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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?

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Reader Comments: (Page 43)

Dante;

Harry's scar didn't hurt when he found Tom's diary in the bathroom in COS, and we know that was a horcrux. He even went "inside" it and his scar didn't hurt, so I don't think he can use his scar as a Voldemort horcrux finder.

Posted by Dave Porter from New Mexico on April 30, 2007 7:52 PM

Dante - I have to agree with Dave Porter on this one. While a scar horcrux finder would be helpful to Harry, it's not probable. In addition to there being no evidence thus far, it's also been done before. (My Voldy sense is tingling!) Once again, an idea that would work in story other than this one.

It seems to be evident that Aberforth is much more valuable to the Order than we have been led to believe. If he is indeed the Hog's Head barman, he has been passing on very important information about Voldemort since even before he gained power. Even if he didn't know about the horcruxes, he I think he would have recognized Slytherin's mark on the locket if it happened to fall into his possession (via Mundungus or otherwise), and thus notified or even given it to Albus. I agree that the meeting in the street is important, but I'm not convinced (yet) that it was the passing of the locket.

Posted by monkeeshrines from orlando fl on May 1, 2007 07:01 AM

But if Aberforth really did give it to Albus then why would he search for it? And take it into account as one of the horcruxes that have yet to be found?

It could also be that Aberforth recognised some of the stuff that Mundungus stole and thought they were imp and was trying to stall him and persuade him to sell him some of the things.

And if he really has the locket then he would probably send it or give it to Harry knowing that it is important.
And since he is (i think) in the inner circle of the order he may have some idea about the horcruxes and could provide information or come in use in Harry's search of the horcruxes. Maybe Albus left Aberforth with some idea about what he was doing, so in the event of his he would be able to guide Harry.

Posted by Divi from Dubai,U.A.E on May 1, 2007 10:02 AM

Oh, I totally forgot about the diary! You're absolutely right! Oh well, there goes THAT theory!

Posted by Dante on May 1, 2007 1:27 PM

Wait a minute, though! THAT Riddle was from the PAST! Doesnt Harry's scar only hurt when confronted by the PRESENT Dark Lord? Or when the PRESENT Dark Lord is felling angry? Unless I misread or overlooked COS, Harry's scar didnt hurt AT ALL when he was fighting Riddle down in the Chamber of Secrets! Not to mention that the diary was ALSO made a Horcrux long before Riddle ed Harry's parents! It was one of Riddle's FIRST ATTEMPTS at a Horcrux! And doesnt Harry's scar hurt only when he's near the PRESENT Dark Lord? Since there hasnt been an instance yet where Harry has been near a horcrux that was made AFTER the Dark Lord ed his parents, we cant rule out the possibility that it can be used as a sort of radar! The only reason Harry's scar hurts at all is because the Dark Lord heard (part of) the prophesy
and marked Harry as his equal, which set the prophesy fulfillment into motion, but when the diary was made into a Horcrux, the prophesy hadnt even been MADE yet, and it wasnt made to target Harry either!

Posted by Dante on May 1, 2007 1:59 PM

If RAB is indeed Regulus Black, he d (was ed by Voldemort or one of his eaters) around the time Harry was born (when Harry and Sirius are talking about the Black family tree at the beginning of OotP Harry is just 15 and Regulus' date of was "some fifteen years earlier") probably days after stealing the horcurx. This was after the prophecy had been made and also around the time Wormtail went over to Voldemort and became his spy (Sirius says in PoA when they confront Wormtail in the Shrieking Shack that wormtail had been passing secrets to Voldemort for a year before James and Lily were ed and they d when harry was 15 months old). It would also be around this time that Snape went over to Dumbledore...we don't know precisely when this was, but it was after the prophecy and before Voldemort's fall. Snape started at Hogwarts as Potions master just before James and Lily were ed which means Slughorn must have left Hogwarts before then. Why did Slughorn leave? Did Snape replace Slughorn as potions master?

