R.A.B. Just a thought

[justcarol67]

No: HPFGUIDX 165749

Marcus Keith Island wrote:
>
> Hi All, I am fairly new to this group and I just wanted to add some of
> my theories if I may.  I have read the books and I am now listening to
> the audiobooks because it is easier for me to multi-task
> I have always thought that R.A.B. meant Regulus Black but listening to
> the audiobooks the name RABastian LeStrange hit me.  I have no proof
> just a thought and would love to hear folks ideas.  I have read others
> post about maybe Bellatrix hiding the locket and that Regulus Black is
> her cousin so yeah it fits that he could have done the old switcheroo.
> But Rabastian is her brother-in-law and maybe he had something against
> Bellatrix or his brother.   Again this is just a thought so please bear
> with me. I ENJOY THIS GROUP YEAAAAAAHH..

Carol:
And I thought I was the only person in the world to give Rabastan
Lestrange, the forgotten Death Eater, a thought. It's interesting that
when Sirius Black talks about the gang that Severus Snape belonged to
at Hogwarts (most if not all of them older than he was, apparently),
he doesn't mention Rabastan, only "the lestranges, they're a married
couple." The wording is a bit odd--Rodolphus and Bellatrix are
unlikely to have been married while they were still students--but
Sirius doesn't want to mention Bellatrix Black because that would give
away his relationship to her. But Rabastan is not mentioned at all.
And the same thing happens in the graveyard, when Voldemort identifies
some of the Death Eaters. He mentions his "loyal Death Eater at
Hogwarts," Barty Crouch Jr., and says that "the Lestranges should be
standing here," "They alone were loyal," etc., but there's only space
enough for two people, and Rabastan is again forgotten.

We do, however, see him in the Pensieve memory in GoF, though it's
unclear whether he's the man who just stares dully at Crouch Sr. or
the thinner, nervous-looking man whose eyes dart over the crowd.
Neither of them speaks, but the fact that they're both with Bellatrix
and that she shouts "We alone were loyal! We alone tried to look for
him [Voldemort] suggests that they (and Barty) are just as guilty of
Crucioing the Longbottoms into insanity as Bellatrix is. (I think that
she knew Voldie wasn't dead because he had assigned her to hide a
Horcrux, and she shared that knowledge with three other followers that
she knew to be as fanatical as herself, or perhaps her own personal
fan club.) 

We only learn that one of the two men (not counting the boy, Barty) is
Rodolphus's brother Rabastan when Sirius Black is discussing the
tapestry in OoP. Bellatrix and Rodolphus are on it; Sirius mentions
that they're in Azkaban and that Rodolphus's brother Rabastan is with
them. 

That's as much as we learn about Rabastan until the battle of the MoM,
when Lucius Malfoy pairs off the Death Eaters. Bellatrix and
Rodolphus, naturally are together. Rabastan is assigned to work with,
of all people, Crabbe (788). (Goyle is missing--too stupid for the
mission?) I don't want to go through the whole long deductive process
here, but apparently Crabbe is the Death Eater who gets caught in the
Time Turner and ends up with a head that keeps transforming to a
baby's and back again. Rabastan, robbed of a partner, apparently joins
Rodolphus and Bellatrix, or at least they're accompanied by a third
man when they show up again later. And if Rabastan is the DE I think
he is, he is not a likely candidate for the thief of Voldemort's
Horcrux (setting aside the unlikelihood that a torturer of the
Longbottoms would have done such a thing):

"A jet of red light hit the nearest Death Eater [Crabbe?]; he fell
backward into a grandfather clock and knocked it over. The second
Death Eater, however, had leapt aside to avoid Harry's spell and now
pointed his own wand at Hermione, who had crawled out from under the
desk to get a better aim.

"*Avada*--" (789).

Yep. Nice guy, that Rabastan. I could follow the rest of the chapter
to show why I think that this DE is Rabastan, and I will if anyone
wants me to, but my point is that Rabastan, who helped Crucio the
Longbottoms into insanity, is a most unlikely candidate to be the
would-be Horcrux destroyer, RAB. That pattern fits Regulus Black much
better.

Carol, wondering why Rabastan is in the books at all since he appears
to be nothing more than a devoted follower of his own sister-in-law,
the archfanatic Bellatrix Black