Pureblood DE and Knights of Walpurgis

[Tamee Livingston]

No: HPFGUIDX 78768

As may be obvious, lately I've been struggling with what Voldemort has to
offer his pureblooded followers already in positions of power.  I mean it's
easy enough to attract the disenfranchised by promising them what they've
been denied by the majority or at least a substantial vengeance for wrongs
suffered; it's quite another to gain the loyalty of those who have more to
lose from anarchy.

But then I suddenly remembered reading an interview with JKR in which she
said that DEs were once called the Knights of Walpurgis, which implied to me
that they predated Voldemort's rise by some time.  I'm guessing that they
were a secret society of pureblood Dark Arts practioners, who perhaps like
the reputed Illuminati, work behind the scenes to maintain a status quo or
move towards some particular goal.   Maybe the Knights once had a noble aim
and like the Knights Templar became corrupt (if I remember correctly, I
probably don't) and had to go underground.  Maybe Grindelwald was the chief
leader before his defeat.  Anyway, I now think that Voldemort managed to
take over an already existent organization and turn it to his own purposes.
Perhaps he promised that they would finally control the wizarding world and
beyond, and in the first Voldemort war, it looked like they'd succeed; of
course, now things are different, and fear of Voldemort's power or insane
loyalty seem to be what hold them together.

I hope this makes some sense.  The idea that Voldemort became leader of an
already existent Dark Arts/Pure blood society helps me understand why
someone like Lucius would follow him.

Once again, if I'm somehow copying someone else's ideas, or stating the
stupidly obvious or the blatantly wrong, it is entirely unintentional.

Tamee