Death Eaters

Death Eaters are followers of Lord Voldemort. Usually, they wear black hoods with snake-like eye slits to cover their faces. Every Death Eater has a Dark Mark burned into his or her left forearm. When Voldemort touches one of them, every Death Eater feels it, and Apparates to their leader's side.

Ideology
Ideologically, the Death Eaters seek to destroy wizarding families of Muggle lineage, and gain complete power and control over the entire wizarding world, and restore the magical community to the pure-bloods. The Death Eaters are supporters of pure-blood heritage, or wizards who have no Muggle ancestors (ironic, as their leader, Lord Voldemort, is a half-blood who has a Muggle father). It is unlikely that all of them are pure-bloods, as very few pure-bloods still exist; it is noted that possibly many of them are half-bloods clinging to their pure-blood ancestors. One such appears to be Severus Snape: a half-blood, Snape called himself (although few knew it) 'The Half Blood Prince' while at school, a reference to his mother's wizarding family, the Princes. The Death Eaters have also attacked purebloods who oppose them: for example, the Prewett brothers, who were Purebloods, but members of the Order of the Phoenix. It is thought that their main targets are muggle-borns.

Origin and First war


By 1970, the Death Eaters were an organization formed from people Tom Riddle (now Voldemort) knew from his time at school, as well as the relatives of his close-knit group. It was at this time that Riddle proclaimed himself the new Dark Lord. Armed with an army of dark wizards and creature, with his hidden Horcruxes granting him immortality, Voldemort planned to overthrow the Ministry of Magic.

Attacks on wizards, witches, and large numbers of Muggles were initiated by the Death Eaters often, but not always, on the orders of Voldemort. When the Ministry proved itself above an easy fall to chaos, Death Eaters attacked prominent wizard families. As a result fear gripped the wider wizard community. This reign of terror lasted until the abrupt disappearance of Voldemort in 1981.

Between The First and Second Wars
When Lord Voldemort was vanquished after failing to kill Harry Potter, the Death Eaters largely disbanded into direction less chaos. The Ministry rounded as many of them up as possible, and imprisoned convicted Death Eaters in Azkaban though some eluded justice by claiming bewitchment, like Lucius Malfoy, or by turning in other Death Eaters, just as Igor Karkaroff did.



Outbreaks of Death Eater activity, though rare, did occur in the thirteen year period of Voldemort's absence. Perhaps the most notable being the four hundred and twenty-second Quidditch World Cup, after which a group of Death Eaters attacked the camp that Wizards and Witches were staying at, even going so far as to attack the nearby Muggle family.

The Second War
Moments after Lord Voldemort finally regained his body in June of 1995, Voldemort summoned his followers to him by touching Peter Pettigrew's Dark Mark. Those who had betrayed the Dark Lord and his followers proved too afraid to return to him, while the others who were dead imprisoned remained absent. A handful of Death Eaters returned to Lord Voldemort's service as he began his second meteoric rise to power.

The Minister for Magic (Cornelius Fudge) and most of the Ministry of Magic originally refuse to believe that Lord Voldemort has returned. Though Harry Potter and Albus Dumbledore served as dissenting voices, the majority of the public chose to believe in the Ministry, as well as its wider propaganda and smear campaign against Potter and Dumbledore.

Armed with this advantage, the Death Eaters keep a low profile in order to maintain their standing in the wizarding world. Due in part to the Ministry's refusal to remove the Dementors from Azkaban Fortress, a proposition Dumbledore supported immediately following Voldemort's return, the Death Eaters informally recruited the Dementors to the cause. Similar progress was made with the giants. The quiet revolt of the Dementors fostered a mass breakout of imprisoned Death Eaters from Azkaban



In late spring of 1996 Voldemort sent a group of 12 Death Eaters, led by Lucius Malfoy, into the Department of Mysteries where he expected them to secure for him a record from the Hall of Prophecy. The Prophecy was of vital importance to the Dark Lord: having originally attacked Harry Potter based upon a partial recounting of it, Voldemort now desired to hear the full version in order to understand entirely the nature of the connection between himself and Potter. The raid on the Department of Mysteries fails: Potter and his friends delay the Death Eaters, keep the Prophecy out of their hands, and finally destroy it amidst the battle that ensues between the Order of the Phoenix and the Death Eaters. Eleven of the twelve Death Eaters are captured, forcing Voldemort and (Bellatrix Lestrange) to flee. The Minister for Magic arrives in time to witness Voldemort depart.

The raid is thus a profound failure for the Death Eaters: their reactivation is no longer a secret, several members deported to Azkaban, and the return of Voldemort proven to the skeptical Ministry. Revealed at last to the wizard community, the Death Eaters proceed to resume their earlier lifestyle and behavior. Kidnapping, torturing, and assasinations of wizards, witches, and Muggles begin anew as the Second War starts. battle of Hogwarts.

List of Death Eaters
See List of Death Eaters