— mia𖤐

fyi : before i want to clarify that this came from me trying to build an AU around the idea of what would’ve happened if regulus survived the cave. I felt like i couldn’t really start writing it without doing an analysis of his character first, so this also includes my own thoughts on that What If idea

Also, remember that this is just my personal interpretation of him. Some people probably won’t agree with everything i say and that’s completely fine ofc, i’m always open to hearing different opinions and discussing them <3 (and don't take it TOO seriously)

last thing, english is not my first language!! shout out to oomfs on twt Leo @ _dlbyh and Dani @ nesquickklol for helping with some things xx 🫂

The character of Regulus is always told by other external characters, always from a third, which makes it a tragic trait in my opinion. We hear from him for the first time from a dialogue between Sirius and Harry "My idiot Brother, soft enough to believe them" we know about Regulus thanks to Kreacher's nostalgia, for the prejudices of his lastname and for being the mystery of someone who disappeared without a trace. We never see Regulus as a character of his own and that's exactly why it gives us so many space to analyze and, as a fandom, find him potential.

Regulus grows up with the Blacks, a family that is not recognized for acting as a typical family, you could even say that it works like a dynasty. Each family member is expected to represent their role: the image of purity, a reputation, tradition, supremacy, aristocracy, etc. Here begins one of the biggest differences between Regulus and Sirius. One rebels against the mold they want to impose on him, while the other accepts it and adapts.

An obedient son, "golden child" if you want to call it, does not come out of nowhere...beliefs do not come from the birth of one. a fanaticism like the one Regulus came to have was born from the need for approval.

when Sirius escapes in 1975 at the age of 16, Regulus automatically takes his place, with the difference that he was now inside this whole system on his own. the last chance of the family.

(i want to emphasize that child abuse does not only count when one of the children receives all the abuse and the other does not. It also affects the child who is "not touched" because he grows up with the message that, if he dares to act differently from what is expected (as Sirius, in this case)he will end up receiving the same treatment. Although they do not suffer exactly the same type of abuse, both end up being affected) (thats why always end up irritated af when someone says that neither/one of them was abused..)

So Regulus ends up growing up under this extremist roof that we already know has been followed for long past generations of the Blacks. He ends up internalizing and firmly believing these ideologies raised since his childhood, and because it's also what he is expected to do. I would even say that his value depends only on how proud he makes his parents(I could extend this part talking about how this would also be visibly reflected in his academics, quidditch, and social life, but that’s not what I mainly want to focus on right now)

Everything I said above fits with the little information canon gives us about him, being this admirer of a new Dark Lord who promised a world with order that benefited people like Regulus and his family, pureblood wizards. It also fits with the fact that he supported the cause and collected newspaper clippings about Voldemort.

We know that he joins Voldemort’s side at the age of 16, mid-teen years, and to me, as someone willing to devote himself to the cause, believing that he has finally found a purpose and validation external to Walburga and Orion

i like to highlight this point because it helps us to be able to interpret that his change was more than anything an emotional disappointment and not necessarily a political one at first. An idealization to this leader that a 16 year old believed and faithfully followed.

I'd even say that being one of the youngest Death Eaters we know (along with Draco), he was not 100% aware of the true way of acting that Voldemort had, the level of cruelty that his person was capable of for his cause. Perhaps the other Death Eaters were already used to that image, who knows? It’s not like someone could just wake up one day and decide to stop being a Death Eater and leave though. Regulus surely knew that, and he understood what the main ideas were from the beginning.

He was sold an image of power, honor and a restoration of prestige that he believed would benefit their world, a "noble" place for his own perhaps, within all the elitist doctrine.

and suddenly, this whole image is broken with a clash of reality that comes after Kreacher's return from the cave.

it says that Voldemort asks Regulus to lend him a house elf, and of course, desperate to satisfy and make his Lord proud, he offers Kreacher.

but I think Regulus was also aware of something and that is that he knows that Voldemort does not value anyone other than himself. If he doesn't do it with his own followers, why would he do it with a simple house elf?An inferior creature? I suppose the order that Regulus gives Kreacher to return home comes from there.

regulus' relationship with Kreacher is something that is overlooked very veryy often in the fandom, and it's funny because it's probably one of the few relationships with real genuine affection that Regulus had (omfg I sound like a kreacher x regulus shipper fr bye)

it was a big affection that they had for each other, and it was a real one. It was not based on the lastname or the role of master-servant. everytime the elf remembers Regulus, he does it with affection and admiration, even so many years later. It was not something that was overlooked the fact that a member of the Black family (or just a pure blood from the sacred 28) treated with kindness and dignity a creature that even the same wizards and witches treated with inferiority.

