His Little Helper

[snow15145]

Magda:
> Regulus was RAB. I'm betting on it.

Potioncat:

The only reason I have doubts is that it's too easy. Of course, it's
only easy for Potter-heads like us.

So, I think you're right and here's why.
RAB didn't go to the cave and remove the locket. Nor did he destroy
the hornbook. He was the one assigned to place the locket (and we're
all asssuming it was a locket) in the cave in the first place; and I
think he knew he wouldn't be coming out. He knew what it was, but
didn't know to destroy it.

So Reggie stops by his house, swtiches the lockets, and goes on the
mission. He leaves a "Gotcha" note for the Big Guy, knowing that one
day LV would come looking for it.

They didn't find his body did they? It's in the lake with the other
Inferi.
Kathy W

Snow:

I liked this idea Kathy, a lot... but I think we may be thinking of 
this theft as having had to take place after LV planted the locket in 
the cave. 

What if Regulus changed the locket (or had it changed) with the fake 
one before LV ever took it into the cave? It seems highly unlikely 
that the liquid protection over the locket had ever been removed and 
replaced. Dumbledore seems to think that it would have taken two 
wizards to do what Harry and he had done. That would leave me with 
the suspicion that the undetected locket switch occurred before it 
was placed in the Pencieve-like-bowl by LV. 

One possibility could be the reason why LV came to Hogwarts to ask 
Dumbledore for a position there. It was an attempt to get inside the 
castle to where he had left the necklace-Horcrux for safe keeping at 
the time it was made. When LV was unable to obtain the Horcrux he 
appointed a young Regulus Black, as a junior deatheater, to find an 
item he wished to have that he had previously left at Hogwarts. 
Regulus may have been part of the Slug Club at that time and learned 
vaguely of the Horcrux properties. Regulus put two and two together 
and switched the necklace with a similar one that was in the Black 
home. 

The note that Regulus left in the locket sounds like he felt LV would 
have detected the switch long after Regulus was killed. So although 
Regulus may have been asked to retrieve the locket, he might have 
only got as far as switching the locket, and wasn't killed because of 
it. The realization of the extent Voldemort would go to (of splitting 
his soul) could be why Regulus decided to back out of the deatheater 
society. Regulus of course knew what that would mean for him and 
assumed he would be dead as a result of leaving the deatheaters long 
before LV found out about the switch. 

Just another thought

Snow