Regulus---dead?

[ericoppen]

No: HPFGUIDX 153368

It has occurred to me that if _I_ were in Regulus Black's shoes, a 
renegade DE who had just stolen and (hopefully) destroyed one of 
LV's horcruces, I might well want to confuse the trail.  

As far as we know, once someone who has taken Polyjuice Potion is 
dead, they retain the form in which they died.  (Either that, or 
when Barty Crouch's mother was buried, the Dementors were not paying 
attention.) 

Now, keep in mind, I'm a trained Death Eater.  What if I induced 
some poor wretch of a Muggle (possibly via Imperius?  I'm already in 
more than enough trouble that being in trouble for Imperiusing a 
Muggle won't make any difference, after all...) to drink Polyjuice 
Potion and turn into "me" long enough for my now ex-friends to catch 
up and kill him. Once he's dead, the search is off...after all, what 
point chasing a corpse?  The DEs can let the corpse be found and 
(mis)identified, and I'm off the hook!  

Or, for a crueller twist, what if I got the drop on whoever was 
chasing me, Imperiused him into taking Polyjuice to look just like 
me, switched clothes with him, AK'ed him, and left the corpse to be 
found by the other DEs?  They might wonder "hey, what happened to 
old what's-his-name?" but with "my" corpse to show Lord V., they'll 
think I'm dead.  

--Eric Oppen, who feels _really_ sorry for whoever investigates 
murders in the WW.