Death Eaters

### Intentions

Purify the Wizarding race by killing Muggles, Muggle-borns, and blood traitors. Conquer wizarding Great Britain and achieve a global dictatorship under a magical regime. Destruction of all enemies

### Affiliation

* Death Eater controlled Ministry of Magic<
* Snatchers
* Inferi
* Dementors (Dementors of Azkaban)

### Enemies

* Muggles
* Muggle-borns
* Blood traitors
* British Ministry of Magic
* Order of the Phoenix
* The Dominion
* Albus Dumbledore
* Harry Potter
* Trio

"*They were a motley collection; a mixture of the weak seeking protection, the ambitious seeking some shared glory, and the thuggish gravitating toward a leader who could* *show them more refined forms of cruelty.*"
— Forerunners of the Death Eaters

**Death Eaters** was the name given to the most ardent followers of Lord Voldemort. The group primarily consisted of wizards and witches who were radical pure-blood supremacists who practised the Dark Arts with reckless abandon, malevolence and without regard to or fear of wizarding law.

Lord Voldemort used this select group of wizards and witches during both the First and Second Wizarding Wars, employing them as his elite force. They often wore black hoods and masks with snake-like eye slits to cover their faces. The Death Eaters were considered Lord Voldemort's inner circle and had the Dark Mark burned into their left forearms. When Voldemort touched one of them, each of the Death Eaters felt it, signalling for them to Apparate to their leader's side.

## History

### Forerunners

Before the Death Eaters themselves came to be, Adalbert Gaunt, as Voldemort was known in his childhood and early adulthood, gathered a gang of Slytherin students who considered themselves his friends, though in truth, he felt no real attachments to any of them due to his lack of desire for a true friend.[13]

According to former Hogwarts headmaster 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, and were considered to be forerunners of the Death Eaters since most (if not all) indeed became the first Death Eaters. He manipulated them to do his bidding, and though this led to several nasty incidents over the years, with Gaunt's strategic discretion, none was linked back to the group, much less the model student Gaunt himself.

### Origins

"*Voldemort... this wizard, about twenty years ago now, started lookin' fer followers. Got 'em, too –– some were afraid, some just wanted a bit o' his power, 'cause he was gettin' himself power, all right.*"
— Voldemort gaining his many followers
Before 1970, Gaunt 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 rename the group "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. 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. Their ranks were huge, outnumbering the Order of the Phoenix by approximately twenty to one.
### Seeking dominance

#### First Wizarding War

"*Imagine that Voldemort's powerful now. You don't know who his supporters are, you don't know who's working for him and who isn't; you know he can control people so that they do terrible things without being able to stop themselves.*"
— Voldemort's undetermined Death Eaters at the height of the war

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.

#### Thirteen years of chaos

"*The Dark Lord will rise again, Crouch! Throw us into Azkaban; we will wait! He will rise again and will come for us, he will reward us beyond any of his other supporters! We alone were faithful! We alone tried to find him!*"
— Bellatrix Lestrange on trial for her Death Eater activities[src]

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 Liliana 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, as a ruse to make others believe that they were loyal, tortured the Longbottoms into insanity: this attack was considered one of the most atrocious crimes in recent history. They were captured and sentenced to Azkaban, but Bellatrix proclaimed that the Dark Lord would rise again. Many believed that she was just trying to scare them, but it was actually a warning that Bellatrix spoke. 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 who actually was under said curse, 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 Comets, 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 is still 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.

#### Receiving a sign

**Harry Potter**: "*Death Eaters? What are Death Eaters?*"
**Bill Weasley**: "*It’s what You-Know-Who’s supporters called themselves. I think we saw what’s left of them tonight — the ones who managed to keep themselves out of Azkaban, anyway.*"
— Bill Weasley and Harry Potter discussing the Death Eaters after the Dark Mark riot
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 Killain 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.

### Second Wizarding War

#### The Dark Lord's return

"*Welcome, Death Eaters. Thirteen years... thirteen years since last we met. Yet you answer my call as though it were yesterday.... We are still united under the Dark Mark, then! Or are we? I smell guilt. There is a stench of guilt upon the air I see you all, whole and healthy, with your powers intact — such prompt appearances! — and I ask myself... why did this band of wizards never come to the aid of their master, to whom they swore eternal loyalty? And I answer myself they must have believed me broken, they thought I was gone. They slipped back among my enemies, and they pleaded innocence, and ignorance, and bewitchment...*"
— Voldemort letting his disappointment in his Death Eaters be known

On 24 June 1995, Lord Voldemort finally returned to a physical body through a Dark potion created by Peter Pettigrew (the potion required a bone from Voldemort's father, flesh from the servant and blood from the enemy — that being Harry). The body was human-shaped, though hairless and with many unusual features such as serpentine nostril slits and feline-esque eyes.

