R.A.B. - Sirius's dear old mum?

[Goddlefrood]

No: HPFGUIDX 142334

> Jen: 
> I also like the idea of a timid 
> Mr. Black who intiated one courageous plot in his life by stealing 
> the horcrux and avenging his son's death.

Goddlefrood

Yes, it would be kind of poetic if it was a downtrodden Mr. Black. 
The only problem with that speculation is that we have nothing to 
indicate when Mr. Black died, or indeed if he survived his younger 
son at all. Come to think of it perhaps Mr. Black is not yet dead.

If, as I speculated earlier, Kreacher accompanied whoever to the 
cave, then we do have some canon to suggest that Kreacher was not as 
devoted to him as to his mistress. It seems to me that if Kreacher 
did indeed go he would be more likely to go with his mistress than 
his master. I wonder what happened to Mr. Black and why no real 
information has been given about him.

> Jen:
> Although this brings up something curious. Dumbledore never 
exactly 
> said that the green goo was a poison, instead saying it wouldn't 
> kill the drinker right away.

Goddlefrood:

This point got me thinking too, but we do know that Sirius fell out 
with his parents, perhaps over the werewolf caper. Sirius clearly 
disliked his mother and did not know how she had died, only that she 
died while he was in Azkaban. Her appearance i the portrait is a 
representatio that any *self-respecting* person surely would not 
have wished to project to anyone, least of all her descendants.

> Jen: First, I think it's impossible Mrs. Black took Regulus. If he 
> died in 1980 that would mean whatever poison she ingested took 5 
> years to finish her off. 

Goddlefrood:

It is extremely unlikely, but then as Sherlock Holmes famously 
said "once you have eliminated the impossible the remaining theory, 
however improbable, must be correct", or something like that. Our 
old friend Napoleon would also tell you that he didn't knoe the 
meaning of the word impossible. I prefer to think that Kreacher 
accompanied whoever went to the cave and agree that Regulus is 
extremely improbable.

Jen:
> I'd love to know how RAB knew about and 
> located the horcrux when it took Dumbledore 5 years to figure out 
> this information, research it, track down memories and finally 
> locate the ring and the cave.

Goddlefrood:

I am speculating, and I think I mentioned before, that as both 
Grimmaud Place and the orphanage are in London, coupled with the 
wizarding community being small, it is not implausible that Mrs. 
Blasck went and located Mrs. Cole, or even one of LV's childhood 
*friends* and in that way determined the location of the cave.

>Jen:
> Perpetuating the house-elf head wall-of-fame; acting intolerable 
to 
> the point Sirius ran away at 16; burning people off the tapestry 
for 
> Muggle marriages or just because they pissed her off. 

Goddlefrood:

Well Mrs. Black in the first instance was perpetuating a family 
tradition, and don't forget that Kreacher is said to be looking 
forward to joining the heads. That the house-elves themselves 
encouraged the practice is not beyond belief.

As I say earlier here I believe that it is no coincidence that 
Sirius left home around the time of the werewolf caper. Sirius 
himself tells us he ran away, but would he have said that he had 
actually been expelled from the family by his parents? I leave that 
as an open question, my answer to it should be clear.

I will grant you that some of the reasons for removing people from 
the tapestry are thin, but we only have the information Sirius has 
given us and other reasons, which will probably never be explored in 
canon, could also lead to the removal from the tapestry. Also I 
think Kreacher may be responsible for some of the removals, even if 
only on the orders of Mrs. Black's portrait.

> Jen: 
> Sirius doesn't seem to think the portrait was an innacurate 
portrayl of his mom from when he last saw her.

Goddlefrood:

With the history we do know between Sirius and his dear old mum I 
think it likely that Sirius would not care at all what a portrait of 
his mother looked like and make no comment on it, as in fact he did 
not.

I, like all of us, am eagerly anticipating the uncovering of who 
R.A.B. is. Could it be Romula Andromeda Black? or as Jen speculates 
her devoted husband Rigel Alpha Black?

> Orna:

> I thought maybe Voldermort encased the horcrux, and Regulus (or
whoever RAB is) was a DE, who got the mission to "put" it in the
cave, or play some other part in concealing it there.

Goddlefrood:

Your addition, while not impossible, is rather improbable. Knowing 
LV as we do, or perhaps as we think we do, I find it extraordinarily 
unlikely that LV would trust anyone at all to place his horcruxes. 
In the cave with Dumbledore and Harry it is suggested that LV placed 
the enchantments himself.

If R.A.B. is actually Regulus I would be extremely surprised. I do 
not think the phrase "um...that would be a fine guess" as ststed in 
the combined Leaky Cauldron/Mugglenet interview necessarily would 
lead to the conclusion that the questioner was right. My take on 
this is that Regulus was the reason behind the Horcrux being tracked 
down by Mrs. Black as she clearly doted on him and would want a 
measure of revenge for his death.

Goddlefrood still wondering which constellation Mrs. Black would be 
named after...