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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 6)

An idea about the Locket.

AD puts the Locket he takes in the Cave inside his cloath.. not really an easy place for this Locket to fall out on the ground where Harry finds the fake locket.

What if there was 2 Lockets (one Slitheryn's and another one from the cave and still in AD's cloath). The fake locket would just have been in AD's pocket from a former expedition after horcruxes.

Posted by Fran from S�o Paulo, Brasil on October 19, 2006 10:51 AM

Its a good theory Fran, but why would DD do that?

Posted by Aditi Dani from Nagpur, India on October 19, 2006 1:07 PM

Fran's idea sounds a bit too complicated. I think the locket in the cave is a fake one that RB placed there when he took the real one.

I remember there was a question from Harry in HBP (I think)n where he asks if Voldemort knows when a horcrux is destroyed and, while I can't quote the exact phrase, I 'think' that Dumbledore said he might not, so he might not realise the Cave Hocrux has been removed. Which means Harry have to find it - and as some suspect it is in Grimauld Place he won't have to look far. Kreacher, as has been mentioned before, was hoarding Black treasures already.

Posted by Marjorie from New Zealand� on October 20, 2006 12:47 AM

Marie! I'm glad I'm not the only one who missed reading about the Hogs Head Barman being Dumbledore's brother, I couldn't find anything. I was a bit worried for a while - thanks!

Posted by Marjorie from New Zealand on October 20, 2006 12:50 AM

i disagree with all people who believe that the locket is either in grimauld place or with kreacher. i personally believe that the locket has been stolen by mundungus.

Posted by shikkhar from new delhi on October 20, 2006 07:43 AM

Quick question... How do we know about Aberforth being the barman of Hog's Head? Its definitely not in the books. Did JK say so in one of her interviews?

Posted by Aditi from Nagpur, India on October 20, 2006 08:21 AM

Being Dutch, I should actually have read the Dutch Harry Potter-books. Should have, because I prefer the British-version for the more beautiful names (Dumbledore is simply translated as Perkamentus, jugh!)and the eloquent and even more magnificant sentences and therefore have read Harry Potter in English. This mental deviation produces some amusing side-effects.

Being English speaking, reading and talking people, you are dependent on dubious guessing when you find a riddle poured into a name, such R.A.B. is. Being Dutch, like I am, you can always check the translation! And woo, what do we find there? R.A.B. is translated into R.A.Z.. Logically reasoned the abbreviation 'R.A.B.' stands for Regulius Black, or what's his first name again. Logically for Black is called Zwarts (the colour black is translated into Dutch as 'zwart', so the next time you're in Holland you have some knowledge of the Dutch vocabulary). More logical when I explain that Regulius is called Regulius here and the 'A' stands for your gossip-'A' as well.

Thus, all this means that R.A.B. is indeed the nephew, or is he a cousin, I really don't for sure, of Sirius.

Posted by Nick Batenburg from Rotterdam, The Netherlands on October 20, 2006 4:01 PM

Nick, I can just about read the Dutch version of PoA and agree that sometimes the name translations in HP are a bit 'different' but somtetimes fun too, I sometimes wondered why the translations are as they are. The translation is something I suppose JKR cannot guard against so Regulus's background is out in the open!

I always thought that the family tree was a pointer of some kind but, how much, has taken until the end of HBP to materialise. I think Sirius did not know how deeply involved with the Eaters Regulus was (he is dismissive of him being quite lowly in the pecking order - and maintains his contempt of Regulus who was toeing the family line).

There must, however, be some link between the Order and Regulus; as how else, as some maintain, does Mundungus have the locket - if he actually does. Dumbledore seemed determined to keep Mundungus and his slippery ways on the Order's side. Then how did Aberforth get the 'real' locket in the first place, from whom? Mundungus - if he stole it - would have taken it from Grimauld Place - (possibly) from Kreacher, who might by then have absented himself to serve Bellatrix.

Posted by Marjorie from New Zealand on October 21, 2006 9:34 PM

Against all odds a girl from New-Zealand is capable of reading a book that is entirly written in Dutch! Why is it that you're that girl? Anxious to know...

I completly agree with you saying that some of the names are funny findings. Well, not the personal names but the other words Rowling has invented such as 'gruzielement' which is the translation for 'horcrux'. J.K. is a brilliant 'woordenaar', but that goes without saying. ('woordenaar' is a Dutch word that I invented, so when you cannot decipher it: don't worry.)

