To the Dark Lord, I know I will be dead long before you read this...

The note found inside the fake Horcrux locket is a brief, devastating message that transforms the aftermath of Dumbledore's death from a tragic failure into a cryptic new beginning. Written on a scrap of folded parchment and wedged into the locket where a portrait should have been, it is addressed directly to Lord Voldemort and signed with the initials 'R.A.B.' It announces that the writer, knowing they will be dead before Voldemort reads it, has stolen the real Horcrux and intends to destroy it, expressing the hope that when Voldemort meets his match, he will be mortal once more. For Harry, who had just watched Dumbledore die after drinking a terrible potion to obtain this locket, the note is a cruel blow: Dumbledore's sacrifice was for nothing, and the quest to destroy Voldemort's soul fragments is far from over. Yet the note also provides a crucial lead—someone else was hunting Horcruxes—and a renewed sense of purpose, however grim.

Discovery and Context

Harry finds the note immediately after Dumbledore's body crashes to the ground at the foot of the Astronomy Tower. As he kneels beside the fallen headmaster, he feels something hard beneath him: the locket they had retrieved from the cave. It has fallen from Dumbledore's pocket and sprung open. Harry picks it up and immediately senses something wrong. It is neither as large as the locket he saw in the Pensieve nor marked with the ornate 'S' of Slytherin. Inside, instead of a portrait, there is only a scrap of folded parchment. By the light of the many wands now lit behind him, Harry reads the message. The discovery comes at the lowest possible moment, compounding his grief with a sense of futility.

Content and Meaning

The note is a direct address to Voldemort, written by someone who knows they are doomed. The writer, 'R.A.B.,' claims to have discovered Voldemort's secret, stolen the real Horcrux, and intends to destroy it. The final line—'I face death in the hope that when you meet your match you will be mortal once more'—frames the theft as a deliberate act of defiance and sacrifice. The initials 'R.A.B.' are initially a mystery to Harry, Ron, and Hermione, though Hermione later deduces they belong to Regulus Black, Sirius's younger brother, a former Death Eater who turned against Voldemort. The note thus reveals that Voldemort's Horcrux network was already compromised before Dumbledore's quest began, and that someone else had already made the ultimate sacrifice to weaken the Dark Lord.

Consequences and Significance

The note shatters Harry's immediate hope that the quest was over. He crumples the parchment in his hand, his eyes burning with tears, as Fang begins to howl behind him. The fake Horcrux becomes a constant, bitter reminder of what Dumbledore's death cost and what remains to be done. Harry carries it with him everywhere, not as a talisman, but as a reminder of the task ahead. The note also reorients the entire quest: instead of starting from scratch, Harry now knows that at least one Horcrux has been destroyed by someone else, and that the real locket is still out there, waiting to be found. The initials 'R.A.B.' become a new mystery to solve, a thread leading into Voldemort's past and the secret history of the Black family. The note thus functions as a hinge between the tragedy of Dumbledore's death and the solitary, determined path Harry must now walk alone.