I Have A Rab Issue

Regulus was killed by Voldemort, or Voldemort ordered someone to kill him, like Sirus said, he probably wasnt important enough for Voldemort to kill him personally

This is true but perhaps the person Voldemort ordered to kill Regulus was on the good side. Like maybe it was Snape he asked to kill him... but Snape didn't because he was really fighting against Voldemort. It's a slightly farfetched theory, I have to admit, but still I think it could be possible.

The Snape-saved-Regulus theory is interesting.
It fits, kind-of. I'm still thinking.

HP-6, page 591, "He cannot kill you if you are already dead. Come over to the right side, Draco, and we can hide you more completely than you can possibly imagine. What is more, I can send members of the Order to your mother tonight to hide her likewwise. Nobody would be surprised that you had died in your attempt to kill me -- forgive me, but Lord Voldemortprobably expects it. Nor would the Death Eaters be surprised that we had captured and killed your mother -- it is what they would do themselves, after all. Your father is safe at the moment in Azkaban... When the time comes, we can protect him too. Come over to the right side, Draco... you are not a killer..."

Mollywobble: I hope you are still with us because I want to say 'Bravo!' You have expressed my own thoughts mare elloquiently than I ever could. Thankyou.
One point though. Where did you get the RAB's middle name is Alphard? REALLY great theory about the uncle but I thought the Black men were named after constillations and (almosts all) the girls after flowers. Maybe that's just first names. So you're probably right.

HarryFan & HPluvr: For a while I was thinking that RAB might be more than one person but the language of the note is in the singular don't you think?? i was also pondering that our Jo might bring another character in at the last minute -VERY Agatha Christie!- but she's never been THAT mean with her clues in the books (her clues on-line ARE hediously misleading.)

I still don't quite understand where people are getting the idea that RAB (if he is Reggie) was murdered. Sirius presumes he was murdered by deatheaters but doesn't seen to have any details because he disowned him along with the rest of the family, years before. If Reggie went off with Kretcher (which explains the whole 'Voldy and all wizards underestimate other magical creatures' moral sub-plot) , got Kretcher to feed him the potion, Reggie got the Horcrux, left the note, staggered off to die in a ditch somewhere leaving Kretcher to take the horcrux to the Black's and under oath not to tell. I don't understand why people think anyone has to have killed Reggie. Am I missing a clue??

Psyduckies: Hello.
If you think Reggie might be alive somwehere, how do we get around the whole 'Harry inherited the house BECAUSE Reggie is dead' thing ??? Then again, if Sirius could stop it going to cousins maybe he could bequeath it away from a younger brother in favour of a Godson??? hmmm

I dunno about the 'Snape's a good guy' thing since I read that interview with Jo on MuggleNet when she inferred that those that thoguht that way were 'wishful thinkers'. I can't imagine that she's led us down the 'Snape's bad' path for this long, just to turn the corner and find.. well, that 'Snape is bad...'... pretty lame really. Where's the beautiful redemption twist at the end??

I still don't get it.
Why do we want to believe that Regulus is alive,
why does it matter, and why do we care?
We never met the guy and know almost nothing about him.

How about that ancestor with Harry's knobbly knees?
Might he still be alive?

BuffyBuff - I dunno really how the thought occured to me about Regulus having Alphard as his middle name. It is mentioned in OotP when they are looking at the Black family tree and Sirius said he kinda liked Alphard because he gave him some money when everyone else had disowned him. Poor Sirius. I thought it was a possibility since a few characters in HP (including Harry himself) have middle names that come from another member of their family, be it father, mother, uncle etc. It could be true, or it may not be - I simply enjoy speculation and really cannot wait until the next book!!!

No one knows for sure how Regulus died though... I don't know if this makes any sense.

This is the third post in a row that i've made tonight where I have to say;
NAAA the bloke's dead!
Reggie is dead i reckon. The point is, was he poisoned or murdered by Deatheaters??
Sirius said he was murdered but gave no proof.
My bet's on poison because I think he is RAB and was poisoned by swollowing the liquid to get to the locket horcrux.

hermione 1990; Can i say how great it is talk to you.
There's no hint in that passage that Reggie has inherited uncle Alphard's name only that Sirius got some money. But, don't you think that that passage is REALLY telling?? Sirius seems so off-handed in his discussion of his own brother's death. There's no mention of where or if the body was found AND there's the tell-tale sign of the conversation being interupted -always a give away of importance in a murderr, thriller story! All we find out is that he wasn't killed by aurors and that Reggie had 'panicked about what he wasa being asked to do and tried to back out'. !!!???? Sounds like a thread waiting to be woven in to me!!!????

Buffster -- send me your e-mail, so I can say "I told ya so."

And yes, I'm sure it's "a thread waiting to be woven in."

Now I'm confused. I thought (from the quoted post) you'd given up on the 'Reggie's alive' thread??

Reggie's death date ("some 15 years before") is on the Blacks' family tree. Two facts are important about this:
The family didn't blast him off the tree and there must have been confirmation of his death/ a body!!
Therefore, Reggie can't have had Deatheaters chasing him (as Sirius thinks) 'cause wouldn't his desertion have earnt him a blasting off the tree?? I mean the Weasley's and Sirius got blasted off for being 'blood traitors' don't you think the Blacks would have blasted Reggie off for the deserting his post/ betrayal? Instead, someone put his death date????

There must have been confirmation of Reggie's death, a body maybe, and his death must have occurred at a time when he was still thought to be on Voldemort's/darkside's side. Who put the death date on the tree, when and what reason were THEY given for his death?
Given the Black's character snd alleigance to Voldemort's side I don't think they would have put his death date on the tree to hide the fact that he is still alive. They would have handed him to the Deatheaters I reckon.
My vote's on the scenario that after drinking the poison, Reggie crawlled home, with Kreachers help, made it back to his family home and died in the arms of his hag of a mum.

Brings up another question though, where did Sirius get his information about his bro's death? He's clearly wrong