However, I don't agree on the fact that Regulus is linked to the Order. I believe he was a Eater or, at least, close to the Dark Lord. Hence my believings Regulus would have known about the horcruxes (is it horcruxes or horcrii or horcri?) and therefore would have been able to intervene. He could have possibly made up his mind as he saw Voldemort, oeps: Hij Die Niet Genoemd Mag Worden (yes, that is the translation, jugh), ing most of the wizardcommunity. Or, when you are right, he was pulling a Snape and was spying for the Order and, perhaps, Dumbledore, which I extremely doubt. Either way, he was able to destroy the Locker-horcrux, perhaps with some help of Kreacher, and our Dark Lord would have find out he was being framed by his own Eater one moment or the next. And when he does, he would this Eater as revenge for the deception. And since we already know that Regulus was indeed ed by Voldemort himself my, uh..., the theory of most of the Beyond Hogwarts-visitors is possible and perhaps even the one that is true and being used by Rowling. But I as well agree that this is too obvious, as the name is Translated into the surname of Sirius. But even Rowling is only human and therefore capable of making mistakes with not informing the people that translate the HP-Books.

Nevertheless, you have made your point clear and I'm still in inner-fury with the fact that, especially, the names of the Hogwarts-teachers are translated as they are ('Professor Anderling', why?!).

Posted by Nick Batenburg from Rotterdam, The Netherlands on October 22, 2006 10:49 AM

Jo says the plural is horcruxes. If you go to her site she mentions over on the links page in the one book on the bottom row that doesn't react when you roll over it that we haven't learned the symbolic meaning of the number 7 yet. I'm trying to link the number 7 with Shakespeare 7 ages that a person must play before shuffling off this all too mortal coil in his "As You Like It"

And one man in his time plays many parts,
His acts being seven ages. At first the infant,
Mewling and puking in the nurse's arms;
Then the whining school-boy, with his satchel
And shining morning face, creeping like snail
Uningly to school. And then the lover,
Sighing like furnace, with a woeful ballad
Made to his mistress' eyebrow. Then a solr,
Full of strange oaths, and bearded like the pard,
Jealous in honour, sudden and quick in quarrel,
Seeking the bubble reputation
Even in the cannon's mouth. And then the justice,
In fair round belly with good capon lin'd,
With eyes severe and beard of formal cut,
Full of wise saws and modern instances;
And so he plays his part. The sixth age shifts
Into the lean and slipper'd pantaloon,
With spectacles on nose and pouch on side;
His youthful hose, well sav'd, a world too wide
For his shrunk shank; and his big manly voice,
Turning again toward childish treble, pipes
And whistles in his sound. Last scene of all,
That ends this strange eventful history,
Is second childishness and mere oblivion;
Sans teeth, sans eyes, sans taste, sans everything." � Jaques (As You Like It, Act II, Scene VII, lines 139-166)

Perhaps you get one Horcrux per scene. Work in progress

Posted by ken from la ca usa ea(rth) on October 22, 2006 7:24 PM

"either must at the hand of the other for neither can live while the other survives."

Sounds greatly like Harry is a Horcrux to me!

Posted by ken from la ca usa ea(rth) on October 22, 2006 7:30 PM

I have a kind of crazy theory about the locket, and the note from RAB, which I'll share.

I really think DD is alive, but I won't try to argue that here. I have a theory about how Regulus dissapeared, and in what current state he is in. Firstly, I am assuming RAB stands for regulus A. Black. The A, as explained in the article, could stand for a few names of relatives, etc.

We know that Regulus was a eater, and then we know that he wanted out... Getting out of the eater group is not easy, and he was supposudly hunted down and ed by a henchman of LV. Now, I believe Regulus had this all planned out. He had a few friends, we can assume, who would help him out in times of trouble. Regulus knew he would have difficulty getting away from the eaters, so he decided to enlist a friend to give him the draught of living , which would make it seem he was ... The idea is, when LV is ed (thanks in part to Regulus' destruction of the locket horcrux, or at least to he capture of the horcrux), that then Regulus be brought back from the "".

This theory sounds silly, but I think it fits perfectly. Since I think DD is alive, I believe that finding Regulus not quite either shed important light on Snape and DD's plan. This won't bring DD back into the main story, but it help Harry to see the truth. I think Regulus is alive, and I think Harry find out this when he searches for RAB. My theory isn't perfect, and I am sure someone out there find a few flaws, but it is good enough for a discussion.

Posted by Brett J. from Boulder, CO on October 23, 2006 12:23 AM

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