What are the perks of "Death Eating"?

[Hannah]

No: HPFGUIDX 125799


Molley wrote:
> Something that has been nettling the back of my mind throughout my 
absolute enjoyment of this series is this:  What exactly ARE the 
advantages/perks of being a death eater?  On the surface, it is the 
promise of power sometime in the undefined future.  But what are 
they really getting themselves into?  
<snip of good reasons for not being a Death Eater>
>What gives?

Hannah:  I think a lot of DE's would ask the same thing.  I get the 
impression that many of them joined at a young age, and, like 
Regulus Black, had no real idea what they were getting into.  A bit 
like some of the RL cults that prey on young people and then turn 
out to be rather more sinister than they first appear.  

The trouble is, as Sirius says, you don't just hand in your 
resignation to LV.  If you're a DE, then you're one for life. If you 
want to leave, you're dead.  As we see in the graveyard scene, 
where 'the one who has left forever' has been killed.

I suspect that a lot of DE's, particularly the minor ones (the 
Averys and Crabbes and Goyles of the inner circle), were relieved 
when LV disappeared, evidenced by their hasty return 
to 'respectability' and lack of enthusiasm for attempting to find 
LV.  When he returned, they had little choice but to toe the line 
again, or be hunted down and killed.

When Sirius talks about the DE's and LV at the beginning of OotP, he 
mentions how a lot of witches and wizards thought he had a good idea 
before he showed his true colours.  I'm guessing a lot of the DE's 
joined LV as a sort of political party, and then were tricked or 
tempted into getting the Dark Mark, and only when they were in too 
far to back out did they discover what it really entailed.  

Of course, there are some fanatics like Bella who are in it for the 
torturing, or through genuine belief in LV's pureblood cause.  But 
there are a lot of others, IMO, who get very little out of Death 
Eating (as you illustrate so nicely in your post), and probably wish 
they could get out.

JMO

Hannah