R.A.B.

This article is about the character from the Harry Potter series. For other uses, see RAB.

R.A.B. are the initials of a fictional character from J. K. Rowling's Harry Potter fantasy novels. "R.A.B." is a currently unidentified individual who signed a note with his or her initials and placed it in an item that was found near the end of the sixth book, Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince by Harry Potter and Albus Dumbledore, and whose identity will be confirmed in the seventh and final book in the series, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows.

In Chapter 28 of Half-Blood Prince, the following note was found in a locket recovered by Albus Dumbledore and Harry Potter:

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.

The locket was recovered in the belief that it was one of Lord Voldemort's Horcruxes. Harry, along with Hermione and Ron, started to investigate who might have had the initials R.A.B. Hermione searched the books in the school library for the names of any wizards with the correct initials, but found only two: Rosalind Antigone Bungs and Rupert "Axebanger" Brookstanton. However, neither Bungs nor Brookstanton have been seen or heard of previously in the series, and the protagonists brush them off as not having any relationship with Voldemort.

There are no candidates specifically mentioned in the books having exactly R.A.B. as initials, apart from those identified by Hermione. However, there are several characters with surnames beginning with "B" and with unknown christian or middle names. There could also be characters who changed their surname, as by marriage.

The Search for R.A.B.

J. K. Rowling has stated in interviews and on her web site that the sixth book of the Harry Potter series is to a large degree the first part of a two-part story. She has also stated that no new major characters will be introduced in Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, the last book of the Harry Potter series. Readers have drawn the conclusion that the mysterious R.A.B. must represent a person or persons already known in the existing books and that it is possible to determine the identity of R.A.B. by careful study. A wide fan-following of the Harry Potter series began speculating almost immediately about the identity of R.A.B., since this would likely and markedly affect the plot of the seventh book.

Melissa Anelli from The Leaky Cauldron and Emerson Spartz from MuggleNet were invited by J. K. Rowling to interview her immediately after The Half-Blood Prince was published. [1] Emerson asked Rowling, "What's one question you wished to be asked and what would be the answer to the question?"

She replied, "Um — such a good question. What do I wish I could be asked? Today, just today, July the 16th, I was really hoping someone would ask me about R.A.B., and you did it. Just today, because I think that is — well, I hoped that people would."

Melissa asked, "Is there more we should ask about him?" Rowling replied, "There are things you will deduce on further reading, I think — well you two definitely will, for sure — that, yeah, I was really hoping that R.A.B. would come out." As is Rowling's normal policy in such interviews, this did not confirm or deny that R.A.B. had been identified.

Regulus Black

Previously mentioned in the interview quoted above, Anelli suggested to Rowling that R.A.B. could stand for Regulus [A.] Black. Regulus, the younger brother of Harry's godfather Sirius Black, has been mentioned in passing but has not had any plot significance yet. The following conversation ensued:

Rowling: "Well, I think that would be, umm, a fine guess.".

Melissa: "Forgive me if I'm remembering incorrectly, but was Regulus the one who was murdered by Voldemort?"

Rowling: "Well Sirius said he wouldn't have been because he wasn't important enough, remember?"

Melissa: "But that doesn’t have to be true, if [R.A.B.] is writing Voldemort a personal note."

Rowling: "That doesn't necessarily show that Voldemort killed him, personally, but Sirius himself suspected that Regulus got in a little too deep. Like Draco. He was attracted to it, but the reality of what it meant was way too much to handle."

Rowling had already been asked about Regulus prior to the publication of The Half-Blood Prince, during World Book Day online chat, March 4, 2004. Rowling elusively answered the question "Will we be hearing anything from Sirius Black's brother, Regulus, in future books?" with "Well, he's dead, so he's pretty quiet these days."

Regulus is mentioned three times in The Half-Blood Prince, by Albus Dumbledore, by Horace Slughorn, and then by Remus Lupin, early in the book. In comparison, his brother Sirius was mentioned by Hagrid in the opening chapter of the first book, with no further mention until The Prisoner of Azkaban, where he was the title character alongside Harry.

Regulus was a Death Eater who later tried to disassociate himself from Voldemort. He was killed on Voldemort's orders; Sirius notes that he believed Regulus was too unimportant to warrant Voldemort doing this himself.