Moments after Lord Voldemort had finally regained his body, he summoned his followers to him by touching Peter Pettigrew's Dark Mark. Some proved too afraid to return to him, such as defector Igor Karkaroff, while others who were dead or imprisoned remained absent. Rodolphus did not return on the claim that he and his family had to appear more loyal to Dumbledore and the Order of the Phoenix: They returned two hours later, under the claim that they were trying to maintain the cover of a double agent, which the Dark Lord found satisfying.

Despite several absences, there were many who returned the call, including Walden Macnair, Lucius Malfoy, Nott, Crabbe, and Goyle, and Avery. Avery went to beg for forgiveness, but Voldemort told the band of Death Eaters who did not try to find him that he wants thirteen years of repayment before he could forgive them for their wavered loyalty: Severus would later comment that had the faithless Death Eaters not been forgiven, then Voldemort would have very few followers left.

Harry Potter was present for Voldemort's return to power, and even duelled him, resulting in a spectacular display of *Priori Incantatem*, revealing that the cores of Voldemort's and Harry's wands were related. Harry managed to escape and tell Headmaster Albus Dumbledore of Voldemort's return.

Minister for Magic Cornelius Fudge and most of the Ministry of Magic originally refused to believe that Voldemort had returned. Though Harry Potter and Albus Dumbledore served as dissenting voices, the majority of the public chose to believe in the Ministry and its wider propaganda and smear campaign against Potter and Dumbledore, which would be printed in news outlets such as the *Daily Prophet*. Finally in 1996, the Minister for Magic witnessed Voldemort and Dumbledore's duel in the Ministry of Magic and was forced to admit his mistake.

### Hierarchy

Voldemort's most senior Death Eaters, most of whom were old chums from Slytherin house or younger Slytherin alumni, mostly pure-bloods, and people highly useful to Voldemort for their wealth, skill, or ruthlessness, were bestowed with the Dark Mark on the inside of their lower left arm. These were his inner circle, those he summoned to his side upon his rebirth in Harry's fourth year, and who sat around his high table at Malfoy Manor. Being branded with the Dark Mark was a symbol of the highest status and honour in Voldemort's social order, but was also something of a dangerous burden, as it allowed the Dark Lord to track, communicate with, and summon his chosen few. Some associates, such as relatives of Death Eaters, are also on par with the actual members, prominently Narcissa Malfoy. On the other hand, Peter Pettigrew was branded a Dark Mark as well, though he was considered to be lower ranked than any other Death Eater, as Voldemort disdained his disloyalty and only saw him occasionally useful, thus assigning him to menial tasks most of the time. Age plays little influence on one's induction into the group, as both Draco Malfoy and Regulus Black became Death Eaters at age 16, their devotion being more important than their social qualifications.

The next level down were allowed to wear Death Eater garments in order to command the respect they engendered, but were not Marked. These seem to included those that Voldemort found useful but did not prefer to associate with. Genuine Death Eaters also regard these faux members with disrespect, as they did not hesitate to speak down on them, nor outright attack them. The most notable example was the werewolf Fenrir Greyback, notorious for his savagery and cannibalism.

On the lowest rung was a mass of supportive rabble, loyal to Voldemort but not useful enough to him to deal with him directly. They were given orders and opportunities to commit crimes or advance themselves through the senior Death Eaters. On the same tier were witches and wizards under the Imperius Curse (subtly implied to disproportionately constitute the weak-willed, like Pius Thicknesse, the slow-witted, like Stan Shunpike, and the dubiously loyal), and non-humans of different degrees of sentience such as Dementors and the Inferi. These were pressed into service by the Death Eaters, and sentient groups that would have ordinarily remained neutral like the Dementors were brought into the fold with false promises that their grievances would be avenged upon victory in battle. This entire mass was mobilised for Voldemort's attack on Hogwarts, though before then, they were only used to maintain the new regime, or else roam uncontrolled, sowing chaos and demoralisation as they sought individual gain. During Voldemort's assault on Hogwarts, they were used as expendable cannon fodder meant to overwhelm the students and teachers through shear force of numbers or test Hogwarts's formidable magic defences.

## Affiliates

### Allies

The Death Eaters seem to have a hierarchy, with Voldemort at the top, followed by top ranking members, who were often his most powerful and trusted Death Eaters. Arguably, his topmost Death Eaters were Severus Snape, Lucius Malfoy (until he lost favour), Bellatrix Lestrange, Barty Crouch Jnr, Antonin Dolohov, Peter Pettigrew, Augustus Rookwood, Corban Yaxley and Fenrir Greyback.

## Death Eaters' influence

### Permanent injuries

 Jacob and Naomi Longbottom | Bellatrix, Rodolphus, Rabastan Lestrange and Barty Crouch Jnr