Dark Mark question

[junediamanti]

No: HPFGUIDX 76391

--- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, "lisanicr" <l10r77 at j...> wrote:
> I couldn't find this referenced anywhere but...
> I'm re-reading GoF and in the scene where Karkaroff shows Snape 
that 
> his Dark Mark is getting clearer...does that mean that the mark is 
> normally, or relatively invisible when circumstances dictate? I 
mean, 
> when LV is not around, does the mark disappear completely? Perhaps 
> that's why it was such a job identifying true DE's after the 
downfall 
> of LV?
> Thanks!
> Lisa

I have always read this to mean that after the fall of Voldemort the 
Dark Mark faded from the forearm of each of the DE either 
immediately or perhaps over time.  Once Pettigrew found him and 
started getting him ready for his resurgence, the mark started 
showing up on the arms of the DE.  So for the time immediately after 
LV's fall and up to that point the Dark Mark would indeed have been 
a surefire method for Aurors to ID suspected Death Eaters.

June