in the first few hours of the Star Wars movies.... Back to Harry Potter, I have the Chinese translations of books 1-4, but unfortunately not 5 or 6 yet. I can't wait to see how they manage initials in a language that doesn't use letters! Just the first half of a character or something?:) And of course here family names come first, so it'd be the Chinese equivalent of B.R.A.. I'll have to ask a Chinese Harry Potter fan how it's written....
No, the cup Dumbledore used was not a horcrux, he just conjured it out of thin air, it wasn't part of the cavern's enchantments as far as I recall. And anyway, you don't give someone trying to get to your horcrux another one to help them along, then they have two instead of none!
The idea that Regulus used Krecher is a good one, though there's another way around it - perhaps he drank it all himself and had just enough sanity left to exchange the locket, then was gotten by the infiri and became one of them (or was ed by them, anyway)... probably not, but hey, it's possible. The locket would be in the water, then. ...And does the liquid replenish itself after something else is put in the basin? If not, could Regulus have had to fill it himself and chosen the nasty liquid in the hopes that Voldemort would be the one to drink it? Perhaps it was originally just pumpkin juice and he did manage it alone and get out alive....
One thing that jumped out at me with the theory that "R.A.B." might mean "R. and B." - no, I don't agree, but what if it's the way initials are put on some monogrammed stuff, with the family name in the middle? As in, the name's really "R___ B____ A_____"! Probably not, it was a signature not a monogram, but hey, it's possible. Quick, who do we know with "A" last names?
When was Regulus ed? I like the idea of "kidnap Sirius" being the order he disobeyed, but I'd have guessed he snuffed it earlier, and it not in connection with that last big to-do in which the Potters and LV bought the farm; otherwise Sirius might have guessed or gotten wind of why he was ed and spoken of him a little more kindly or at least grudgingly-thankfully.
Could he be not-really-? Well, yes, there may be ways to make you so magically hidden and apparently- in the "eyes" of whatever magical forces measure such stuff that the could then pass 12 GP and Krecher on to Harry. Dumbledore may have been testing that very bit of spellwork when he asked Harry to give the house-elf a command. But if he'd hidden Regulus, he'd have known about the locket (and that LV had at least one horcrux) since before book one.
How strange if Harry meets Regulus and gets to know Aberforth in the last book... hopefully he doesn't fall into the same falacy that Snape and Sirius do with him, of mixing them up with relatives and trusting them as much as he did their brothers. (Well, in Snape's case it's hate and in Sirius' it was expecting recklessness from Harry, but you get the idea.) We don't know how trustworthy either is. Yet. Posted by MissJubilee from Henan, China (but from America!) on October 9, 2006 11:40 PM
DD might have known and probably still does know who R.A.B. is so why not just ask him? you know how DD's was really surprising to all of us? well... i think that he really is but he's still alive... i mean isn't it true that all the portraits of previous headmasters and headmistresses that reside in DD office can talk to us? well if DD was able to talk to them why can't Harry or anyone else for that matter talk to DD in his portrait? you know what i mean... so if Harry ever needs DD's opinion on who he thinks R.A.B. is, then he could just ask him right? it's not like the portraits can't think remember... Posted by Alyssa from Los Angelas on October 10, 2006 12:45 PM
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Marjorie from New Zealand --- an explaination of sorts
My research into Basilisks gave me the name Regulus (the King) as one of its names for a Basilisk from at least the Middle Ages on. It was a Basilisk that was slain by Harry Potter in the Chamber of Secrets. I in NO way suggested that it was really Sirius' brother but since a Basilisk only lives 500 years or so, it also couldn't be Salazar Slythern's pet Basilisk, who I've nicknamed Starey since it always seems to win staring contests with the unwary. It could well be Sirius under some form of a "change other's shape" spell or just an animagus experience gone very wrong.
It was a trick trivia question like my "Why would Hagrad switch from growing giant pumpkins to growing very large rutabagas in book 7?" The original Jack O'Lanterns were made from hollowed out rutabagas and turnips long before America was re-discovered (Hi Leif) and Pumpkins could be used to scare off Goblins. Also Oddment is the wastebasket, catchall genus of a batch of formerly unclassified plants one of which is the Water Lilly. Any relation? The more specific classification of the Water Lilly proved to be Nymphadorae. I have a quizful of these! Posted by Ken Rowand from LA CA USA EA(rth) on October 10, 2006 8:36 PM
Ah HA! An explanation I can understand - thank you!
I wonder though, as the diary was a horcrux and piercing it ed a ''Tom Riddle', whether the magic had limited life therafter, and that the basilisk was the orignal that while alive and powerul - might have d subsequently after a period of time? Although I get that wrong a lot (much to my NYC friend's dispair). Posted by Marjorie from New Zealand on October 11, 2006 01:12 AM
Just a quick note on Aberforth...He (or at least the barman from the Hog's Head) was at Dumbledore's . Posted by Gloria from Arkansas on October 11, 2006 04:39 AM
Even I got to know that R.A.B. could be Regulus Black. One of my friends told me. But after reading about Kreacher, I'm confused again. Posted by Poojitha from Dubai, U.A.E on October 11, 2006 08:00 AM
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