Faithful servant debate/Total Death eaters

[justcarol67]

No: HPFGUIDX 92931

Ms Mo Me wrote:
If my math is correct, Voldemort only mentions the two
who are still in Azkaban (the Lestranges). Yet 10
escape, and weren't there more than just 10 people
convicted and sentenced to life???
So, it doesn't add up, or does it?  Shouldn't there be more people
missing in the circle? 
> 
"greatelderone" 
I think [of] the 10 in Azakaban, only the Lestranges held the most 
interest since Bellatrix was something of a protege of his and they 
along with Crouch were the only ones that attempted to find him after
he got slagged by his own AK.

Carol:
I more or less agree with this statement, but I wonder why he
mentioned only two of the three Lestranges and ignores Rabastan. Also,
I wonder why he didn't stand with his brother and sister-in-law in the
circle. (?)

 
<snip>
Ms Mo Me:
And, shouldn't there be more DE prisoners still in
Azkaban in OotP (I am assuming they all didn't escape
in OotP) But, then again, back to GoF, that would mean
there would have to be more than the 6 missing plus
the 2 empty spots of the Lestranges (still in prison)
(8 total).  Unless LV forgot to mention some spots of
the others still in Azkaban.
> 
"greatelderone" 
> I think he just didn't bother mentioning people like Mulciber, 
> Rookwood and Dolohov. Snape and Karakoff were mentioned since they 
> had betrayed him and Crouch was mentioned since he had stayed loyal 
> like the Lestranges.
> 
> Most of the big ones mentioned in the pensieve have all been broken 
> out in OOTP. Rookwood, Mucliber, Dolohov and the three Lestranges. I 
> don't think any of them in Azkaban would be of significance probably 
> just the minor ones of no use.


Carol:
Let's try to figure this out. Setting aside Snape, Crouch, and
Karkaroff, we have:

Three dead in LV's service: Evan Rosier, Wilkes, and (?)

Ten in Azkaban at the time of the graveyard scene: Antonin Dolohov,
Mulciber, Rookwood, Travers (who helped murder the McKinnons), the
three Lestranges, (possibly) Jugson, who shows up for the first time
at the MoM, and two more I can't identify at the moment.

Seven named by LV as being present in the graveyard : Malfoy, Nott,
Macnair, Avery, Crabbe, Goyle, and of course Wormtail.

Of the fifteen actually named,eleven--Malfoy, Nott, Jugson, Rodolphus
and Rabastan Lestrange, Crabbe, Dolohov, Macnair, Avery, Rookwood, and
Mulciber--were at the MoM and presumably arrested (though Nott and one
other could be in St. Mungo's). That leaves Goyle, Bellatrix,
Wormtail, and probably Travers still at large. (Travers seems to be
the only previously named prisoner who wasn't at the MoM, but I'm
assuming that he did escape and is at large.) The two unnamed escapees
should probably be added in, bringing LV's current contingent of Death
Eaters to six.

I agree with Ms Mo Me that there should be more prisoners still in
Azkaban and many more gaps than the ones LV mentioned. There must also
have been quite a few people whom he walked by and didn't name,
possibly to keep their identity secret. Harry indicates at one point
that there were about thirty in the graveyard, and, if so, some of the
unnamed two dozen or so should also still be at large. But what
happened to all the others?

I have a new theory regarding the 400 mentioned by Lupin in OoP. A lot
of them died or were arrested before LV was vaporized. That would
explain why LV states that only three died in his service: Those three
died fighting the aurors after LV disappeared, so in his view they
deserve special mention for doing so. But still, a very large number
would have had to be killed or imprisoned before LV's defeat at
Godric's Hollow to bring the roughly 46 I can account for up to the
400 he supposedly had at his peak. And if he really was down to 46 at
that time, maybe the attack on the Potters was an act of desperation
rather than the stroke that was supposed to win the war, but that
isn't at all the impression I've received from the books.

Carol, who has posted similar thoughts before but hasn't yet received
an explanation she finds satisfactory