Death Eaters

Death Eaters are a terrorist organization that features in Harry Potter.

History

Death Eaters were an organization consisting of magic supremacists that developed within the wizarding world and had been formed by Lord Voldemort. Originally, Voldemort was a man named Tom Riddle where he had been a student at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. Whilst there, he gathered a gang of similarly minded Slytherin students where he was their leader. According to Albus Dumbledore, they were a mixture of the weak seeking protection, the ambitious seeking glory, and the thuggish seeking a leader who could show them more refined cruelty. The young Voldemort manipulated the gang to do his bidding, and though this led to several nasty incidents over the years, with Riddle's strategic discretion, none was linked back to the group, much less the model student Riddle himself. Before 1970, Riddle formed a group he named the Knights of Walpurgis, an organisation that included people that Voldemort knew from his time at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. Nearly all of those recruited were from Slytherin House. However there may have been recruits from Gryffindor, Ravenclaw, Hufflepuff and even from foreign schools within the ranks as well. He would later come to rename this group as the Death Eaters. Members of the organisation Voldemort deemed to be valuable and faithful would be branded with the Dark Mark. This symbol, a skull with a snake protruding from the mouth, was used to summon his followers at will. The Mark was considered the greatest honour among the Death Eaters. Out of respect for their master, they referred to him as the Dark Lord. Actively gathering an army of Dark Wizards and creatures, with the belief that his hidden Horcruxes granted him immortality, Voldemort and his followers planned to overthrow the Ministry of Magic.

Death Eater activity during the First Wizarding War consisted of stealth attacks, espionage, torture and mass killings of wizards, witches, and large numbers of Muggles. These were initiated by the Death Eaters, often, but not always, on the orders of Voldemort. Part of the Death Eaters' modus operandi was to cast the Dark Mark over every house where they committed murder. This inspired much terror in the wizarding community. However, the Death Eaters remained opposed by the Order of the Phoenix, founded by Albus Dumbledore and the Ministry, in retaliation for these heinous crimes and spearheaded by the head of the Department of Magical Law Enforcement. After Lord Voldemort attempted to circumvent a prophecy written by Sybill Trelawney during the height of the war, he fell out of the picture following his attack on Godric's Hollow that resulted in the murder of James and Lily Potter. His primary target, the infant Harry Potter, was mysteriously credited for Voldemort's fall and surviving with nothing but a scar, thus sealing his fate as the 'Boy Who Lived' as well as starting the destiny forced upon him. Being none the wiser to what had become of their master, the Death Eaters largely fell into chaos. Many were rounded up and imprisoned in Azkaban without trial as part of the hard line taken by Ministry official Barty Crouch Snr, who had legalised the Unforgivable Curses against those suspected to be among the enemy's ranks. Sirius Black, whom Pettigrew framed for his crimes, was among the prime suspects of Death Eater activities imprisoned without a trial. Soon afterwards, Bellatrix, Rodolphus, and Rabastan Lestrange, and Barty Crouch Jnr tortured the Longbottoms into insanity while trying to procure information about Voldemort's whereabouts: this attack was considered one of the most atrocious crimes in recent history. They were captured and sentenced to Azkaban, but Bellatrix proudly proclaimed that the Dark Lord would rise again. On the other hand, Barty Crouch Jnr proclaimed his own innocence, begging for his father to believe him: his father ignored his pleas for leniency and sentenced him to prison, a sentence that led the entire court to roar with triumph.

Some Death Eaters managed to elude justice by claiming the Imperius Curse had been used on them, such as Lucius Malfoy, or by turning in other Death Eaters, as Igor Karkaroff did. Due to many trying to escape by claiming they were bewitched, the Ministry assigned specialists to find out who was lying, although this did not work out to the fullest since Malfoy and several others were found innocent. Most followers hid their allegiance to Voldemort and therefore did not try to find him, although a handful of Death Eaters, such as the Lestranges and Barty Crouch Jnr, remained fiercely loyal to their fallen master and sought him out. They were supposedly rewarded by Voldemort for their loyalty. Some, such as Evan Rosier, chose to resist arrest and fought to the death. Sirius Black believed that if the rogue Death Eaters got wind of Peter Pettigrew still being alive, they would seek to kill him, for it was his information that led to Voldemort's downfall. It was for this reason that Pettigrew hid in his unregistered Animagus form as a pet rat, stationed near Harry in an attempt to bide his time to turn the boy in should the Death Eaters start to regain momentum, in which nobody would dare say he betrayed Lord Voldemort. However, Pettigrew was ousted by Sirius and Remus Lupin, thus forcing him to seek out the weakened Dark Lord for shelter, assisting him in his regeneration. Thirteen years later, at the four hundred and twenty-second Quidditch World Cup in 1994, a group of Death Eaters attacked the camp of wizards and witches and a nearby Muggle family. The Death Eaters seemed to consider torturing and humiliating Muggles a form of entertainment. When Crouch Jnr launched the Dark Mark into the air out of rage for his comrades not seeking out their fallen master, the Death Eaters fled in fear of Voldemort's retribution for their disloyalty.

Overview

In appearance, the Death Eaters were a cult and terrorist organization of magic users who were wizard supremacists. These pure-blood supremacists coalesced around Voldemort, the Dark Lord himself, a man who offered a lightning rod for their hatred and bloodlust and especially those who sought to enforce pure-blood supremacy or establish a New World Order to eliminate Muggles. He found them very useful, as their ranks included wizarding aristocrats that could accomplish his goals through government and money, and deadly, remorseless thugs of all stripes. However, Voldemort's single-minded pursuit of power was unpopular and he merely preyed on prejudice to obtain followers to unwittingly bring him to worldwide dominion. Though he allowed them to establish purification policies when they took over the Ministry of Magic, he busied himself with seeking power for himself while never bothering to help them with these goals.

There are hints that a long-standing dispute had existed in the wizarding world regarding the relationship between Magic and Muggles, and the status of magically talented people born to Muggle parents. These disputes clearly date back to at least the time of the founding of Hogwarts, as the Sorting Hat described the rift between pure blood-valuing Slytherin and the other three founders, who were enthusiastic to admit any young witch or wizard of talent.

There were many in the magical world to whom it occurred that, united, the wizarding community had enough power to openly take control of governments worldwide. For some this was just a means of power, wealth, or fame; but to others, such as Dumbledore, who flirted with the idea of a wizard-led society with Grindelwald in his youth, this was an opportunity to improve the world, to use power responsibly and prevent tragedies based on xenophobia and secrecy like the one that had torn apart his own family.

Members

• Lord Voldemort :
• Bellatrix Lestrange :
• Severus Snape :
• Lucius Malfoy :
• Peter Pettigrew :
• Barty Crouch Jr. :

Notes

• Death Eaters were created by J. K. Rowling where they featured in the setting of the Harry Potter universe.

Appearances

• Harry Potter:

External Links

• Harry Potter Wiki Entry
• Wikipedia Entry

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