R.A.B

[justcarol67]

No: HPFGUIDX 150560

Carol earlier:
> >I don't see the problem with Regulus replacing the locket during
VW1 if he had Kreacher's help, though I very much doubt that he, a boy
of about eighteen, could have destroyed the Horcrux or that he was
killed by it. We have the locket that no one can open in 12 GP (or
wherever it is now), which is surely the real, undestroyed Horcrux. 
 
Nikkalmati responded:
> Just for starters:  Is Regulus a powerful enough wizard to find the
boat? Note DD says only a powerful wizard could find it. How did he
know he should bring Kreacher and would need his help?  I would think
he would want to keep as many people out of the loop as possible,
especially as Kreacher was sympathetic to LV and Kreacher would not be
subject to RAB's orders anyway.  RAB was not the head of the
household.  The potion appears to be a poison.  DD is not addled, he
is weakened and possibly dying.  Kreacher doesn't die.  And a biggie -
how did RAB get the replacement green potion to fill the basin up?
>  I didn't mean to imply RAB destroyed the horcrux, only that he
could have died trying. Query:  DD implies that the potion will not
kill the drinker immediately because LV would want to know how he had
gotten so far past his defenses.  Does this mean LV knows the cave has
been invaded? Does he have some kind of alarm set up? 

Carol responds:
Evidently you didn't go back to the post I linked to, which provides
possible (and IMO plausible) answers to most of those questions.

In my scenario, Regulus wouldn't need to be a powerful wizard:
Bellatrix had already found the cave and the boat based on LV's
descriptions, and Kreacher accompanied her, so he also knew how to
enter the cave and summon the boat. (Quite possibly he donated the
blood needed to get in and out of the cave as a willing sacrifice to
"Miss Bellatrix's" cause. I can't see Bella using her own if she can
use his.) Kreacher would not have had to drink the potion when he was
with Bellatrix because she was putting it *into* the pensievelike
bowl, but he would have had to drink it for Regulus so that Regulus
could remove the true Horcrux without dying or becoming incapacitated.
After Regulus replaced the Horcrux with a similar locket, the bowl,
not knowing the difference, would refill itself. I don't think it
matters that Regulus wasn't the head ofthe Black family; Kreacher
would still be bound to obey his orders even if it meant betraying his
beloved Bellatrix (a niece rather than a son of his master and
mistress) and drinking that horrible potion, which would almost
certainly have killed Regulus, who would not have trusted Kreacher to
steal it for him and keep it out of LV's or Bellatrix's hands if he,
Regulus, died in the cave. Granted, *Kreacher* didn't die from
drinking the potion/poisoned memory, but the effects may have been
different on a House Elf than on a wizard. There is no question that
Kreacher is addled, and this scenario provides an explanation for his
mental state.

As for LV knowing that the cave has been invaded and the Horcrux
stolen, AFWK, there's no indication that he does. He didn't even know
that the diary had been destroyed, nor does he seem to know about the
ring. (Note how carefully Snape keeps the nature of DD's "serious
injury" from Bellatrix.) I can only explain DD's words to Harry about
the potion not killing the drinker immediately as intended to persuade
him to keep on feeding DD the poison. Getting the Horcrux was more
important to DD than his own life. (On a side note, DD's sacrifice
here, though tragic, is not wasted; Harry would never have known about
RAB, his clue to the whereabouts of the real locket, without it.)

FWIW, here's my Bellatrix scenario as originally posted in message
145831, with a few additions in square brackets (I'm viewing the
potion as a poisoned memory, but that's not essential to the theory):

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/HPforGrownups/message/145831

"After hearing the Prophecy and realizing that the mere existence of
his Horcruxes is not sufficient to guarantee his immortality,
Voldemort assigns the fanatically loyal Bellatrix the task of hiding
his locket, giving her the exact location of the cave and directions
to follow in hiding it and providing her with the potion/memory to
place in the pensievelike bowl, which for the sake of simplicity we'll
assume is already in the cave. To impress on her the importance of her
mission, he actually entrusts Bellatrix with the secret that it's a
Horcrux (though not that it's one of six). Bellatrix, feeling honored
by this assignment but afraid that she can't do it alone (and
well aware of the consequences of failure), borrows her dear aunt's
devoted house-elf, Kreacher (whom we know to be devoted to "Miss
Bellatrix"), to help her with her task. (Regulus overhears this
request.) Trusting entirely to Kreacher's loyalty and not crediting
him with intelligence equal to a human's, she lets slip that the thing
she's hiding is a Horcrux.

"Already having been Crucio'd for refusing to torture or kill a Muggle
(or some similar assignment) and knowing that his days are numbered,
Regulus is determined to defy Voldemort by thwarting Bellatrix's
mission. He questions Kreacher about his excursion and discovers that
Bellatrix has hidden a locket in a cave and that she refers to the
locket as a Horcrux. After discovering what a Horcrux is (if he
doesn't know already), Regulus writes the note to LV, buys a locket
superficially similar to the one Kreacher describes, and then orders
Kreacher to take him to the cave. The boat [which Kreacherlocates]
takes them both across to the island, not sensing the presence of
Kreacher (as other posters have already speculated). Regulus orders
Kreacher to drink the poisoned memory/potion (which addles his brains
permanently), substitutes the locket with the note inside for the
Horcrux, and returns home with the Horcrux, which he, being barely a
fully qualified wizard and not particularly skilled at curse-breaking,
is unable to open and consequently destroy. A short time later, he
defies the DEs by refusing to perform an Unforgiveable Curse (or
whatever) and is murdered, perhaps by his own dear cousin Bellatrix.
Meanwhile, the pensievelike bowl, sensing a locket inside it and
unable to detect the substitution, fills up again, renewing its
magical protection for the fake Horcrux, and the real Horcrux remains
in 12 GP until Sirius tries to throw it out and its retrieved by
Kreacher (or Mundungus steals it).

"This scenario (I'm not calling it a theory yet) would explain how
Bellatrix knew that LV wasn't dead when he was vaporized at Godric's
Hollow [she knew LV had a Horcrux that would prevent his death even if
his body was destroyed] and how Regulus could know about the locket
Horcrux and where to find it [and how to find the boat, etc.]. It also
ties in with Kreacher's devotion to Bellatrix, with her words to Snape
about being trusted with LV's "most precious" secrets or missions, and
with Kreacher's all-too-evident insanity."

Again, this is only a scenario and not a theory, but I think it
answers the most difficult questions, notably how Regulus found out
about the Horcrux in the first place, how he knew where it was hidden
and what to do when he got there, how he obtained the Horcrux without
drinking the potion/poisoned memory, and how the pensievelike bowl was
refilled without his knowing how to prepare the potion himself. (That
would make young Reggie a Dark wizard indeed!)

Carol, with apologies for the repetition, but we "oldbies" generally
prefer to resuscitate our old posts rather than write them again from
scratch