Six Speculations About the Seventh <em>Harry Potter</em>

Fans who have investigated in the category of whom R.A.B. might be have come to the conclusion that R.A.B. was probably Regulas Black -- Sirius' younger brother.
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1. Slytherin's locket, Snape, and R.A.B.


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.
-Half Blood Prince, p. 609

Fans who have investigated in the category of whom R.A.B. might be have come
to the conclusion that R.A.B. was probably Regulas Black -- the "A" being his
middle name. Regulas was Sirius' younger brother. Sirius hated his brother.
Sirius said to Harry that Regulas, like his parents, had been involved with
all the pure-blood mania in OotP. As briefly mentioned, Regulas was a young
Death Eater, and was killed "by Voldemort, or on his orders" when he was
about eighteen. We know that he only lived a few days after deserting the
Death Eaters as well. But then, why was he killed? How would R.A.B. have
known about the horcruxes if Voldemort intended to keep the horcruxes a
secret?

Remember the cave, where the decoy locket of Slytherin's lay, that held
R.A.B.'s note in it? The boat that took Dumbledore and Harry across that
lake to get to the cave? That boat was only supposed to hold one wizard,
meaning one of age (seventeen or older). Harry was sixteen when he crossed
with Dumbledore, so only Dumbledore counted. If Regulas was in Voldemort's
inner circle, he could have known about the diary, which went into the hands
of Lucius around the time of Regulas's death. The locket probably had been
in that cave for a really long time, seeing the memory in the Pensive in
HBP.

Let's talk about Snape for a moment. There's a pretty popular theory
going around that Snape was in love with Lily Evans (later Lily Potter-
Harry's mom) because she was a charming girl, and was the only person who
ever seemed to give Snape genuine kindness. James Potter, Harry's dad, saved
Snape's life when they were still in school, so Snape owed James a life
debt. When Snape reported the portion of the prophecy that he heard to
Voldemort, Snape realized that he had caused the deaths of James and Lily-
never being able to repay that life debt, and helping the death of the only
woman he had ever loved. Depressing. Naturally, Snape feels guilty.

Assuming that Regulas and Snape were in Voldemort's inner circle around
the same time, there's a small chance that Regulas found out about the
horcruxes, but through investigation, and then told Snape -- Voldemort's still
not going to go around telling his "friends" that he is creating horcruxes.
Regulas would have had a change of heart, and wanted to stop Voldemort -- but
not directly. Only to make the right person (who would be Harry) easier to
kill Voldemort by destroying Voldemort's immortality. But since Voldemort
did not suspect that Regulas knew about the horcruxes, Voldemort still might
have asked Regulas and Snape to hide the locket in the cave. It might have
been days before Regulas turned seventeen, but he still qualified as an
underage wizard. Snape would qualify to cross the lake with Regulas. Then
when they got across, Regulas and Snape could have replaced the locket with
it's decoy, and the note written inside of it would have already been
pre-written. They both would have wanted to stop Voldemort. A Death Eater
could have found them coming back, and killed Regulas a few days after his
seventeenth birthday, since he only managed to live a few days after
deserting the Death Eaters. The Death Eaters might have thought Regulas was
older -- so they thought he turned eighteen when he actually turned seventeen.

In any case, what would be the whereabouts of Slytherin's locket?

In book five, Order of the Pheonix, Harry and the Weasleys go through items in
12 Grimmauld Place. They found a locket, large and concealed, none of them
could open it. This locket that we vaugely see is probably the very locket
of Salazar Slytherin, the very horcrux which is missing at the end of HBP
(Regulas probably hid it in 12 Grimmauld Place).

On the other hand, while it still was probably hiding in 12 Grimmauld Place,
Mundungous Fletcher was caught by Harry stealing Sirius's stuff after Sirius
died. He might have taken this locket, and sold it without realizing it's
intense value. This makes it a lot harder for Harry to track down, but it's
still possible for Book 7.

2. The Prophecy -- and the veil

According to the prophecy we hear from Trewlany in Book Five, "none can live while
the other survives". So either Harry or Voldemort has to kill each other in
the end. Now we know how in B4, Harry's and Voldemort's wands connected
because the wands were brothers. So if brother wands can't hurt their
owners, then they can't kill each other using their wands. I also highly
doubt that one of them would strangle the other one to death, and there
probably wouldn't be enough time to get someone else's wand and use theirs.

Let's think then ... picture Harry and Voldemort battling their
final battle, and their wands can't hurt each other. What else can we think
of that's not using a wand that's still magic? Here's a hint -- "Beyond the
veil". If Harry can pull Voldemort through the veil with him, then it will
be fulfilling the prophecy. None would be living, because clearly, both
would be dead. This also makes sense because that way, it would be very hard
to continue the books, and J.K.R. says frequently that she does not want
anyone to continue the series after her.

We'll just have to wait and see what will happen in Deathly Hallows!

3. Another Possible Death Eater-Order member?

Although Dumbledore trusts Mundungous Fletcher, Molly Weasley disagrees. In
book five, Alastor "Mad-Eye" Moody showed Harry a picture of the Order before
Harry's 1st encounter with LV. Fletcher was not in this picture.

