Who needs Harry? (was: GoF CH 27-29 Post DH look/ Snape and Harry redux)

[Carol]

No: HPFGUIDX 182329

Carol earlier:
> and the only books on the subject (except possibly books in the
Black family home that Regulus somehow found) that we know of are now
in Dumbledore's office, accessible to no one (Hermione has the
advantage of knowing about Horcruxes and knowing that those books are
there, information that no one else except Harry and Ron has, and they
aren't as sneaky as she is). 
> 
Magpie responded:
> So nobody could possibly figure out about Horcruxes except 
Dumbledore, Slughorn...and that one teenager who did find out about 
Horcruxes without Dumbledore and without any of the advantages 
Hermione had. So right there in canon is somebody who figured out the
Horcrux idea after Voldemort's rise, and without being Dumbledore. 
We're not told how Regulus found it out (though if the Blacks have 
books about Horcruxes obviously British Wizards can have books about
Horcruxes) but he found out about them somehow--probably without
looking up the word Horcrux.
> 
Carol earlier:
> I personally think that Regulus finding out about Horcruxes under
these circumstances is a lot harder to believe than no one else
knowing about them. If *Snape* didn't know about them, no one would. 
> 
> Magpie:
> And yet Regulus did know about them, so maybe discovering about the
Horcruxes isn't about being the smartest Wizard ever, but just doing
the right research? As you suggest here, Voldemort didn't tell 
Regulus he had Horcruxes. The teenager figured it out by himself 
following whatever clues he followed. 
>
Carol again:
As I said, Regulus figuring out the Horcruxes and having access to
that information appears to be a Flint (or is at least rather hard to
swallow, requiring a willing suspension of disbelief). I like Regulus,
but he doesn't seem to have been extraordinarily bright. (His brother
certainly didn't think so, at any rate.) 

While it's possible that his parents had books with that
information in the house, which they seem to have inherited from
Phineas Nigellus, Regulus wouldn't know what he was looking for. the
DEs canonically didn't know about the Horcruxes and he couldn't have
learned about them at school. All that he had to go on was a gold
locket that was somehow so important that Voldemort would put very
strong (and terrible protections on it). He *might* have figured out
that it was some sort of defense against death connected to the Dark
magic that had altered Voldemort's appearance (not that he ever knew
the young Tom Riddle: he was much too young). But unless he'd heard
the term "Horcrux," he wouldn't have known where to begin.

The only thing I can figure out is that Voldemort used the word
"Horcrux" in front of Kreacher, thinking that the House-Elf was going
to die horribly and that it didn't matter if he heard the word since
he'd be unable to repeat it (even to the seemingly loyal young DE who
had lent the Elf to LV). If Kreacher, in telling his story to Master
Regulus, used the word he had heard from Voldemort's lips, Regulus,
who obviously wouldn't know what a Horcrux was, would have the
information he needed to look up what a Horcrux was used for. I don't
think he asked his parents (he wouldn't want them to know what he was
doing), but he might have gone to Borgin and Burkes and asked them
about Horcruxes. (If anyone would know, it would be old Caractacus
Burke.) Failing that, we have to assume that he found it in an obscure
book. His mother was born in 1925, about a year before Voldemort, so
she might have somehow learned about such things and bought books on
the subject, but I doubt it. Or the books could have been in the
family since Phineas Nigellus's time. (*He* might have been the
studious type who liked to know about such things even though, of
course, he never actually created one and probably never murdered
anyone. He might even have had books on Dark magic published in his
lifetime that he never actually read. I can attest to buying books
that have gathered dust on my shelves after a cursory glance when they
arrived in the mail!)

But Voldemort's having a Horcrux (Regulus didn't know of any but the
locket) is not something that an ordinary teenager like him could just
figure out from Voldemort's obsessive behavior and the elaborate (and
horrible) protections that he placed on Slytherin's locket. I'm sure
that Regulus didn't think: "Oh! He's obsessed with death and he says
that he's taken measures to prevent it. This object, which he
obviously values because he's put such horrible protections on it,
must contain part of his soul!"  Regulus couldn't have figured that
out, nor would he ever have heard the word "Horcrux" before that time.
He must have heard the term from Kreacher, who heard it from Voldemort
(carelessly tossing out the word in front of a creature who was about
to die), and either asked a knowledgeable person about it (unlikely
since such people are rare and he had good reasons not to ask his
parents--his father was younger than LV, in any case) or found a way
to look it up (also unlikely but at least conceivable but at least
conceivable given the age of the house and its history of occupation
by Dark Wizards).

No other person lends a House-Elf to help Voldemort and finds the
House-Elf barely alive after drinking a horrible Potion and magically
escaping the Inferi (and probably no other DE would have cared more
about the House-Elf's suffering than about LV). Regulus's experience
is unique. And he, of course, didn't live to tell the tale.

Carol, noting that Regulus knew no more about Horcruxes than any other
Wizard until Kreacher returned from the cave and only "figured it out"
because he, too, possessed information that no one else possessed,
Kreacher's tale