His Little Helper

[Jen Reese]

New personal ranking for HP series:

HBP
POA
PS/SS
COS
GOF 
(or the reverse on the above two, can't decide)
OOTP

Carolyn:
> What I just don't get is why anyone thinks Regulus is up to 
> retrieving the locket in the first place, and re-
creating/inventing a 
> very complex potion, then leaving everything shipshape and tidy so
> no one notices he's been there.

Jen: Maybe because we can't come up with anyone else? It does seem 
too simple, but I'm not the only one who has combed the books for 
someone else and come up empty-handed. It would be like JKR to make 
it look so simple then discover someone else didn't actually go by 
their given name or, god forbid, she invents a new character.

Personally, the only other name I can come up with is one of the 
Bones family, and we don't know first names there. I've also heard 
Borgin or Burkes. I did hear an interesting suggestion that Binns 
could be the one, seeing as we never discovered why he died nor why 
he's a ghost. He would probably be my first choice of the lot!

But maybe you're right that we should be looking for one who would 
be capable of first locating the cave, i.e. knowing enough about TR 
to find it, then having the power to work through the magical 
obstacle course inside.

Carolyn:
> Firstly, as has already been pointed out I think, Voldemort
> doesn't seem to know his locket is missing, so he has no big
> reason to kill Regulus apart from Reg wimping out of being a DE.
> And, surely, if Voldemort had read that note, he wouldn't have 
> left it there for the next person to find? What would have been
> the point, except humiliation for him?

Jen: Dumbledore said he doesn't believe Voldemort knows when a part 
of his soul is destroyed. Maybe he doesn't, but he would certainly 
have some way of knowing when his magical defenses are being 
penetrated; otherwise, what's the use? 

If that premise is true, then the stealing of the locket happened 
when he was Vapormort, like the diary, which he was also unaware of. 
In that case it wouldn't be Regulus. 

Carolyn:
> Thirdly, the person who did do it could only have found the cave
> if they knew something of young Tom Riddle's past, and as DD has
> pointed out, very, very few people do. I could accept that they
> took Regulus along as an underage assistant, and possibly made him
> drink the potion and that's why he both ran away and subsequently
> died, but not that he organised the expedition.

Jen: This is a good point, about finding the cave. It sounds like it 
took DD the better part of 4 years to figure out the Horcrux idea 
and start locating objects. That on top of everything he knew about 
TR to begin with, which was more than anyone else.

I agree with your points about Regulus, his age, his skill level, 
etc. Also, why drag the Blacks back in at this point unless there's 
another mystery involved? We pretty much exhausted the family tree 
and from the evidence we see that many of the living family members 
are loyal to Voldemort, it's hard to argue with Sirius about family 
allegiance. 

But if not Regulus, who else? ;) 

Carolyn
> So why would the perpetrator leave Regulus' initials on the note?
> The only conclusion is that they are not his initials, but perhaps 
> another member of the Black family. What exactly happened to 
> Sirius' and Regulus' father, for instance? He'd be the right age
> to have gone to school with Riddle. 

Jen: Whoever it was wanted credit, for Voldemort alone to know 
he/she had a hand in defeating him. It's odd we didn't hear more 
about Mr. Black, although after meeting the Missus, well, you can 
kind of understand. 

Another thought, asking about old school chums. You do wonder what 
happened to all of them. TR must have made a few enemies at 
Hogwarts, like he did at the orphanage. The only DE we know for sure 
was his age is Avery (unless the Avery in the memory with Riddle and 
Slughorn was the current Avery's father).

Jen, agreeing with Kneasy that RAB could also be a self-given title 
name like HBP or LV.