#The Dark Lord would have filled the basin with potion himself.
The Dark Lord would have filled the basin with potion himself.
It’s almost certainly the Dark Lord himself who’d originally filled the basin with the potion, before bringing Kreacher to the cave. When Kreacher tells Harry how the Dark Lord took him to the cave, Harry figured this was how the Dark Lord had tested his defenses around his Horcrux.
“This, then, was how Voldemort had tested the defences surrounding the Horcrux: by borrowing a disposable creature, a house-elf …
‘There was a b – basin full of potion on the island. The D – Dark Lord made Kreacher drink it …”
- Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, Chapter 10 (Kreacher’s Tale)
The Dark Lord is able to refill the basin with the same potion after Kreacher drank it. This at least indicates that he knew exactly what potion was in the basin so he could put the same thing back. It’s also unlikely that there would have just happened to be a potion in the basin already in the cave that was coincidentally so useful to protect the Dark Lord’s Horcrux that he chose to put it back.
“Kreacher drank, and as he drank, he saw terrible things … Kreacher’s insides burned … Kreacher cried for Master Regulus to savealready in the cave him, he cried for his Mistress Black, but the Dark Lord only laughed … he made Kreacher drink all the potion … he dropped a locket into the empty basin … he filled it with more potion.”
- Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, Chapter 10 (Kreacher’s Tale)
The Dark Lord already had set up the other defenses around his Horcrux in the cave when he took Kreacher into it - he’d already put the Inferi in the lake.
“Kreacher needed water, he crawled to the island’s edge and he drank from the black lake … and hands, dead hands, came out of the water and dragged Kreacher under the surface …”
- Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, Chapter 10 (Kreacher’s Tale)
Therefore, it’s almost certainly the Dark Lord himself who put the potion in the basin when building the defenses around his Horcrux.
