Pretty sure that yes, Orion was the one who fortified Grimmauld Place--we just don't know for sure why. Sirius assumes his parents must have been delighted when Regulus signed up with Voldemort, but he's been majorly wrong about people before (like, oh, Peter). His family was tight with the Ministry, so who else would they have been afraid of? Sirius himself storming the house and bringing the whole Order of the Phoenix with him? I mean, I suppose that isn't impossible, but if they really feared that, someone is withholding a lot of information about what the Order did during the first war. The Blacks being afraid of Voldemort and not realizing Regulus had signed up until it was too late seems far more likely.
As for why they're in a Muggle townhouse built recently enough to have gaslights, one can only assume that any ancestral country home they had was lost long ago. They were rich (again?) by the time Sirius was born, but maybe had major financial troubles a couple of centuries ago and had to sell it off? Or gambled it away? Wizards wouldn't need a house in town the way Muggles would (they don't have to suffer days-long jolting carriage rides to get to London when they can Floo and Apparate), so probably the townhouse was a place a younger family member used to live out from under the oversight of family elders who didn't approve of too much carousing, or maybe was the place where someone stashed a lover. (Possibly a Muggle lover.)
Huh. I wonder if Regulus was, oddly enough, counting on his brother? Say that he reasonably believes the locket is Voldemort's sole horcrux, that Kreacher will be able to destroy it, that Voldemort will know when it's destroyed, and that the family will be safer if Regulus is dead when that happens so no one can get them in their protected house. If he thinks any message he sends Dumbledore is likely to be intercepted or even reported to Voldemort after the fact by a spy, he wouldn't want to risk Voldemort getting warned before Kreacher can destroy the locket. So maybe a message is too risky. (He's probably wrong about this, but he might reasonably believe it.) He knows Sirius is part of Dumbledore's secret paramilitary group, and that Sirius is brave to the point of recklessness, reacts quickly and often without forethought, and is good at cursing people. Surely big bro is going to take any shot he gets at Voldemort regardless how of likely he might think it is to do damage in a logical accounting? And he's going to be trying to attack Voldemort really hard--that's what the group is for, isn't it? So surely, probably in the not-too-distant future, Sirius and his equally-Gryffindorish buddies will blast Voldemort with some nasty curse, and bam! Job done.
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timeasmymeasure
Re: On RAB
Date: 2024-09-23 01:47 am (UTC)As for why they're in a Muggle townhouse built recently enough to have gaslights, one can only assume that any ancestral country home they had was lost long ago. They were rich (again?) by the time Sirius was born, but maybe had major financial troubles a couple of centuries ago and had to sell it off? Or gambled it away? Wizards wouldn't need a house in town the way Muggles would (they don't have to suffer days-long jolting carriage rides to get to London when they can Floo and Apparate), so probably the townhouse was a place a younger family member used to live out from under the oversight of family elders who didn't approve of too much carousing, or maybe was the place where someone stashed a lover. (Possibly a Muggle lover.)
Huh. I wonder if Regulus was, oddly enough, counting on his brother? Say that he reasonably believes the locket is Voldemort's sole horcrux, that Kreacher will be able to destroy it, that Voldemort will know when it's destroyed, and that the family will be safer if Regulus is dead when that happens so no one can get them in their protected house. If he thinks any message he sends Dumbledore is likely to be intercepted or even reported to Voldemort after the fact by a spy, he wouldn't want to risk Voldemort getting warned before Kreacher can destroy the locket. So maybe a message is too risky. (He's probably wrong about this, but he might reasonably believe it.) He knows Sirius is part of Dumbledore's secret paramilitary group, and that Sirius is brave to the point of recklessness, reacts quickly and often without forethought, and is good at cursing people. Surely big bro is going to take any shot he gets at Voldemort regardless how of likely he might think it is to do damage in a logical accounting? And he's going to be trying to attack Voldemort really hard--that's what the group is for, isn't it? So surely, probably in the not-too-distant future, Sirius and his equally-Gryffindorish buddies will blast Voldemort with some nasty curse, and bam! Job done.