I'd say that it was a mistake of Voldemort himself, not only to hurt Kreacher by using him as a test subject for the horrocrux potion, but also to indirectly hurt Regulus through him, since that ended up leading to one of his own followers betraying him and discovering his secret.

I think that's where the first break in Regulus' ideology began. I'm not saying it was an automatic "awakening" where from one day to the next he changed sides and understood that all his beliefs were wrong. Yes, kreacher changed the perspective on things, but it was not something immediate...I would rather call it the trigger factor. Regulus would go at a much slower pace and clearly(imo)never being able to conclude that path thanks to his sudden death.

he would have to forget everything on which his childhood was based, deconstruct himself, his identity and begin to abandon those principles.

it meant accepting that ..perhaps Sirius was always right(tragic ik), that he was raised in a manipulative and almost sectarian way and, even worse, the fact that he was voluntarily part of something monstrous from which he could not easily escape.

All this makes his end feel like an act driven more by self awareness and guilt than a sudden change of ideology since he already went to the cave knowing what awaited him and without trying to clear his name or leave any clue so that someone in the future could understand him. he just disappears from the map, making a solo plan meant to weaken Tom a little, even if is just a scratch

and by scratch i mean to show the big gap between them since Regulus is far from Voldemort’s level or even the inner circle he is part of is probably in a low death eaters level. So what he can realistically do is limited to the Horcrux plan, reflecting that he cannot confront Tom directly, which is why he targets what he can reach

"[...] I face death with the hope that when you face your destiny you will be mortal once again. - R.A.B."

it's a different type of redemption since it can be left to interpretation that he understood the things too late but still decided to act.

and now..the part for which I started writing all this

What would have happened if Regulus had survived? Would his ideology change or would he return to his roots?

Some think that because he betrayed Voldemort, he would join Sirius/The Order/Dumbledore etc. I think it's a secret third option. Not again with the death eaters, not on the side of the order, but on his own side and away from the other two.

lets suppose that somehow he survives the infieri, managing to get out of the cave. Putting aside all the external damage of everything that happened in there... he would then continue to have this internal struggle with himself that I already mentioned. Having to face that reality he chose and the weight it means to have been a proud death eater and believer in those ideals.

not saying that, because he regretted it, it's going to erase his decisions. The entire organization of the Death Eaters was full of blood and suffering of others, built by that idea of superiority towards those of "impure" blood, and Regulus was not unaware of that. He knew perfectly well what kind of organization he was being part of.

I consider that this Regulus post-cave would not believe that he deserves forgiveness and that he would carry a (deserved) guilt for the rest of his life. He becomes kind of a broken character, especially considering that for the first time he would have to rebuild his identity alone, without anyone else's influence.

if all his life until that moment, everything was based on being The heir of the Noble House of Black ....what comes next? What's beyond? Who is Regulus Black if he rejects his family's ideology, the role they gave him and his loyalty to the cause?

his survival from there would force him, so to speak, to go through something that Sirius did not go through completely: unlearning.

Sirius always had his rebellion from a young age, even before meeting the rest of the marauders; with them he only found an alternative identity (thats why i think that when someoke says that "if Sirius had never met James, he would probably have ended up not very different from his family" is a giant idiocy tbh). Regulus was the exact opposite of all that

He stayed in that bubble for too long, enjoying that life that made him believe that he was better than others, but at the same time he also absorbed too much of all that ideology from a very young age.

so in this au, he would have to learn to unlearn years and years of teaching of his life and that means: behaviors, ideas of blood status and power, treatment of people with different social position, automatic prejudice, superiority, etc.

I feel that there are options for him where 1) he ends the same as the canon, dying but by suicide maybe, or 2) living in a self-destructive way, perhaps as a form of regrets, trying...or better say, simply not giving importance to the risk that he was exposed. He has to remain tragic in my head for his character to make sense, but not necessarily through death, but because his essence would be based more than anything on self reflection, guilt, feeling like he owes a debt to life itself and a strong conflict of identity.

his story begins with a certain way of being, which is to be the image of an ideology, and then ends with all of that shattered once he realizes the reality his fascist fanaticism had blinded him to.

there is something in his ending that could even be called hopeful (let's put it that way for now) and that reminds me so much of the scene where Sirius talks to Harry in Grimmauld:

"The world isn't split into good people and Death Eaters. We've all got both light and dark inside us. What matters is the part we choose to act on... that's who we really are"

Because although it happens in his last moments, Regulus stopped "listening to the darkness" and choosing to act correctly even knowing that he was not going to have witnesses. Perhaps that is the most important thing, that no matter how much he was born and raised in an elitist environment (and listening to it for... practically all his life) he was not incapable in the end to question it. Yes, too late and without a real achievement, but he did it anyway.

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