New RAB theory...

[Judy]

I said:
>> What I find most convincing against Regulus the Elder being R.A.B.
>> however, is the inferi in the cave.  Voldemort didn't have all 
>> those inferi at his disposal back in 1959.... The presence of the 
>> inferi leads me to conclude that the cave was set up fairly late, 
>> well into Voldemort's first reign of terror.

And Carolyn replied:
> Also don't see why he could not have assembled quite a lot of 
> inferi by 1959. All they are are corpses bewitched to do a 
> wizard's He could have commanded any number of them from 
> graveyards all over the place, he didn't have to have actually 
> murdered them all himself.
> 
> Though I agree, the dating of the cave protections is an 
> interesting point. If he put it all together much later, as you 
> argue, then that makes it much more likely the locket could have 
> been swapped before it ever got there - but can't believe that 
> Voldie would never have noticed that fact. And where did he stash 
> the locket for 20 years or more since he murdered Hepzibah for it
> (and the cup)?

True, I should have pointed out that I was assuming the inferi were 
people killed by Voldemort or his followers, and we don't really know 
that.  Being able to use just any ol' dead body as an inferus strikes 
me as too easy, but I can't be sure it doesn't work this way. The 
mentions of Voldemort using Inferi refer to his previous reign of 
terror rather than earlier, but if he had earlier used inferi only in 
secret places such as the cave, the wizarding world might not have 
realized that he had inferi. 

Another reason to think that the cave was set up fairly late, though, 
was that Voldemort seemed to make horcruxes very gradually, only when 
he thought a murder was sufficiently important.  We have on 
Dumbledore's authority that Voldemort only made five horcruxes prior 
to losing his body at Godric's Hollow.  The diary seems to be the 
first Horcrux Voldemort made.  I don't know for sure whether the ring 
was the second Horcrux, but he did acquire the ring before the 
locket, so the locket may have been the third horcrux, or even a 
later one.  1959, the date of death of the elder Regulus, strikes me 
as early for Voldemort to have made three horcruxes, since he had 
only made five by 1981. 

Also, the protections on the locket seem extremely thorough, which 
also makes me think ithe locket horcrux was made relatively late, 
when Voldemort's skills were very advanced. (And if any of the 
remaining horcruxes have protections that are better than the 
locket's, I don't see how the Trio are going to get through them.) 

Of course, as Eusrace noticed, maybe the dates in the family tree are 
wrong anyway.  Argh!

As for where Voldemort stashed the locket -- well, he wore the ring, 
and later hid the ring horcrux in the ruins of the old Gaunt place, 
and he left the diary horcrux with Lucius.  He seems wlling to use a 
variety of hiding places.  

-- Judy