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Kreacher tells us he was 16 when he joined. It might have been shortly before his 17th birthday, but not after
You're right, I missed that Kreacher gave the exact age; it's been over a year since I've read the book.
'Half-trained'in the meaning of a school drop-out who e.g. can't apparate. If he continued school he's 'in training', not ready for full time service, but his name looks prestigious on the list. Joining at sixteen is more of a formal statement of alliance. Regulus enthusiasm about Voldemort's request for Kreacher may be a hint that this was actually the first time he could be of real use which would also explain his ignorance about Voldemort's cruelty.
I have wondered about how much Walpurga knew; I think it's possible that she believed to her dying day that the OotP was involved in Regulus' disappearance and death. The Death Eaters knew they haven't killed him and probably told her. If he had run into aurors, the manner of his death had been public. This leaves only the Order as suspects or some weird accident. Her last years must have been horrible, one son presumably killed by the Order and later the other abandoned by the same Order to imprisonment in Azkaban. As a mother she knew her older son well enough to be sure that he never changed sides.
You're right, I missed that Kreacher gave the exact age; it's been over a year since I've read the book.
'Half-trained'in the meaning of a school drop-out who e.g. can't apparate. If he continued school he's 'in training', not ready for full time service, but his name looks prestigious on the list. Joining at sixteen is more of a formal statement of alliance. Regulus enthusiasm about Voldemort's request for Kreacher may be a hint that this was actually the first time he could be of real use which would also explain his ignorance about Voldemort's cruelty.
I have wondered about how much Walpurga knew; I think it's possible that she believed to her dying day that the OotP was involved in Regulus' disappearance and death. The Death Eaters knew they haven't killed him and probably told her. If he had run into aurors, the manner of his death had been public. This leaves only the Order as suspects or some weird accident. Her last years must have been horrible, one son presumably killed by the Order and later the other abandoned by the same Order to imprisonment in Azkaban. As a mother she knew her older son well enough to be sure that he never changed sides.