The note left by R.A.B. addresses Voldemort as the Dark Lord, which Harry points to be an address only used by Death Eaters: "Why do you call Voldemort the Dark Lord? I've only ever heard Death Eaters call him that..." (said to Severus Snape). Other than Snape, who was a former Death Eater (and Harry knew this), few other characters regularly use the term: Barty Crouch Senior did .

Regulus' middle initial is unknown (it does not appear on the family tree tapestry at 12 Grimmauld Place, the Black family home and headquarters of The Order of the Phoenix). However, the names Alphard (his uncle), and Arcturus (his grandfather), appear on the Black Family Tree. The family tree was derived from a hand-drawn sketch of the tree made by J.K. Rowling herself, and from information extracted from the novels and various interviews.

The object that replaced the real Horcrux was a locket. Dumbledore believed the real Horcrux to also be a heavy gold locket, once the property of Salazar Slytherin. Chapter Six of The Order of the Phoenix mentions a heavy, unopenable locket in a glass case at number 12 Grimmauld Place, its current wherabouts are unknown.

Hints from foreign edition translations of R.A.B. and Black

In several foreign-language versions of the series, the surname Black has been translated into the respective language to correspond to the colour "black". In those cases, the 'B' in R.A.B. has been changed accordingly. For example, the Dutch edition uses the initials R.A.Z. in the locket note, and the Black family name is Zwarts, corresponding to "zwart". In the Norwegian edition, the note has R.A.S. (corresponding to the Svaart family or"svart"), and the Finnish edition has the letters R.A.M., (corresponding to the Musta family, or "musta"). In other editions where the Black family name is not translated to the local language, the initials remain "R.A.B.". For example, the Swedish, Spanish, and French translations keep the family name "Black", rather than translating it to the respective Swedish, Spanish, or French words for "black" ("svart", "negro", and "noir" respectively), and the initials remain as "R.A.B." .

The fact that the initials R.A.B. correspond to the Black family name consistently across various language editions gives fair support to Regulus Black being R.A.B., or at least it supports a member of the Black family. There are, of course, other Black family members that could fit the identity of R.A.B. For example, Nymphadora Tonks's mother Andromeda, whose maiden name was Black, and whose given name is uncertain; there is also an Alphard Black (whose name was stricken from the Black Family Tree for giving support to the disowned Sirius Black).

HP Lexicon's "leak"

Toward the end of the summer in 2005, The Harry Potter Lexicon reported that a "well-placed source" confirmed that R.A.B. stood for "Regulus Arcturus Black". Soon afterward, this was removed from the site, allegedly at the publisher's request. The founder of HP-Lexicon, Steve Vander Ark, made the following comment on another fan website, The Leaky Cauldron:

Obviously, Jo is the source of this information. When have you ever known me to post rumours as facts? It's from Jo. That doesn't mean she talked to me directly, of course, but I do know that it came from Jo. I honestly think that Jo figures she's already told us that it's Regulus. Read the Melissa/Emerson interview. I think she would be surprised that this is even an issue. I have asked permission to reveal who told me. If they say I can, I'll let you all know. Otherwise, feel free to take this with whatever grain of salt you need to.

Steve

In MuggleCast Episode 7, Melissa Anelli reported that she had a good idea what the source was, but that she would not be much more specific out of respect for the HP-Lexicon's webmaster. However, she did somewhat defend the credibility of the source and hint at his/her identity with the following statement:

Well, I just want to address what people say, when they say how could it be anybody other than JK Rowling? It could very well be somebody other than JK Rowling. Clearly any information that is accurate about the books ultimately comes from JK Rowling, but many people are now involved making sure her books go around the world, go into different editions, go to the illustrators. You know what I mean? So different people need to see different things.

Portuguese Translator "Leak"

The translator of the Portuguese language editions of the Harry Potter books, Isabel Nunes, stated that she asked Rowling the sex of the character, so she could translate all references to "R.A.B." correctly. Nunes claims that Rowling told her the full identity of the character was "Regulus Arcturus Black.". Rowling has not confirmed this revelation herself.

External links

• Full transcript of interview with J. K. Rowling available from Mugglenet (here)
• Harry Potter Lexicon biography of Regulus Black [2]

Bibliography

• Rowling, J. K. (2003). Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix. London: Bloomsbury/New York City: Scholastic, et al. UK ISBN 0-7475-5100-6/U.S. ISBN 0-439-35806-X.
• Rowling, J. K. (2005). Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince. London: Bloomsbury/New York City: Scholastic, et al. UK ISBN 0-7475-8108-8/U.S. ISBN 0-439-78454-9.