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

[a_svirn]

No: HPFGUIDX 128826


> Betsy:
<snip>

> 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.
> 

We don't know for sure if indeed something happened to them. There 
were about 30 DE in the Graveyard, and we've been told only about a 
dozen names. Maybe the rest of the lot is the older and wiser ones, 
who unlike these young hotheads hadn't got caught during the wars.

On the other hand this generation gap does seem strange. We've been 
told by Tom Riddle that his friends started to call him LV while 
still in Hogwarts. Well, where are they, those friends? One would 
have thought that Lucius's father (or mother?) would have been among 
them, since he has in his possession Tom Riddle's school things. It 
seems that his parents are not in the picture though, and he is the 
head "of the house of Malfoy" so to speak. Now, from what we know 
about wizards' longevity it's kind of unnatural. Even his 
grandparents should be still alive. It looks as though something or 
someone wiped out the elder generation of DE. 

My guess is that there was a kind of coup d'êta at some point of the 
DE history, when LV disposed with his old school friends with the 
assistance of the younger generation. It would also explain why most 
of those we do know about are from such a close-knit social circle. 
If originally DE were not such an authoritarian organization, it 
could have had the same structure as English aristocratic exclusive 
clubs or secret societies (the DE clique does resemble them in other 
respects). In this case there could have been several "Masters" each 
with his own area of influence and they would recruit from different 
milieus. LV with the little help of Lucius simply cropped the 
cohorts of Slytherin graduates since 1972 (3?) – and then threw them 
into his inner power games. This was probably why Regulus bolted – 
being his parents' favorite son, I don't think he suddenly got 
queasy with the Muggle-torture. But he could have had flinched from 
the task of eliminating his comrades. 

a_svirn