Have I just transfigured out the Horcrux!Locket?

[saraquel_omphale]

No: HPFGUIDX 137880

Saraquel in answer to Jen and mz_annethrope:

Thanks for your responses and I must admit that your arguments dig 
straight to the heart of the matter.  Being out of character in such 
a character driven plot would be a fatal flaw.  But, climbing down 
from the fence, I think that this theory deserves further 
consideration, and so I will set out a humble, but considered 
riposte.  I by no means anticipate it to be watertight, or even 
markedly convincing, but I will do my best. For, let's face it, what 
alternatives do we have? As mz_annethrope commented at the end of 
her post:

>mz_annethrope, who is still hoping somebody can figure out how
>R.A.B. could have swilled all that potion under his own volition to
>get the locket when Dumbledore couldn't (assuming it's Voldemort's
>potion and it refills itself).

And that to me is not the greatest problem we have if we are 
thinking RAB is Regulus Black and the note is for real.  Some have 
suggested Kreacher helped him, yes IMO a good case can be made, but 
is it a refilling potion? If not, where did the ingredients to make 
the potion that is currently in there come from? What was Regulus 
Black's intention, if it was somehow his potion, what did he want 
the drinker to experience? Etc etc, we are all familiar with the 
problems. However, I will *willingly* renounce this little theory, 
the moment someone comes up with a credible explanation of how 
Regulus Black found out about the cave in the first place – never 
mind the complexities of the defences around the Locket. How did he 
find the cave???  

So, rolling up my sleeves, where shall we start.

Jen wrote:
>and that RAB refers to `really any-body"

Saraquel:
OK, this is an easy starting point.  I did not really mean to say 
that Voldemort meant `really any-body' when he wrote RAB. I just 
needed to put something in there to get the theory off the ground 
and that was the first thing that came to mind.  That the letters 
RAB, are an acronym rather than someone's initials, occurred to me 
really early on, and I think, that in the context of this theory, an 
acronym would be more appropriate.  However, you're right, to date I 
can think of nothing that they could stand for.  Although, as has 
been pointed out on the list, many times, if we are talking about 
Regulus, what does the A stand for.  So this is a problem for both 
sides of the camp.

Jen wrote:
>Dumbledore: "There he showed his contempt for anything that tied 
>him to other people, anything that made him ordinary.  Even then he 
>wished to be different, separate, notorious." (chap. 13, p 277, 
>US). I *think*, that to Voldemort, a hoax would be a very common 
>thing to do.

>Mz_annethrope wrote:
>"He'd never make fun of himself by faking a fake horcrux.  You've 
>got to understand dark wizard psychology, little bro."

Saraquel:
In my mind this isn't a *hoax* or a *fake – fake*.  It is the Real 
Horcrux!Locket that is lying in the basin underneath the potion DD 
drinks. To me a hoax would be if Voldemort had set up the whole 
scenario as if it was a Horcrux but then placed an ordinary locket 
in the basin – HAHA gotcha.  No, it is a transfigured Horcrux that 
is in the basin.  It is something which appears to be one thing, but 
is actually another. 

Now isn't this Voldemort's speciality. To seem the perfect 
student/employee yet underneath to be plotting to take over the 
world. We don't know (unless I've missed something) exactly when he 
made this Horcrux – whether you can make the Horcrux after the 
murder is not in canon – but if he made it at the period of his life 
when he was working at Borgin and Burkes, then I think it might have 
appealed to him that the locket looked ordinary, but had something 
special `concealed' within it. 

What does Harry do when he sees the locket and the note, he 
immediately assumes it is worthless.  Can you not see Voldemort's 
contempt, that Harry sees only what is on the outside, and does not 
penetrate beyond it.  Just like the people around Voldemort at the 
time who took him to be so charming and so helpful, and could not 
see, to him, the Real, Powerful Voldemort underneath, they were 
beneath his contempt.

The diary is also very ordinary looking.  The importance to 
Voldemort is not in what it looks like, but in its significance.  If 
he was concerned about looks, then - Mirror, mirror on the wall, who 
is the fairest 
 – I rest my case about looking good.

