Karkaroffs hearing

[Steve]

No: HPFGUIDX 157405

 "abergoat" <adescour at ...> wrote:
>
> zgirnius wrote:
> > The organization may have what is called a 'cell 
> > structure' likesome Real Life terrorist/underground 
> > organizations. Some A-listers  may be leaders of 
> > small groups of B-listers. The B-listers would know 
> > only the indetity of the other members of their 'cell' 
> > and the leader.

> Abergoat:
> 
> There seems to be strong evidence for this. Some Order 
> member says they were outnumbered 30:1 (or was it 20:1?) 
> by Death Eaters and thereis around 20 Order members. Some 
> fans have speculated this meant 600 supporters. ...
> How the heck the Order member knew how many Death Eaters 
> there were is beyond me.
> 
> Abergoat
>

bboyminn:

While I generally agree with what is being said here, I want to bring
in a point of clarification.

We seem to be assuming that Death Eaters and Voldemort Supporters are
one and the same thing. Certainly Death Eaters are Voldemort
Supporters, but Voldemort supporters are not necessarily Death Eaters.

I believe true 'branded' Death Eaters are very few. Best guess, maybe
50 to perhaps an unlikely 100 in number. 

Then there are the primary and secondary Voldemort Supporters. Yet
even these two types come in two types. 

The Primary Supporters are working for Voldemort voluntarily. They may
believe in his (alleged) cause or they may simply be seeking power and
wealth. Either way they choose to actively support Voldemort, but are
never important enough to be taken into his inner circle of Death Eaters.

The Secondary Supporters are like the Blacks, they support what they
preceive Voldemort's philosophy and agenda to be, but they don't take
an active role. Though they might on rare occasion slip him some
information on something or speak out in favor of Voldemort, but
overal they don't take an active role in the fight.

Then we have the rank and file soldiers. Most of whom are cursed,
coerced, blackmailed, extorted, and threatened into doing Voldemort's
will. Socially, they can be at any level, but funtionally they are the
unwilling cannon fodder. 

I suspect there are a certain smaller number among the Primary and
Secondary Supporters who are compelled or coerced into doing Voldemort
will for a variety of reasons. But given a choice these appearent
supporter would prefer to stay out of it. Perhaps like Wormtail, they
are acting out of fear, aligning themselves with the biggest bully on
the block. Perhaps they are reacting to real or preceived threats, but
they are making a conscious choice to act. Naturally, there are those
who are surely and truly being compelled to act against their will
like Rosemetta. 

Of course, there are those with their own personal agenda who really
don't care about Voldemort or his cause, but see cooperation as a way
of getting what they truly want. For example, the Dementors, the
giants, and Greyback-the werewolf.

What we see mostly in the books are the small number of branded Death
Eaters and perhaps a few Primary willing unbranded supporters.
Certainly everyone in the graveyard was a branded DE, but it is
possible, though factually unknown, that some at the top of the tower
were willing unbranded Supporters.

My key point is that we are wrong to assume all Voldemort Supports, or
those cooperating with, are automatically Death Eaters. 

I think true DE's represent Voldemort's inner circle. 

Just passing it along.

Steve/bboyminn