Who Is the Mysterious R.A.B.?
When Harry found the substituted locket/Horcrux after Professor
Dumbledore died, the note inside the locket said:
To the Dark Lord
I know I will be dead long before you read this
but I want you to know that it was I who discovered your secret.
I have stolen the real Horcrux and intend to destroy it as soon as I can.
I face death in the hope that when you meet your match,
you will be mortal once more.
R.A.B. (HBP28)
But who is R.A.B.? I agree with Hermione that it is highly unlikely
to be Rosalind Antigone Bungs or Rupert "Axebanger" Brookstanton
(HBP30). But just who in the Wizarding world could it be? To rephrase the
Grinch, I puzzled three hours, 'till my puzzler was sore, and then I thought
of something I hadn't before! So I looked for any clues hidden in the note.
To the Dark Lord
This note was addressed to the Dark Lord. Not Lord Voldemort, Tom Riddle,
You-Know-Who, or He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named. As Harry noted, only the Death
Eaters called Voldemort the Dark Lord (OP26). So, R.A.B. must have been a
Death Eater.
I know I will be dead long before you read this.
So exactly what could it be that horrified a Death Eater so much that he refused
to do it, knowing that to do so was to sign his own death warrant?
I have stolen
Thus we know that this locket was stolen; it was not retrieved with Voldemort's
permission. And, as we know from Harry's and Dumbledore's excursion into the
cave, only an extremely powerful wizard could have retrieved the Horcrux.
As Dumbledore said: "The protection was … after all … well-designed
… One alone could not have done it" (HBP26). We do not know if R.A.B.
acted alone or had an accomplice.
the real Horcrux.
This tells us that this wizard knew that Voldemort had a Horcrux, and he knew
where it was hidden, but he thought that Voldemort only had one Horcrux. After
all, as Dumbledore told Harry, "Do not forget that Lord Voldemort believes
that he alone knows about his Horcruxes" (HBP26). Even Lucius Malfoy
did not know that the diary was really a Horcrux (HBP23).
and intend to destroy it as soon as I can.
Note that the wizard who stole the Horcrux intended to destroy it, but he
may not have been able to before he was killed. As Dumbledore note: "He
[Voldemort] would not want to immediately kill the person who reached this
island … he would want to keep them alive long enough long enough to
find out how they managed to penetrate so far through his defenses …
and why they were so intent upon emptying the basin" (HBP26).
I face death in the hope that when you meet your match.
Now this is interesting, very interesting. Note that R.A.B. said, "When
you meet your match." Did R.A.B. know about the prophecy concerning Voldemort
and Harry Potter? Now I will digress a little before I continue my analysis.
I do NOT believe that it was Snape who overheard the first part of Sibyll
Trelawney's prophecy, this was just another one of J.K. Rowling's big fat
red herrings. Let's go back and examine what Trelawney told Harry: "I
remember I was starting to feel a little odd … but then we were rudely
interrupted by Severus Snape … there was a commotion outside the door
and it flew open, and there was that rather uncouth barman standing with Snape
(HBP25). But when we look back at what Dumbledore actually told Harry: "The
eavesdropper was detected only a short way into the prophecy and thrown from
the building" (OP37). Sybill Trelawney did not go into a trance, begin
the prophecy, wake up when Snape intruded, then go back into another trance
and finish the prophecy. She only woke up after the full prophecy was given
and a second eavesdropper (Severus Snape) was detected outside the door. I
believe that Snape heard the last part of the prophecy: "And either must
die at the hand of the other for neither can live while the other survives.
… The one with the power to vanquish the Dark Lord will be born as the
seventh month dies" (OP37). Snape did overhear part of the prophecy,
and he told Voldemort what he heard. So it is entirely possible that it was
R.A.B. who overheard the first part of the prophecy, was tossed out of the
Hogs Head, and knew that Lord Voldemort could be vanquished.
you will be mortal once more.
As Dumbledore told Harry, "Without his Horcruxes, Voldemort will be a
mortal man with a maimed and diminished soul" although "his brain
and magical powers remain intact" (HBP23). But Voldemort will be mortal
again and can be killed. The word mortal in these two instances is significant,
because the work is rarely, if ever, used anywhere else in the books.
R.A.B.
Well, now, just who is R.A.B.? Although it could be a new character, Rosalind
Antigone Bungs, or Rupert "Axebanger" Brookstanton, it could also
be … but could it really be … Regulus Black? Let's examine what
we know about Regulus.
· Regulus was a Death Eater. As we learned from Sirius,
Regulus was a "stupid idiot … he joined the Death Eaters" (OP6).
· Why would Regulus want to leave the Death Eaters? As we also learned
from Sirius: "From what I found out after he died, he got in so far,
then panicked about what he was being asked to do and tried to back out. Well,
you don't just hand in your resignation to Voldemort. It's a lifetime of service
or death" (OP6). So exactly what was it that horrified a Death Eater
so much that he refused to do it, knowing that to do so was to sign his own
death warrant? Could it possibly have been a plan to murder a baby in cold
blood and then use that murder to create a Horcrux? As Dumbledore said, "[Voldemort]
seems to have reserved the process of making Horcruxes for particularly significant
deaths. You would certainly have been that. He believed that in killing you,
he was destroying the danger the prophecy had outlined … making himself
invincible… to make his final Horcrux with your death" (HBP23).
· Was Regulus a brilliant wizard? We don't know, but as Horace Slughorn
told us" "The whole Black family had been in my House [Slytherin],
but Sirius ended up in Gryffindor … he [Sirius] was a talented boy. I
got his brother, Regulus, when he came along, but I'd have liked the set"
(HBP4). This doesn't tell us that Regulus was brilliant, but he could have
been as intelligent as Sirius, and Sirius was an animagus by his fifth year
at Hogwarts.
· When did Regulus die? "Sirius jabbed a finger at the very bottom
of the tree, at the name REGULUS BLACK. A date of death (some fifteen years
previously) followed the date of birth" (OP6). Thus, Regulus was killed
in the year following the murder of Harry's parents.
· If R.A.B. is Regulus, of course he could have fled to number twelve,
Grimmauld Place after he stole the locket, because his father had "put
every security measure known to Wizard-kind on it when he lived here. It's
Unplottable" (OP6). Then Slytherin's locket could possibly be the "heavy
locket that none of them could open" (OP6).
Well, this is just a theory. And it will be a long two years
before we find out who R.A.B. really is! And if I'm right, I'll just have
to "carve the roast beast."
Written by Elizabeth
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