Jen wrote:
>The note itself "I face death in the hope that when you meet your 
>match, you will be mortal once more." No, our death-phobic, 
>immortality-loving Dark Lord would not put that in writing! No hoax 
>would be worth him demeaning himself to even suggest he would ever 
>be mortal again.

Mz_annethrope wrote:
>"You Know Who is far too arrogant to ever think that somebody could 
>be clever enough to penetrate all the obstacles he set for out for 
>them."

Saraquel:
Now the note is interesting.  What happened when Harry destroyed the 
diary – COS ch17 p237 UK Ed "Ink spurted out of the diary in 
torrents, streaming over Harry's hands, flooding the floor <snip> 
Silence except for the steady drip drip of ink still oozing from the 
diary"  Before looking up that quote, I expected to find the word 
blood in there somewhere because to me, that image is like the life 
blood streaming out.  Here again we have a written note.  Is it the 
note that is the transfigured Horcrux and not the locket surrounding 
it?

Say Voldemort thought this right through to the end.  Yes, 
Mz_annethrope, Voldemort is arrogant, but he is protecting his 
immortality here.  I think he would take pride in making the 
obstacles more and more difficult (which I think they are as you go 
through the cave) and like DD and the Mirror of Erised, have the 
last obstacle psychological.  

Say he did concede that someone might just be able to get the locket 
out of the basin.  His last protection has to deceive the thief into 
thinking that the object he has in his hand is not the Horcrux. He 
has to tell them that they have got thus far for nothing. He also 
has to ensure that they do not tamper with or try and destroy what 
they find either. So, he leaves them a note, a mystery: who is RAB? 
Did he destroy the Horcrux that he stole?  Is he dead? If the finder 
believed Voldemort's ruse they might destroy the locket – the 
container – as worthless, but they wouldn't destroy the note, they 
would keep it safe, to try and figure it out and ultimately that is 
what Voldemort wants.  He wants his Horcrux to be safe.

So the wording on the note has to be believable.  But if I'm going 
to say that this theory has a weakness, then this is definitely it.  
But notice the first sentence is the culprit admitting that 
he/she "will be dead long before you read this." Voldemort gets his 
triumph in early.

If the thief (in Voldemort's eyes!) does believe that the real 
horcrux has been destroyed, then the scenario I put in my original 
post comes into play.  

Just to add a couple of extra things, which I don't really take to 
be anything substantial, but interesting in this context:

Firstly, we haven't seen JKR use transfiguration for anything 
significant yet (unless I've missed something glaringly obvious), 
apart from the chess set in PS, but then JKR used all the subjects. 
We've seen potions, where shall I start - polyjuice, FF, the cave 
 
charms - accio firebolt, herbology – fish!Harry, DADA on numerous 
occasions, Divination – the prophecy, History of Magic - Florian's 
disappeared, Animagi coming out of your ears (I personally think she 
overdid that one) but this is a form of human transformation not 
transfiguration of an object. That leaves Astrology and 
transfiguration with Arithmancy and Runes if we include Hermione.  I 
think it could well be time to meet an object that's been 
transfigured.

Secondly, when have we ever seen JKR virtually ask us if we've 
picked up a clue  Usually it's, oh I'm going to have be careful or 
I'll give too much away.  Yet in the Mugglenet interview this is 
what she says –(note the No, I'm glad!)

MA: R.A.B.
JKR: Ohhh, good.
[All laugh.]
JKR: No, I'm glad! Yes?
MA: Can we figure out who he is, from what we know so far?
[Note: JKR has adopted slightly evil look here]
JKR: Do you have a theory?
MA: We've come up with Regulus Black.
JKR: Have you now?
MA: Uh-oh.
[Laughter.]
JKR: Well, I think that would be, um, a fine guess.

Is she being helpful, or is she just checking out that the red 
herring she wasn't sure about worked? Anyway, as I said, interesting 
rather than significant.

Actually I don't think the case is half bad for this little theory.  
IMHO I think it holds up better than anything else currently on 
offer, so I'll stick with it, at least until someone can explain how 
RAB found the cave :-)

Saraquel