Are we sure that we can trust Fletcher then?

What if the reason that Fletcher was not in that picture was because he was
a Death Eater? I know that some people may get a good vibe about him,
but he was stealing Sirius' stuff. Maybe he took the locket. Then Harry
would have to track him down and find it.

4. In memory of F. and G.

As many of us know, Fabian and Gideon Prewett were Molly Prewett Weaselys¹s
brothers, as it says on page 174 of OotP. They worked for the Order of the
Phoenix, and they were murdered by You-Know-Who's followers.

As Ron once said to Harry, his mother didn't like to talk about her side of
the family much, and she didn't like to talk about her brothers as well.

Suppose Molly¹s twin sons, Fred and George Weasely were named for their
uncles. As we can tell, in book 5, the twins seemed to really take an
interest in the kinds of things that were related to the order, and the
order itself. Likely, they would do anything to stop You-Know-Who and his
death eaters.

What if Fred and George end up fighting for the order? What if they end up
having the same, sad fate as Fabian and Gideon?

Also: Fabian means "Great Warrior".

5. Snape and Lily

When Snape was at Hogwarts, he was an unpopular boy. He was bullied by
James Potter and other students saw it as entertainment. ("Several people
watching him laughed; Snape was clearly unpopular." [OotP, pg.646]) As a
kid, Snape didn't have a very good childhood, as we see when Harry is in an
Occlumency lesson. But there was one person who was sympathetic to him, who
wouldn't laugh at Snape, who stood up for Snape to James and Sirius. This
person was Lily Evans -- Harry's mother. ("Leave him alone," Lily repeated.
She was looking at James with every sign of dislike. "What's he done to
you?" [OotP, pg. 647]) Although they probably weren't really friends, Lily
was the only person who would stand up for him when nobody else would. In
"Snape's Worst Memory" probably isn't the only time where Lily is friendly
towards Snape.

Snape, like other Slytherins, loves all things Slytherin, but that does
not mean that he wouldn't like her because she's Muggle-born, like other
Slytherins probably would (for example, Draco and his father, Pansy
Parkinson, Blaise Zabini and obviously Voldemort). We've seen another
Slytherin who was not prejudiced against Muggle-borns: Horace Slughorn. He
was one of Lily's teachers, and he describes her as, "[One of my
favorites] ... Lily Evans. One of the brightest I ever taught. Vivacious, you
know. Charming girl." [HBP, pg.69-70] This shows that not all Slytherins
hate Muggle-borns, so it¹s very unlikely that Snape would hate Lily for
being Muggle-born, especially being a half-blood himself. But that doesn't
say anything about him loving her.

There isn't much evidence of this idea, but there is one thing. People
may think that Snape was protective enough of this memory to put it in his
Pensieve because of the humiliation of having the school see his underwear.
Lupin says that the spell, "Levicorpus", the spell used to hoist you into
the air by your ankle, was very popular at the time, so Snape, like everyone
else, was a target to this spell, especially being unpopular and all. Now
that Snape is a grown man, and a powerful wizard, the humiliation of having
his underwear shown to the school probably isn't his largest concern. It's
probably because of what he said to James when Lily stood up for Snape ("I
don't need help from filthy little Mudbloods like her!" [OotP, pg. 648]). He
didn't want Lily to see him so vunerable, so he took his anger out on her
even though he didn't mean those words. Doing this, he drove away Lily, the
only person who had ever showed real kindness to him. In our lives, we often
take our anger out on those we love most, and Snape took his anger out on
Lily. Since this memory is one of the three memories in the Pensieve, why
else would this memory be one of them if he didn't care about Lily? So we
are left with is this -- Snape loved Lily, and he was ashamed when he drove
her away with his cruel words.

6. Whatever Father Says, it seems ...

Draco Malfoy has always been considered a bully to Harry and his
friends throughout most of the series. He seems to have been a spitting
image of his father, Lucius Malfoy. Lucius Malfoy is one of Voldemort's
Death Eaters. When we first meet Draco in book 1, he says that he hopes to
be in Slytherin, because his entire family has been in Slytherin. When he
and Harry are talking, Draco says that the muggle-borns shouldn't go to
Hogwarts, because they weren't from old wizarding families that practiced
magic. He also says to Ron, "Think my name's funny, do you? No need to ask
who you are. My father told me all the Weasleys have red hair, freckles, and
more children than they can afford."(pg. 77, SS) Draco is eleven when he
says these things. Does this sound more like Draco or his father talking? I
think it sounds more like his father, and Draco, hearing it a lot, picked it
up, not really understanding what it meant, but using it anyway to sound
cool. At age 11 and having never been to Hogwarts, what are the chances he's
ever even met a muggle-born? In books 2-5, we constantly hear Draco talking
about his father "Father says this, Father says that..." Also, his father
has trained him in a way to respect dark and powerful wizards, like Lord
Voldemort. It seems that Draco is the object under his father's influence-
if you will, his father's victim.

