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

[Carol]

No: HPFGUIDX 182333

Carol earlier:

> > 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. 
> 
> Magpie:
> So maybe he kind of did know what he was looking for, if not by
name, by some general idea that led to the truth. We don't know
whether there was something in books in his house inherited from
Phineas or anybody else. But he certainly found it out and nobody
thought this was impossible. Maybe Regulus thought in similar ways to
Voldemort.

Carol responds:
I rather doubt it. Voldemort was a sociopath obsessed with death who
was actually willing not only to commit murder and place part of his
soul in an object but to exist as "less than spirit" if his body
happened to be destroyed. Regulus, OTOH, was a schoolboy who collected
Voldemort's "press clippings" as if LV were a rock star, played
Quidditch, tried to please his parents in contrast to his rebel
brother, and cared about his House-Elf. the only thing he had in
common with Voldemort was a belief in Pure-Blood supremacy (taught him
by his Pure-blood supremacist parents, in contrast to LV's insane
hatred of his "filthy Muggle father"). 

Granted, he found out about Horcruxes somehow. That's canon. He uses
the word "Horcrux" in his note and he knows that the Horcrux is
connected to Voldemort's earthly immortality (using that word in a
qualified sense--he's only immortal as long as he has at least one
Horcrux).

But I've already established that Regulus would not have known about
Horcruxes, either the word or the concept, before the Kreacher
incident because 1) the DEs canonically don't know about the
Horcruxes. 2) Horcruxes are a banned topic at Hogwarts. 3) Dumbledore
confiscated the books on Horcruxes while Regulus's parents were at
school. (Sidenote: His father was a bit younger than Tom Riddle, so he
may have been an admirer but was not a proto-DE. It's even possible
that he didn't know that Voldemort and Tom Riddle were the same person.)

I've also stated that he could have consulted, say, Caractacus Burke,
or he could have found the information in the family library, which
might have contained books from Phineas Nigellus's time. Despite all
odds and despite Dumbledore's efforts to keep anyone from finding out
about Horcruxes, he found the information about an object whose
existence he had never previously suspected. (That's the part where I
have to suspend my disbelief. *If he's never heard the word, how in
the name of Dumbledore is he supposed to "figure out" that Voldemort
encased a piece of his soul in a locket (as if a soul were a tangible
object)? The idea is not something that's going to occur to a person
who isn't obsessed with the topic and hasn't already done research on,
say, Herpo the Foul (who would be of interest to Tom Riddle as the
Parselmouth who hatched the first known Basilisk--neat little
coincidence that he's also the first known Horcrux maker, isn't it?)

Tom Riddle had been researching his own ancestry and trying to
establish himself as the Heir of Slytherin for years, and he could
have stumbled on a reference to Horcruxes while he was researching
Herpo, which would have led, given his obsession with immortality, or,
rather, his aversion to death as a human (or Muggle) weakness, to his
wanting to make a Horcrux of his own.

Regulus Black, in contrast, was just an ordinary teenage boy who'd
been indoctrinated with the wrong beliefs. He happily volunteered the
use of his family's House-Elf to be of service to his beloved Dark
Lord. And then he finds that the House-Elf, about whom he cares the
way a boy from an aristocratic Edwardian family, would care about the
old butler who'd been with the family since his dad was a boy,
weakened and half-dead from a potion he's been forced to drink and
maybe begging for water. He hears the House-Elf's story, which
consists mainly of torments that Kreacher was forced to endure so that
Voldemort could conceal a gold locket under a deadly potion that he
tested on Kreacher.

Regulus, being a reasonably intelligent boy, would conclude that the
locket is obviously something more than a trinket, probably a
magically powerful Dark artifact. He *might* suspect that it was
somehow connected with Voldemort's obsession with immortality and his
dehumanized appearance. But he certainly would not have concluded that
it contained a fragment of Voldemort's soul. Had he known what the
object was, he would not have needed to research it, would he? And,
without knowing what it was, and without having heard of Horcruxes
previously, it stands to reason that he learned the word "Horcrux"
from Kreacher. (Obviously, I'm speculating, but that's the only way
that the story makes sense to *me.*)

Carol:
> But unless he'd heard the term "Horcrux," he wouldn't have known
where to begin.
> 
> Magpie:
> Or maybe he did know where to begin without knowing the word
Horcrux. Maybe you don't have to begin with the word Horcrux to get
there. Tom Riddle probably didn't. 

Carol:
Tom Riddle could have begun with the concept of immortality, also
exploring options like the Philosopher's Stone/Elixir of Life. Or he
could have begun, as I suggested earlier in this post, with Herpo the
Foul. The difference is that Tom was using his leisure hours at
Hogwarts to explore the uncensored Restricted Section of the library
(obviously with the permission of a teacher and possibly even with the
help of Madam Pince). Regulus was working alone (unless he consulted
B&B) and he had only a few days to do what he had to do. (He knew one
thing: If he stole this object, he was going to die, because unlike
Kreacher, he wouldn't escape the Inferi. So he'd have wanted to do it
as soon as possible and get it over with. And he'd want to be sure
that it was worth doing.)

If Kreacher used the word "Horcrux," finding out what the object was
in a few days' time would be doable, assuming that the books were
available. "Figuring out" that that the locket was a Dark object that
somehow insured earthly immortality and going from there to discover
the concept of a Horcrux would take much more time and a lot of luck,
looking in books that didn't discuss the subject (most books) rather
than skimming the indices for the word "Horcrux."

> Magpie:
 <snip>
All I know is that he found out part of Voldemort's secret as an
ordinary teenager apparently all on his own, a wonderful example of an
ordinary hero that everybody dismissed as incapable of anything
extraordinary. Sometimes the flashy people are just flash. <snip>

Carol:
I have the greatest respect and affection for Regulus, an ordinary
teenager who is also a hero (and whose story, even to his being a
Seeker, ironically parallels Harry's). But my point is that without
the extraordinary circumstance of his House-Elf's having been tortured
by Voldemort through his own doing (and here the remorse parallels
Snape's), he would never have known or cared about Horcruxes. He
certainly would not have sacrificed his own life to steal one.
(Sidenote: His research could not have been very complete or he would
have known that House-elf magic can't destroy a Horcrux. You need a
Basilisk fang or the equivalent.)

I don't in the least dispute your point about Reggie's being "an
ordinary hero" who does what he has to do when no one else can or
will. Funny thing, the whole series is about another boy whose only
special powers come from his mother's self-sacrifice and Voldemort's
blunder, but who has no special abilities of his own except a powerful
Patronus and skill at Quidditch. (JKR makes a point of its not being
Harry's power or skill that defeat Voldemort.) So, yeah. Regulus is
another kid who fights Voldemort in his own way. The difference is
that he does so secretly and dies in the attempt. (And it still takes
Harry to open the Horcrux that Regulus stole and the Sword of
Gryffindor, impregnated with Basilisk venom because of Harry, to
destroy it. Come to think of it, Harry in the Chamber of Secrets and
Regulus in the cave are a lot alike. The difference is that Harry had
Dumbledore on his side, and consequently had the aid of Fawkes.)

But *my* point, lest I forget to state it, is that just because
Regulus Black, in highly unusual circumstances, "figured out" what a
Horcrux was (or, more likely, looked up the word after hearing
Kreacher speak it) doesn't mean that other Wizards would or could do
the same thing. As Montavilla pointed out, Dumbledore's precaution of
removing the books on Horcruxes from the Hogwarts library ironically
made it much less likely that Voldemort's enemies would have any idea
of the concept or any way to find out about it.

Carol, hoping that her view of Regulus is clearer in this post