Did Voldemort plan to set Regulus up?

[sunnyskywalker]

Kreacher tells us that Regulus joined the Death Eaters when he was sixteen. Which at first sounds unimportant. After all, Draco too (if we accept Harry’s prejudiced jump to that conclusion-but let’s do so for the sake of argument) took the Dark Mark at that age. And Voldemort seems to recruit most of his followers young, when they’re easier to

Comments

[oryx_leucoryx]

Voldemort did not expect Kreacher to survive, yet in OOTP Kreacher was reporting to Narcissa whatever he could get past the Fidelius Charm, Tom himself was able to make use of that information (with the vision he chose to send Harry) - without connecting those dots. I wonder what Narcissa did to explain the source of her information.

[sunnyskywalker]

That's a very good question. Does he think she's talking about a Kreacher Junior, or that the Blacks got a new house-elf when theirs went missing?

Did he think that okay, the elf survived, but--as one would expect if house-elves are as universally Stockholmed as Voldemort might think (he's never met Dobby)--he obviously had no objection to being poisoned if he's still trying to help My Side? (Because of course it's about Voldemort, not the Black family.) And then Regulus disappearing shortly afterward was, er, coincidence. That would be careless of Voldemort not to follow up on. But he had a lot on his mind, and he barely even thought about the elf he poisoned at the time and that was ages ago, and he spent over a decade barely holding his vapor-self together in the meantime, so maybe that lapse is understandable

[oryx_leucoryx]

Narcissa would be vague because she places family above all, and both she and Lucius already decided way back that the Dark Lord was Bad News for their family. Hence no 'spare' to their heir, and all of Lucius' schemes in books 2 to the early part of 4 were about his own power, not in Tom's service.

[sunnyskywalker]

Hm, so she'd think that even reminding Voldemort that such a person as her late aunt's house-elf even existed posed a threat to Kreacher? Or at least, that he existed and might know something about Dumbledore's plans? That sounds plausible. It might tempt Voldemort to try to get his hands on Kreacher and interrogate him.

And I don't think Dobby ever claimed Narcissa ordered him to punish himself. Lucius and "the family" (which might still have included Abraxas at that point), but not Narcissa. She might unhesitatingly do what she could to protect the family house-elf (as long as her husband wasn't the one he needed protecting from)--as Regulus did the minute he realized Voldemort hurt Kreacher. (He failed, but might not have realized how hard it was to destroy a Horcrux. He might well have thought Kreacher could destroy the thing and get his revenge, and then Voldemort would inevitably die in the war and everyone else would live happily ever after.)

[chantaldormand]

Actually, 16 is the perfect age to recruit- that’s the age young people starts to get aware of their political leanings but don’t have enough life experience to detect red flags. That’s why so many cults recruit people in this age group

[sunnyskywalker]

I guess I should rephrase it as, why would it be so imperative to them at sixteen rather than seventeen?

They're still too inexperienced at seventeen to pick up on those red flags, still plenty impulsive and susceptible to peer pressure, and still offer all those advantages of making sure they don't join Dumbledore and so forth. But they can also be slightly more useful as soon as they join, and will spend a little less time under Dumbledore's observation (less time to get caught). So, what would Voldemort gain from those few extra months that he can't get just as well by (special missions like Draco's excepted) recruiting only schoolkids old enough to use their wands off campus without getting caught?