Three MIssing Death Eaters and Sirius (was Snape's Task

[Rita Winston]

No: HPFGUIDX 15775

--- In HPforGrownups at y..., Samaporn Teeravechyan <teeravec at f...> 
wrote:

> It may very well be bait, but a very devious one at that. From the
> text, I would assume that there are two, and only two, free Death
> Eaters missing: one coward and one apostate, most probably
> Karkaroff and Snape respectively. (snip)

The first time I read GoF, and of course I didn't know about Crouch 
Jr yet, I beat my brain over who were the three: one coward who will 
be punished, one who "I believe" has left us forever (he will be 
died, of course), and one is loyally serving V at Hogwarts. I was 
thinking that Snape, Karkaroff, and Bagman were the three (I don't 
remember if this was before or after the Pensieve, but we heard of 
Karkaroff being involved with Dark Arts from the time Draco mentioned 
Durmstrang on the Hogwarts Express). I was thinking that Bagman must 
be the coward, as he was acting so scared, and that it was Karkaroff 
who was the one who had left forever (as he showed signs of wanting 
to get away), but I sure didn't want it to be Snape was still serving 
Voldemort. Could it be that Crouch Sr had fooled everyone all his 
life and really was a Death Eater? Or Bagman serving loyally and 
Snape as coward? ... my brain spinning...

Then I finished the book, understood the mystery plot, and realized 
(going back to the Death Circle scene to confirm) that it was obvious 
that Karkaroff was the coward, Snape the one who had left forever, 
and Crouch Jr the loyal servant. I had believed that Crouch Jr was 
dead! If JKR had made V say, here are [three] missing Death Eaters, 
Snape who has left us forever and will be killed, Karkaroff who is
too cowardly to join us and will be punished, and young Crouch who
is loyally serving V at Hogwarts, that would have given away the info 
that young Crouch was still alive and alerted to me to search where 
he could be hidden or disguised, which might have ruined the surprise 
ending. Even if the names he had stated were Snape, Karkaroff 'and 
one other', that would reduce a lot of the suspense of worrying about 
Snape's loyalty and worrying what danger was posed by Karkaroff. Or 
Bagman. 

On another tentacle, as Susan's sig line says, "The trouble is, just 
because it's obvious doesn't mean it's true." I suppose we can't know 
that Bagman wasn't a Death Eater too cowardly to return just because 
he was EVEN MORE SCARED of goblin creditors... JKR said there were 
many vacancies in the circle and V did not speak of all of them: one 
COULD have been Bagman rather than a dead man or Azkaban prisoner.

> Snape does say later that when the Dark Mark glows (or burns or
> whatever), the Death Eaters (or at least those who have the Mark?) 
> are expected to apparate to their Master's side, implying that both
> he and Karkaroff were supposed to do so. It would be reasonable to
> assume that their absence was noted by Voldemort as the two who
> were missing. 

But Voldemort knows that you can't Disapparate from Hogwarts. Snape 
and Karkaroff couldn't come to the meeting any more than Crouch Jr 
could. He must have known which were disloyal not merely by their 
absence, but by having received reports from Crouch Jr or some other 
informant, or by distant viewing or divination or some information 
spell connected to their Dark Marks, or Snape might have gone public 
with his conversion before V was overthrown.

But here is a real puzzle to me: how could Death Eaters, the marked 
ones anyway, not know each others' identities if they all must come
to the meeting and stand in their appointed places? And be called by 
name by their Lord? Peter was marked, so he must have had his 
appointed place in the circle. The Death Eaters in Azkaban knew that 
Peter was the informant of the Potters' location, based on Sirius's 
evidence about them cursing his name in their nightmares. NONE of 
them (convicted or exonerated) revealed at their trials that it was 
really Peter, not Sirius?

Snape didn't know it was Peter and believed it was Sirius. If he'd 
been seeing Peter at Death Eater meetings right along (and not seeing 
Sirius, but perhaps that could be explained away), how could he have 
believed the cover story that Peter had tried to attack Sirius to get 
vengeance for the deaths of... the Dark Lord's enemies? What kind of 
Death Eater is so attached to someone killed by the Dark Lord that he 
seeks vengeance for their deaths? It seems more and more likely to me 
that Snape had gone public with his change of allegiance before Peter 
was marked and joined the circle.

I think it works out on the time-line. Snape as spy warned Dumbledore 
that V put a high priority on killing J, L, and H, so the Potters 
went into hiding. Snape as spy warned Dumbledore that V was getting 
very busy with Fnding Charms to find the Potters, so D suggested a 
Fidelius Charm. Snape as spy warned Dumbledore that V had assigned 
many people to search for Sirius, assumed to be the hidden Secret 
Keeper. So Sirius must have been in hiding as well as Peter being in 
hiding. Interesting kind of hiding that lets him come out in the open 
to check on Peter. Then Snape came in out of the cold in the months 
before Peter turned traitor and was marked. 

In that hypothesis, Snape, as publicly exposed traitor to the Dark 
Lord, has to stay at Hogwarts the rest of life to be safe from 
vengeance by Death Eaters who walked free, AND he can't get another 
job because so many people know he WAS a Death Eater and give him no 
credit for being a spy. AND Peter turned traitor only at the last 
moment, possibly even under Imperius curse, but he knew he'd never be 
safe among the Light Side again even if it WASN'T his fault...