False Identity? RAB

[Jen Reese]

No: HPFGUIDX 134899

On another forum, HPFGU group member Carolyn White suggested RAB 
could be Amy Benson, one of the children Tom Riddle lured into the 
cave and terrorized as a child. That got me thinking about the 
possibilities. For starters, we have the interview with JKR:

JKR: Today, just today, July the 16th, I was really hoping someone
would ask me about R.A.B., and you did it. Just today, because I
think that is — well, I hoped that people would.

MA: Is there more we should ask about him?

JKR: There are things you will deduce on further readings, I think —
well you two definitely will, for sure — that, yeah, I was really
hoping that R.A.B. would come out.

Jen again: JKR seems to be referring to a re-read of HBP and not the 
whole series, so that might narrow down RAB guesses to people in 
this book, particularly Borgin, Regulus, and possibly Amy Benson. 

And she cleverly neither confirms nor denies the gender
of RAB.

But back to Amy. So you have this person who actually visited 
the cave. And after the cave incident, she and Dennis Bishop 'were
never quite right afterwards.' So we assume they are simply
traumatized Muggles.

But say instead, you have one traumatized Muggle and one witch who
doesn't show any particular power yet, someone a bit like Neville.
Then she's terrorized by Tom Riddle in the cave. The stress of the
incident, like Neville being thrown out the window, activates her
magical abilities.

Now a couple of things could happen from there.

1) False Identity Theory: Amy was adopted and her name was changed.
Meaning one of the characters we already know is actually Amy 
Benson. She never forgave or forgot Tom Riddle and his cruelty, and 
made it her mission in life to seek revenge. Or she simply abhorred 
his cruelty and wanted to free the world of his evil nature. I like 
this theory because we already have a successful false identity in 
canon. Also, to make this work,  Amy would need to be several years 
younger than TR, and not someone he recognized at Hogawarts(or she 
attended a different wizarding school).

**McGonagall would be my first choice here both because of her age 
and the fact that she knew how to dress like a Muggle in OOTP. 
Problem here is she didn't tell Dumbledore her identity or that she 
had already destroyed the locket. And she's not dead, although 
technically RAB doesn't have to be dead even if he/she expected to 
be after the posion or by Voldemort's hand.**

The lure of this one would be the moment Mcgonagall or other known 
canon figure reveals herself to be Amy Benson. We'd get not only get 
more explanation about Tom Riddle's past, but may get backstory on a 
well-known figure in canon and why she chose to keep her identity 
and actions secret. 

2) Another option--we've met Amy in a portrait, as a ghost or in the 
Pensieve but don't know it yet. 

3)Amy attended another wizarding school, has pursued Voldemort 
completely on her own, and we have yet to officially meet her yet.

I love the first option though, can picture the moment someone 
cracks and reveals herself. Well, truth be told I keep picturing 
McGonagall, admitting she never told Dumbledore everything and why. 
That she was working on her own agenda the whole time, even though 
it dovetailed nicely with what DD was doing. 

The problem of course is the poison. But, given all the talk of 
antidotes and Bezoars, it's not impossible. At least we think that 
was poison, right? It makes the most sense with the rest of the 
storyline.

Jen, hoping for a big mystery with this one.


**Disclaimer: I haven't read everything on this site. I did search 
for Amy Benson and False Identity this afternoon and came up empty-
handed. Probably because this seems entirely unlikely. ;) Heh, no 
matter, I like it.