R.A.B. - Sirius's dear old mum?
Jen Reese
stevejjen at earthlink.net
Mon Oct 31 05:30:19 UTC 2005
No: HPFGUIDX 142347
> 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.
> <snip> I wonder what happened to Mr. Black and why no real
> information has been given about him.
Jen: I was thinking Mr. Black might be important because of his
omission, but JKR's track record with missing parents is they don't
figure into the story beyond a mention or two, i.e., the Evans,
Potter & Lupin parents to name a few. Mrs. Black gets quite a bit of
page time though, and the images around her are completely
unappealing, not someone with heroine potential at first glance, so
all the better to surprise Harry and the reader with! That said, I'm
leaning toward your theory about Mrs. Black because the clues are
already in place. JKR won't have much space left to delve into
building yet another character and would have to do so if developing
Mr. Black.
One question though: Anyone remember the information on the Lexicon
posted at the end of August saying Regulus Arcturus Black was RAB
according to a source close to JKR? That seems to be withdrawn now
or at least I can't find it--anyone heard why?!? I'd prefer someone
more tricky than Regulus, too, and was glad to see this information
wasn't confirmed by JKR (although you have to wonder if she just
didn't want to 'ruin the theories').
> 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.
And from the end of the post:
> 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.
Jen: The grotesque features of the portrait--the drooling, the
yellowing skin, the rolling eyes--all seemed indicative of an
unnatural death like you said. And since we know magical people are
very difficult to kill, you do have to wonder why this middle-aged
witch looked so old/sick in her portrait.
I do have two problems, or more like obstacles, and neither are very
big to overcome. One is that we simply don't know if Mrs. Black
cared how she looked to others and if she really *was* a self-
respecting person. With nothing to go on besides Sirius' description
and Kreacher, we can't be sure of that. That leads to the second
issue: Sirius can certainly be cruel to people he doesn't like and
we've seen with Snape, Pettigrew, Kreacher, etc., that if he chooses
to see the bad parts of a person that's all he sees. But I still
think some of the bad parts he remembered about his mom were
certainly present *even if* the portrait was a very exaggerated
example.
Basically, I doubt Mrs. Black was completely different from the
portrait and if poisoned, the poison acted to age her unnaturally
and exaggerate her already unlikeable qualities rather than
completely change her disposition. The entire Black house made it
clear the people who lived there believed in the superiority of pure-
bloods, and even Sirius would have noticed if his mom didn't have a
penchant for screaming and making racial slurs after living with her
for parts of 16 years. I know we may not agree on this part, but it
will look suspiciously like a plot device to me if we find out Mrs.
Black was a fairly mild-mannered woman or a retiring sort and Sirius
just never noticed anything different when faced with the snarling,
screaming, eye-rolling, drooling portrait of her.
> 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: OK, I'll withdraw the word 'impossible' and saw I prefer
Kreacher, too. ;)
> 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: I'll speculate a little as well, because it ocurred to me if
Regulus had mentioned his 'cold feet' to Mrs. Black, she may have
sent Kreacher to tail him (foreshadowed by the Elf Tails chapter?),
and learned about the cave that way. Perhaps Regulus went to the
cave with Voldemort *or* Voldemort/DE bewitched Regulus' body to
become an Inferi after killing him and he was taken to the cave that
way (ick--but isn't it likely at least one known character will end
up an Inferi? Voldemort had to get those legions of dead soldiers
*somewhere*). I could see Mrs. Black wanting to retrieve his body
and discovering the horcrux along the way if that was the case.
Goddlefrood:
> 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.
Jen: It's entirely possible. Bella didn't seem to think too highly
of "the Animagus Black". I read that to be her disdain for someone
willing to become an animagus which would essentially be another
form of a half-blood for those into pure-blood superiority.
Goddlefrood:
> I, like all of us, am eagerly anticipating the uncovering of who
> R.A.B. is. Could it be Romula Andromeda Black? <snip> Goddlefrood
> still wondering which constellation Mrs. Black would be named
> after...
Jen: Here are a few stars I found starting with R: Ruchbach in
Cassiopeia; Rigel in Centaurus; Ruchba in Cignus; Rotanev in
Delphinus; Rana in Eridanus; Rasalgethi in Hercules....
Maybe she escaped the star name, like Narcissa? I'd vote for Regina
then, as ruler of the family, or if she had a flower name, then my
choice is Rue.
Jen
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