Case for Marauders (was Re: Marauders, Voldemort and the Map)

[justcarol67]

No: HPFGUIDX 109539

RMM wrote:
<snip>
> Secondly, please note the ages of most of the DeathEaters.  They are 
> mostly of James Potter's age or less. <snip>


Carol:
Actually, we have canon to prove that Lucius Malfoy is five or six
years older than the Marauders and Snape (42 at the end of GoF),
Bellatrix is three years older than Sirius, who last saw her when he
was about fifteen and (apparently) just ending his fourth year, and
Nott is rather elderly (JKR's website). Karkaroff is also older,
white-haired by the time he shows up at the Tri-wizard tournament.
Rabastan and Rodolphus are probably close to Bellatrix's age. Crabbe
and Goyle have sons Harry's age and are probably slightly older than
James would be (he got married young and died at only 21 or 22).
Rookwood, Avery, Dolohov, et al seem older as well, mid-forties at a
guess. Only Barty Jr. and Regulus Black appear to be younger than the
Marauders and Snape.

I'm wondering what canon evidence you're using to draw this
conclusion, other than Regulus' age, which I don't dispute. We don't
know, though, how old he was when he joined or when he died, or even
how much younger he was than Sirius, who would be about 36 at that
point and 21 when Regulus died. Regulus might have been 20; he could
have joined at 18, after Hogwarts.

Barty Jr. was about 19 when he was arrested, but he, too, could have
joined after leaving Hogwarts. Note that *only he* is described in the
Pensieve scene as being a "boy"; the Lestranges (whose names Harry
doesn't yet know) are described as a woman and two men.

It looks to me as if Snape, if he were still loyal, would be the
youngest living Death Eater. We don't know when he was recruited, but
I'm guessing that he, too, was recruited right after he left Hogwarts,
by his older friends who were already Death Eaters, most prominently
Lucius Malfoy.

Carol, who wonders if RMM has seen JKR's reaction to the suggestion
that Lily might have been a Death Eater