The Malfoy family has always come across as a nasty family, but
they're not really considered a threat until Harry sees Lucius Malfoy in the
graveyard, one of Voldemort's Death Eaters, in Goblet of Fire. This only
supports Harry's theory that the entire Malfoy family is evil. By this
point, Draco is fourteen, and now that he's getting older, he is starting to
truly believe what his father is telling him. He's now getting too far in
under his father's influence. Draco's idea of a great honor is serving
Voldemort. This is all the influence from his father that he'll ever need.
When the D.A. and Harry fight Voldemort and a few of his Death Eaters in the
Department of Mysteries, Lucius is sent to Azkaban. Draco is now without a
mentor, so he turns to Severus Snape, who has "always been Draco's favorite
teacher." (pg. 33, HBP) The relationship between Draco and Snape
has also been a relationship similar to Harry and Dumbledore's. When
Narcissa Malfoy, his mom, realized her son's life was in danger, she turned
to Snape to protect her son. At age 16 Voldemort has found Draco to perform
the task of killing Dumbledore. Voldemort probably knew that he had no
chance against Dumbledore, but he has been recruited to pay for his dad's
failure and being sent to Azkaban. Draco doesn't care and couldn't feel more
honored as we hear him tell his friends in the beginning of HBP on the
Hogwarts Express. He thinks it's the chance to prove himself to the Dark
Lord. Is it really? Soon Draco is overwhelmed by the task and starts to
crack under the pressure. (Draco Malfoy was standing with his back to the
door, his hands clutching either side of the sink, his white-blond head
bowed. "Don't," crooned Moaning Myrtle's voice from one of the cubicles.
"Don't ... tell me what¹s wrong ... I can help you ... "

"No one can help me," said Malfoy. His whole body was shaking. "I can't do
it ... I can't ... It won't work ... and unless I do it soon ... he says he'll kill
me..."

And Harry realized, with a shock so huge it seemed to root him to the spot,
that Malfoy was crying actually crying tears streaming down his pale
face into the grimy basin.
-pg. 521, HBP)

Draco is really scared, and we can sympathize him. Dumbledore is a more
powerful wizard than Voldemort, and even Voldemort, feared by so many, fears
this man. Draco is caught between two ropes -- Dumbledore may possibly harm
Draco for the attempt to kill him, but Voldemort will probably kill him if
Draco doesn't kill Dumbledore. So then who's Draco's bigger fear -- Dumbledore
or Voldemort?

We have watched Draco grow more and more mean throughout the books. His
father has turned him into a Dark Arts lover and we've watched how Snape has
encouraged Malfoy bully Harry and his friends. We've also seen him complain
about Dumbledore for the past six books. The lack of respect for Dumbledore,
however, is another thing acquired from his father. He's just like any other
bully -- a follower and a coward because he's willing to go along with what
the people around him see to be good.


Perhaps Draco actually feels safe at Hogwarts, with Dumbledore. It makes
sense because whether or not Draco was brought up to be a supporter of
Dumbledore, he was brought up by another coward. No matter how braggy and
intimidating Lucius ever was to his son, Draco only fears Voldemort as much,
maybe more, than everyone else does. Even though Draco had immense respect
for Voldemort and was constantly dissing Dumbledore, he knew that Hogwarts
was his sanctuary. At Hogwarts, the only thing he ever really had to worry
about was no more than being a kid. When Draco confronts weakened Dumbledore
on top of the Astronomy tower in HBP, Dumbledore notes that perhaps Draco
was not cut out to be a killer. ("You have been trying with increasing
desperation, to kill me all year. Forgive me Draco, but they have been
feeble attempts...So feeble, to be honest, that I wonder whether your heart
has been really in it."-pg. 585, HBP)


Draco explains how he had set up the cursed necklace, the poisoned mead,
and the pair of vanishing cabinets for entrances of Death Eaters into
Hogwarts. Dumbledore praises him for his cleverness and then Malfoy
"bizarrely seemed to draw courage and comfort from Dumbledore's praise,"
(pg. 587, HBP). Draco was happy to receive praise because it distracted him
from the task that he was assigned to do. Dumbledore offers a plan to hide
him from his parents, Death Eaters and Voldemort. Draco seems interested,
but he changes his mind when he hears the Death Eaters running to his aid.

"But I got this far, didn't I?" he said slowly. "They thought I'd die in
the attempt, but I'm here ... and you're in my power ... I'm the one with the
wand ... you're at my mercy.""No Draco," said Dumbledore quietly. "It is my
mercy, and not yours that matters now."Malfoy did not speak. His mouth was
open, his wand hand still trembling. Harry thought he saw it drop by a
fraction.-pg. 592, HBP

All the Death Eaters want him to kill Dumbledore, do
it quickly and get it over and done with, but Draco just stands there.
Eventually Snape takes charge and does the killing for him. At this point,
the fate of Draco depends on the fate of Snape. Because Draco had refused to
kill Dumbledore, Voldemort is going to be extremely angry at Draco. He will
probably be killed because of his failure. Sadly, he can't really redeem
himself because he's so far off from either side.

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