"R.A.B.": Rowling reveals the big Harry Potter mystery

Toward the end of Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, Harry and Professor Dumbledore embarked on a quest to find one of Voldemort's Horcruxes (a Horcrux is an object containing part of a person's soul, so that as long as the Horcrux exists that person is immortal). They believed they had found it in a locket hidden in a faraway cave. Dumbledore almost died in the process of recovering it. They transported back to Hogwarts just as Voldemort's followers had begun a full-scale invasion of the school. Then came the most unkind cut of all: Dumbledore was murdered in cold blood by Severus Snape... who Dumbledore had insisted to everyone that he trusted completely.

Later, as he looked on Dumbledore's dead body, Harry noticed that the locket isn't the one they were supposed to be looking for at all. And inside, on a piece of parchment, he found a note:

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.

For more than a year now fans have been speculating about who "R.A.B." might be, and there's been one standout name that a lot of evidence has been pointing to. Well, it looks like J.K. Rowling herself has let it slip just who "R.A.B." is. From the Nimbus Network in Portugal...

Who is R.A.B.? - Short Summary

Publicado por Nadir Tejani @ 09-10-2006
Comentários: 0

To clarify any misunderstandings, Nimbus Network would like to explain international websites how we got the information about R.A.B. identity.

(Spoiler Warning)

On the 26th of October, 2005, Nimbus Network received a message from Isabel Nunes, responsible for the translation and coordination of the Portuguese versions of the Harry Potter series. In that message, Mrs. Nunes told us directly who R.A.B. was:

Since it is common knowledge, and it was already confirmed by JKR (when we asked her about the character's sex), I don't mind telling you: R.A.B. is Regulus Arcturus Black.

Although we wanted to tell everyone who R.A.B. was, we asked Mrs. Nunes for more details about the revelation - it wouldn't be professional to disclose an information this important. The answer arrived three days later:

Dear Nadir

I've decided to send the confirmation due to many speculations concerning the identity of RAB. It may bring doubts about its credibility, so I'll explain: there is an informal group of translators of the Harry Potter books who kept in touch during the translation of HP6, which, while exchanging ideias and informations, managed to overcome some difficulties. JKR's agent was posed a question concerning the sex of RAB (this is not the first situation of this kind, as has also happened with the characters of Sinistra and Blaise Zabini). It's always needed to proceed through writers' agents because there isn't any direct contact with the writer. We were truly amazed when the written answer had not only the sex but the true identity of R.A.B. To be truly honest, we don't have any clearance to disclose this but we hadn't been told otherwise. There was not any direct concerning about not publishing this information...

All that was needed was his middle name, and it looks like it all falls neatly into place: Regulus Black, the younger brother of Sirius Black. All we really know about Regulus is what Sirius told Harry: Regulus was one of Voldemort's followers, the Death Eaters. But then Regulus decided that he was in way over his head and tried to get out... except that once you commit to following Voldemort it really is a lifetime thing. He was killed, probably by another Death Eater on Voldemort's orders.

So if R.A.B. was Regulus Black, and Regulus did manage to steal the real locket that was the Horcrux... where is that locket now?

Look in the pages of Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, particularly the part where Harry and the others are doing some housecleaning around Number 12 Grimmauld Place.