Slughorn told Riddle about horcruxes so he (Slughorn) knew about them. Regulus and Snape were both in Slytherin at the time Slughorn was head of Slytherin and potions master. Lily was Slughorn's favourite student and she was good at potions. Potions feature in the cave. Slughorn was very worried about Voldemort finding him (he goes into hiding as soon as Voldemort returns at the end of GoF - he's been in hiding for a year when Harry and Dumbledore visit him at the start of HBP). Did Slughorn somehow help Regulus to steal the horcrux? or at least know or suspect something about it?

I just have a feeling that Regulus stealing the horcrux, Wormtail's defection to Voldemort and Snape going over to Dumbledore happened around the same time and are somehow connected. I think the clue is in what Dumbledore says in the cave, but I can't figure out whose memory this is.

The wording of the note left in the locket is also puzzling. Why does RAB say "I KNOW I be LONG before you read this..." it suggests that he somehow knew Voldemort would not find out he had taken the locket for a long time. How?

"but I want you to know it was I who discovered your secret" Did Voldemort think it was someone else at the time or did he think it beyond Regulus' capabilities? Could this be age underestimating youth?

"I have stolen the real horcrux and intend to destroy it AS SOON AS I CAN" seems strange to say as soon as I can, why not leave it as "intend to destroy it"?

"I FACE in the hope that WHEN you meet your match, you be mortal once more" This suggests to me that he actively goes to his i.e. sacrifices himself ingly. He's not afraid of . It also seems to me to imply that he knew about the prophecy because he says WHEN you meet your match not IF you meet your match. (Is this why it it "The NOBLE house of Black"?)

Finally...could Regulus have used the Fidelius Charm to hide the locket. In PoA when Flitwick is explaining about the Fidelius charm in relation to the Potters he says "as long as the secret-keeper refused to speak, you-know-who could search the village.....for years and years and never find them, not even if he had his nose against their sitting room window". Is this why no-one recognised the locket as Slytherin's when they saw it in 12 Grimmauld Place? If there is a fidelius charm on the locket, then who is the secret keeper?

Posted by Joe from England on May 2, 2007 05:05 AM

My point exactly, Divi. Aberforth would have given the locket to Albus, and Albus would not have counted it among those horcruxes yet to find, if he had it. I do not believe Aberforth has or has ever had the locket.

Dante - I see where you're going, but if that's the case, then Harry's scar wouldn't work as a horcrux radar too much anyway since all except possibly one horcrux was made before Voldemort went after Harry. I think the connection between Harry and Vodemort is more of a mental one than a spiritual one (if you get my meaning).

Posted by Monkeeshrines from Orlando FL on May 2, 2007 06:57 AM

Dante,

Harry's Scar hurts whenever Voldemort is feeling a particularly strong emmotion. A Diary, a Locket, a Ring, these are thing that are not ordinarily capable of having emotions, not even in the magical world, so it is not logical to think that the scar would bother him when a Horcrux is close, specially as we now know that Harry could feel Voldemorts mood swings at great distances. Of course, now that Voldy has realized that Harry can do this, The Dark Lord is using Oclumency against Harry to prevent any unwanted intrusions into his mind or feelings.

There can still be some use to Harry's scar regarding the Horcruxes, but it eludes me at the moment.

Posted by Emilio from Mexico City, Mexico on May 2, 2007 09:58 AM

But the diary, locket, and ring were no ordinary objects. Sure the OBJECT wouldnt have emotions, but the bit of Voldemorts soul INSIDE the object most certainly be able to have emotions. Of course, when you say Voldy is using occlumency, that means that the bit of soul in his BODY is protected against Harry, but since he cant feel it when his Horcruxes are destroyed(Dumbledore says this during one of Harry's lessons, and, again, only, a deduction, but DUMBLEDORES deduction, much more than a wild guess) Im guessing he cant employ occlumency to work on his other Horcruxes.

Also about when the Horcrxes were made, Monkeeshrines, you totally got me on that one! It is absolutely true that maybe one was made after the Dark Lord went after Harry, so I guess it wouldnt help much, would it? Oh well, another theory down the drain...

