Snape, DD, and Book 7

[Matt]

No: HPFGUIDX 137337

--- Dave wrote:
> I am a new poster to this board, but have been enjoying 
> all of your posts for some time now.  I just thought I'd 
> throw my 2 cents into the void on some issues.
> 
<snip>
>
> I was surprised about the RAB thing.  I thought that was 
> a strange and rather large twist to throw in this late 
> in the game.  If it took the greatest wizard ever and 
> "the chosen one" to get the locket, and they almost died 
> doing it, how did some random DE get in, grab the locket 
> and leave a clever note?  He must be incredibly powerful.  

You make a number of fine points, Dave.  Having thought about it too,
I thought I'd jump in with a possible solution to this one
inconsistency you point up.  

I think it is not necessarily so surprising that a rabdom Death Eater
(sorry, had to) could have pinched the locket more easily than
Dumbledore.  Although Dumbledore has strengths Voldemort did not
anticipate (lack of squeamishness over the blood sacrifice and the
Inferi), he also has a weakness: unlike Voldemort -- and perhaps
unlike RAB -- he is unwilling to use others as means to his end.  (OK,
I'm reading a morality into Dumbledore here, and I know there are
those who would paint him as Machiavellian, but I think this view is
closer to Rowling's mark.)  

If we assume that RAB, like Dumbledore, came to the cave with an
accomplice, the most difficult part of the mission (getting rid of the
potion and still having the wherewithal to nab the locket) becomes
much easier.  If he (I will adopt the male pronoun on the popular
speculation that RAB is Regulus Black) did not care much about his
accomplice's fate, he may not even have disturbed the Inferi by
dipping into the lake for water.  If, moreover, we imagine that as a
Death Eater RAB had some inside information about the cave and its
protections, if not about exactly what was stored there, it becomes
much easier to see him making it through.  

-- Matt