OoP : death eaters mystery

[J]

No: HPFGUIDX 65164

--- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, "sueeeyqbong" <sue at s...> wrote:
> I'm posting this again, because I haven't seen any replies, and 
> would really like to know what other people think. Apologies to all 
> thos people who saw it the first time and weren't in the slightest 
> bit interested! ;-)
>  
> ...............
> 
>  
> Hi everyone. Something else I've just thought of, after reading the 
> scene where Moody shows Harry the photo of the original Order of the 
> Phoenix...in the photo, Moody names 20 or 21 members of the original 
> order. Later on, during the boggart and Molly scene, Lupin comments 
> that the order is much better off now than last tme, because back 
> then the death eaters outnumbered the order 20 to 1. That means that 
> back then there were at least (roughly) 400 death eaters. How come, 
> then, in GoF when Voldemort summons the death eaters to him at the 
> graveyard, there aren't anywhere near that many death eaters around 
> him...I haven't my GoF copy near me, but I'd guess less than 20 
> death eaters returned to him. Add to that a handful of death eaters 
> in Azkaban (10 at most?) and that only makes around 30 death eaters. 
> What do you all think happened to the rest of the death eaters? If 
> they all died, that would imply a battle of some sort to me, and we 
> certainly haven't heard of anything ike that up to now. Perhaps it's 
> just one of those discrepancies that aren't really important, like 
> the number of pupils at Hogwarts conundrum.   Any ideas, 
> anyone?

My guess is that there are tiers of Death Eater heirarchy.  Meaning that there 
is an inner circle of Voldemort's closest and most trusted DE who report 
directly to him.  Then these each have their own recruits and minions or 
subjects (whether willing or unwillingly, under the imperius, or just unwitting) 
who carry out deeds, create havoc, or cover evidence.  In GoF's penseive 
scene we see Bagman claiming to have been feeding info to someone he 
thought would help against the DE but was duped (or so he claimed)--
Bagman was claiming to have been an "unwitting" supporter of Voldemort.  

Others claimed to have been under Imperius (probably several were and the 
rest were not).  Also, upon Voldemort's return and the recall of his inner circle, 
he speaks of plans for Lucius to take up the lead in muggle tortures, which 
suggests that Lucius has his own slippery ways and allies whom he oversees.
  
In SS, Hagrid tells how no one knew who to trust and that you did not get 
friendly new witches or wizards.  This suggests that treachary, traitors, double-
dealers and such were common-- quite understandable if you think about 
how most people would do anything to protect themselves and their own 
loved ones.  

Arya