Voldemort's recruitment . Was: Precious little to celebrate for 11 years...

[horridporrid03]

No: HPFGUIDX 128824

>>Rebecca:
>Of course, the DEs not mentioned might be the older ones, but I 
wonder why he wouldn't acknowledge the ones he's had the longest? The 
ones that are mentioned are all ones Sirius mentioned earlier in the 
book as being part of Snape's 'gang of Slytherins'. So they all had  
to be in school at the same time as Snape, so they were between the 
ages of 11 and 18 at the oldest when Voldemort first came to power.<
<snip>

Betsy:
Ahh.  I'd completely forgotten that Sirius had named several Death 
Eaters and conveniently given us an age range.  And I would think that 
because no older Death Eaters are mentioned by Voldemort in the 
graveyard scene, it is logical to assume that JKR means us to see 
these particular Death Eaters as a social group (especially with the 
earlier commentary by Sirius).  

So we're back to your original question of what happened to all the 
older Death Eaters.  It's illogical to think that they were all 
defeated in VWI.  After all, Lupin tells us that the Death Eaters were 
mopping the floor with the good guys.  So I think we're to assume that 
most Death Eaters who didn't claim Imperius curse were rounded up and 
sent to Azkaban (not a friendly environment for older wizards and 
witches, I would think) in the aftermath of Voldemort's 
disembodiment.  (Which would make sense.  Voldemort's defeat came out 
of nowhere.  I'm one of the few folks who thinks he's actually a 
pretty cunning and intelligent adversary so I'm sure many of his 
people were left wrong footed without his guidance to rely on.)

And I think the reason all the surviving Death Eaters are from a 
similar social circle is because they all followed Lucius Malfoy's 
lead.  I think that we can cautiously start thinking that Lucius is 
pretty much in charge of this surviving band of evil brothers, and 
that would further explain why Voldemort didn't Crucio Lucius.  Lucius 
didn't try and find Voldemort, it's true, but he did manage to keep a 
fairly powerful and well placed group of Death Eaters out of Azkaban 
and together.  Because of Lucius, Voldemort still has a reasonable 
sized terrorist cell he can send into action.  All my opinion of 
course.

Betsy