The Knight of Walburga

[Jen Reese]

No: HPFGUIDX 169487

Goddlefrood:
<snip>
> Walburga is drooling, has rolling eyes and yellowing skin 
> to boot. Not the ideal of a respectable, in wizarding world 
> terms, middle aged woman. Also not a depiction she herself 
> could have approved IMO. Back then to Kreacher, but also to 
> how portraits come about. The only instance we have of a 
> portrait being created is Dumbledore's after his death in 
> HBP, if that is a typical example of how portraits come to  
> be then we have been shown no portraitist who painted it. 
> The impression I formed is that they come about after death, 
> and also that not every dead wizard or witch merits one.
> 
> The Black household has many portraits, as the above quoted 
> portion coupled with Phineas's portrait in the bedroom Harry 
> uses attests. Suggestive that it is a family where a portrait 
> would be merited, in whatever way that works in the wizarding 
> world. If I'm correct then these portraits appear after death 
> and depict the sitter (even though we do not know if there is 
> an artist) at or around the moment of death.

Jen:  I hesitate to discount Sirius not noticing anything was amiss 
with the portrait of his dear mum since he serves an expository role 
in sections of POA and GOF.  He can be very dismissive of those he 
doesn't like though and when OOTP starts, Sirius is in a self-
absorbed funk and thinking only about the bad memories connected to 
his family.  Any other ideas how to reconcile that piece of 
information?

Goddlefrood:
> What we may find out about the Blacks I believe will be that 
> they were active in their opposition to Lord Voldemort, while 
> disapproving of certain other of his resisters. Mrs. Black 
> had something to do with the obtaining of the heavy locket 
> that would not open, in other words. She should have been a 
> contemporary of Tom Riddle at school, albeit two possibly 
> three school years above him. If Regulus is R. A. B., as now 
> appears the case, even though I hold out hope he won't be, 
> then Mama will be the person from whom he learned the secret 
> referred to in the letter left with the fake locket in the 
> cave.

Jen:  Walburga having a connection to young Riddle and perhaps 
providing useful information is a much better fit than the person I 
was considering - Eileen Prince.  Walburga is accessible via her 
portrait as well as information Kreacher might have.  Plus she likely 
had contacts with Voldemort sympathizers through her own circle and 
Regulus in the DEs.  

As an aside:  no matter what's revealed about Walburga's involvement 
or not with a Horcrux,  I believe she learned more about Regulus' 
death than Sirius did as he was her favored son and she had the 
means to get information.  The two never compared notes since Sirius 
claimed not to have contact after leaving home.

Here's another point I'd like to reconcile for myself:  If Walburga 
actually gave Regulus the information about the Horcruxes and perhaps 
accompanied him to the cave, drinking the potion and thus giving rise 
to dooling, eye-rolling, yellowing woman in the portrait (it's really 
difficult to believe a middle-age witch would look like this and 
especially the mother and aunt of two people described as good-
looking!), why did Regulus say in his note that he would be dead?  
It's all speculative I know, but LV didn't find out his Horcrux had 
been tampered with if the fake was still in the cave.  Well, unless 
he did know, had Regulus killed for it and vaporized before locating 
the real Horcrux?  And then felt overconfident about how well his 
plan had worked when he rebirthed and didn't prioritize finding the 
missing Horcrux.  

Jen