Subject: Re: Potion in the Cave

[xcpublishing]

No: HPFGUIDX 145976

I've been lurking, but this one caught my attention.

Carol wrote:

>Voldemort would have no reason to remove his own Horcrux unless he 
thought it was in danger of being discovered. The potion ...is to 
prevent it from being taken from the cave once it was retrieved.

This was never quite plausible to me.  I could not understand why LV 
would not want to kill the potion drinker immediately - like after 
the first sip! - in order to prevent them from getting their hands on 
the Horcrux at all.  Why allow them to drink it all down and possibly 
escape with the locket?  I really hope JKR has a good explanation for 
this one, other than the need to weaken DD for his confrontation with 
Snape.  The only explanation I could accept was that there would be 
some sort of magical alarm raised for LV when the Horcrux was 
discovered - he might want that person alive to question and 
determine how he found out about the Horcrux in the first place.  But 
I would expect LV to Apparate to the cave immediately after the alarm 
was raised, and obviously that didn't happen.

>If, as most of us suspect, the locket we glimpsed at 12 GP in OoP is 
the real Horcrux, there's at least one remaining protection: It's 
sealed shut.

I would expect that to be the case.  I'm actually wondering if 
Regulus tried to destroy the Horcrux and ended up frying himself in 
the process.  They say he was "killed by LV" but never mentions how.  
The other Blacks and DEs would have assumed LV killed him because he 
was already in disfavor.  And depending on the timing (interesting 
how timing is everything when it comes to the final book) R.A.B. 
could have been taking the locket about the time LV was preoccupied 
with the Potters...  which is why LV never discovered the Horcrux was 
missing.

>There may be a curse like the one on the ring to punish the person 
who destroys it as well. Given all that, I see no reason to doubt 
that either Voldemort or someone he trusted (Bellatrix?) placed the 
locket in the cave along with the protective potion/poisoned memory.

I agree with this theory and leaning toward Bellatrix, although I'm 
doubting she knew what it was.  All LV would have to do is hand her 
the locket and told her to go drop it off in the cave.  He could have 
set up the basin, the potion, and the whole scenario long prior to 
the creation of the Horcrux itself.  He could have told Bella it was 
a little trap for his enemies and she likely would not have 
questioned it at all.  Go to the cave, plink the locket into the 
basin, and get out.  I'm sure it would have also amused him not to 
have mentioned the need for her to cross the lake and escape the 
Inferi.  She would have had to figure that out on her own.

>I very much doubt that it was R.A.B.'s potion specifically intended
for LV, or that LV knew the Horcrux had been taken.

I agree.  The potion seems much too likely to have been put there by 
Voldemort.  I'm also leaning toward Kreacher being the initial 
recipient of the potion.  The Blacks seem to have had the same 
attitude toward house-elves as the Malfoy's, frankly, and I don't see 
Regulas as being noble enough to care what happened to Kreacher.  
This could also be what tipped the nasty little thing into madness.

>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 both 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.

I can't see LV divulging the Horcrux information to anyone, no matter 
how loyal they appear.  I just don't see him as the trusting sort, 
and this would be his most precious secret.  He would have let the 
DEs know that he would return if death could claim him, but I don't 
think he would tell them HOW.  Most of the DEs really believed him to 
be dead and gone.  Only the most fanatical thought he would return 
and I think that was mostly based on their own desire rather than by 
logic.  Those with enough curiosity, however (like R.A.B.) would 
start wondering exactly how LV was planning to return.

>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.

Exactly why LV would never give her this information.  She might be 
loyal, but she's a loose cannon.

>Already having been Crucio'd for refusing to torture or kill a 
Muggle (or some similar assignment)

Or for spending all of his time poring over ancient texts and 
researching artifacts instead of killing Muggles...

>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.

Or he finds out about the cave from Kreacher and forms his own 
opinion about the 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 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.

Or he tries to destroy it and ends up dead.  Or LV figures out what 
he's been researching during the past few weeks and shows up to kill 
him.  Or Bellatrix kills him because Kreacher confesses that they 
went to the cave.  (After drinking down that nasty potion, Kreacher 
would likely have been pretty out of it and not known that Regulas 
switched the lockets.  I picture him down at the lake lapping up 
water while Regulas makes the swap.)  This might even prompt a quick 
return by Bella to the cave to make sure the locket is still where 
she left it - yep, still in there, so she wouldn't have to mention it 
to LV and spare herself a little wrath because surely he would ask 
how Regulus even knew about the cave...  A quick zap of Regulus would 
ensure he never return to the cave and put herself in even better 
standing with LV by her lack of reluctance to kill a blood relative 
that was out of favor...

>Holes in the theory, anybody? Or improvements, if you like it but 
see a flaw or two (like the pensievelike bowl already being in the 
cave)?

I do think most of the materials were set up in advance.  LV knew 
about the cave from boyhood and he had plenty of time to engineer the 
hiding of the Horcruxes even before their creation.  I really wish 
JKR would have given us a tad more information on exactly how Regulas 
was killed and what the timing was.  Either R.A.B. had the locket for 
quite some time and didn't destroy it and LV never caught on, or the 
locket was taken during LV1 when he was distracted and then the 
locket taker was killed before he could destroy it...

Nicky Joe who needs to read the last two books again...