Death Eaters Numbers

[Kelly L. <kethlenda@yahoo.com>]

No: HPFGUIDX 49364

Tzvi of Brooklyn wrote:

> I have mentioned before that there were only a handful or so of 
death eaters. 
> Now can someone explain to me what exactly Voldermord was 
doing, and if so, 
> how did he expect to get anything accomplished with that small 
group of 
> people. We know that there are wizards all around the world. if 
there are 
> 1,000 or so people at Hogwarts (7 years of people and wizards 
live about 100 
> years making there at least 15,000 or so from Hogwarts alone. 
I don't 
> understand how the power over numbers can triumph. 
Dumbledore alone seems to 
> be a match for Voldermort, even Harry is a match. Put 
Dumbledore and Harry 
> and they can outmatch at least 3 of the 15 death eaters.

This confused me the first time I read that scene in GoF, but 
when I reread it I noticed something.  Voldemort doesn't speak to 
all the DE's.  Harry notes that he passes some of the DE's and 
some of the vacant spaces "in silence".  (I don't have a page 
number, sorry.)  So there are a bunch of DE's there who aren't 
mentioned by Voldemort.  It is also revealing that almost all of 
the DE's mentioned are those who Harry knows personally or 
has at least heard of by name; perhaps there are other DE's 
whom Voldemort speaks to, but Harry doesn't register their 
names because they don't ring any bells.  So, to make a long 
ramble short, I think there were far more DE's than the small 
number who were actually named.

Kelly L.