Posted by Dante on May 2, 2007 5:28 PM

Joe, that's a very interesting post. The Fidelius Charm could certainly hide the locket completely, whether or not it could simply "encourage" people not to see it properly, I don't know. But we do know that Muggles can be fooled into seeing Hogwarts as a crumbling ruin, and not really seeing the Leaky Cauldron. Maybe something like that has been done to the locket, a disguise charm. It doesn't sound as though Regulus had much time to dream up anything fancy, and sometimes the best place to hide something is right out in public where everyone can overlook it. If Regulus was surprised by the Eaters the last thing he'd want would be to be caught with the horcrux. If he used Kreacher to drink the potion hiding the horcrux, then he might well have ordered Kreacher to take the horcrux back to Grimmauld Place, where no one ever really looked at it properly.

I think Regulus knew he hadn't got a chance of evading the Eaters which is why he assumed he was going to . I think he left Voldemort after the prophecy was made. Perhaps this is what gave him the courage to try and find the horcrux, a hope that someone, one day would have a chance to destroy Voldemort, and he wanted to do his bit. It sounds as though he didn't realise there might be more than one. As for "as soon as I can" I suspect Regulus knew enough about Voldemort to know that destroying the horcrux was going to be difficult. I still think he had Kreacher with him and that Kreacher took the locket back to Grimmauld Place. If there is Fidelius Charm involved then possibly Kreacher is the Secret Keeper? Risky though. He might end up telling Bellatrix, or Narcissa if one of them came to own him.

Do we know WHERE Regulus d? I don't think we do. I'm assuming he didn't at Grimmauld Place - if he did I'd be wondering if attempting to destroy the horcrux ed him.

Posted by Elizabeth from Australia on May 3, 2007 03:44 AM

I can totally see where youre going with the Regulus theory, Joe From England, but it just doesnt seem RIGHT, you know? I mean, he was a Eater, for one, so he must have been very into the Dark Arts and very loyal to the Dark Lord, so even IF he found out about the Horcruxes, wouldnt he be praising Voldy for doing such Dark Magic? Why would he destroy one? Wouldnt he want to make his own seven Horcruxes? Its not as though he was upset that Voldy made or planned to make seven Horcruxes... Regulus would have seen it as just seven people . I say this because, again, he was a DEATH EATER, so and ing probably came naturally to him...

Also, I have a new theory as to who R.A.B. is, though only with a small shred of evidence, which, to me, is enough. I think that R.A.B. may be that Uncle that left Sirius money when he got a place of his own after running away and living with the potters. For one, Sirius states "My Uncle Alphard HAD LEFT me a bit of gold" which implies that he was and his said to give him "a decent bit of gold". Also, his name is Alphard, which may be a middle name or a nickname. And lastly, he was wiped off of the tapestry, which means the Blacks were angry at him for some reason.

Now why would this be? It cant be just beacuse of the gold, if it was in his WILL, unless he KNEW Sirius was going to run away, so it must be he had a disagreement of sorts with the Blacks, to drive them to wipe him off the tapestry. Maybe over the "whole pureblood thing"? Or the belief that "to be a Black practically made you royalty"? If he disagreed with that, then he must have disliked the Dark Lords creed greatly, as they are very similar, which means he would have seized any chance to destroy a Horcrux that he had. Of course, this theory relies heavily on whether he knew of Voldys Horcruxes, or whether he knew what a Horcruxe was AT ALL, and I think this is very possible, as its the BLACKS we're talking about, who were very into the Dark Arts. At least ONE of them must have known what a Horcrux was, but again, I may be entirely wrong, as this is just speculation, and whether he knew that Voldy had Horcruxes is still a mystery, one which may never be solved, but I belive that it was either him or the BLOODY BARON.

Posted by Dante on May 3, 2007 07:44 AM

Joe,
I like all your points about Regulus. I, too, think there is something more to Slughorn's involvement. Maybe he is the secret keeper you mentioned, which is why he went into hiding. Another possibility is Kreacher. He is the only known connection between Regulus and Harry.

Posted by Patty from Quincy,Massachusetts on May 3, 2007 08:50 AM

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