Draco's alleged dark mark

[justcarol67]

No: HPFGUIDX 162614

Ginger wrote:
> 
> I have wondered about the Dark Mark for some time.  My opinion is 
> that the DEs can choose whether or not they want someone to see it.
> 
> I started wondering about it when Snape showed his to Fudge at the
end of GoF.  Why (I wondered) didn't the Azkaban officials just check
 the arms of anyone accused of Death Eating?  Why was Sirius sent
there as a DE- and a high ranking one at that- if he didn't have the
Mark?  
> 
> Which led me to wonder- why didn't the Aurors just do an arm check
on any suspects?  <snip>
> 
> In GoF (right before Snape shows his) Fudge is quick to assert that
Harry is just reiterating the names of people who were accused in 
VWI.  He especially excuses Lucius.  We know Lucius had the brand 
back then, because he answered its call to the Graveyard to greet his
returned master.  
> 
> Lucius and the others who claimed Imperious could have claimed to 
> have been branded whilst under the Curse, but not everyone could have 
> used that defense.  
> 
> The clincher for me was that Snape had to explain to Fudge what the
Dark Mark brand was.  Of course Fudge was familiar with the Dark Mark
in the sky, but he didn't seem to know about the brand.  
> 
> So I have come to the conclusion that the DEs can hide their Mark if 
> they choose.  It may be the easy way, and perhaps a bit of a
cop-out, but I don't think LV would have been stupid enough to make a
mark that would have been so easy to find by his enemies.  It was for
his purposes.  (See Snape's speech to Fudge in the hospital wing.)

Carol responds:
I agree that the Dark Mark is problematic, but I don't think that the
DEs have any control over it. Only Voldemort does. He can touch the
Dark Mark of any DE to summon the others, for example, and it fades or
grows in intensity with his weakness or strength, which explains
Karkaroff's panic in GoF. If he could have turned off his Dark Mark,
he would have done so. Snape twice clutches his left arm as if he's in
pain, once when Fake!Moody says "some spots don't come off" and once
when Harry says Voldemort's name. (My theory has always been that the
Dark Mark is sentient and knows that Snape is unfaithful.) Certainly,
if Snape could turn it on and off, he would do so. No one on the
Hogwarts staff (except Dumbledore) even knows that he was a DE until
he shows the Dark Mark in GoF.

As for Lucius Malfoy, et al., they claimed the Imperius Curse *after*
Voldemort's fall. And Sirius Black was arrested after his supposed
death as well. The absence of a Dark Mark would not have saved him
even if Barty Sr. bothered to look for one. I don't think he did, and
Black himself didn't know about the Dark Mark (see GoF), so he
couldn't have exposed his left arm to claim innocence in any case. The
DEs who were arrested before Voldemort's fall, however, would have had
Dark Marks, and the evidence against the Lestranges and Barty Jr. was
apparently so strong that they didn't need Dark Marks to prove their
guilt. (Possibly Bellatrix proudly told the whole story, or maybe Gran
witnessed it all.)

It does appear that Fudge has never seen a Dark Mark before, and
doesn't quite know how they work, but may indicate that he doesn't
know about them in general. He's in a state of shock and trying to
convince himself that Voldie isn't back, so it's hard to tell whether
he, and the WW in general, know about them. It could simply be that
the DEs have kept the secret to themselves and only people like
Dumbledore, the real Moody, and Barty Sr. know about it. Snape says
that his was darker an hour before but is still dark, meaning that it
has faded from the painful state it was in when he was summoned and
returned to the nevertheless clear and increasingly visible state that
it's been in all year. ("It's getting darker. Karkaroff's, too.")

So while I agree that it would be nice if the Aurors and judges could
just force suspected DEs to roll up their sleeves, I don't think it's
that simple. Once Voldemort fell, the Dark Mark either faded
completely or was so faint as to be undetectable. And before that
time, faithful DEs like Rosier and Wilkes fought to the death or till
they were arrested and the OFH!DEs like Lucius Malfoy kept their cover
as respectable citizens. By the time they were arrested, there was no
Dark Mark to hide. (As for Snape, no one except the Wizengamot knew
that he was a DE or even charged with being one. He had to keep his
cover in order to keep spying. He may or may not have had a Dark Mark
when he was arrested, but it didn't matter. It was DD's testimony that
saved him and kept his name out of the papers.) I realize that this
explanation isn't perfect, but I see no evidence that DEs can control
their Dark Marks. Otherwise, all of them would do so, revealing them
only to fellow DEs if then. And if the Dark Mark weren't always
visible when Voldemort was strong, how could he use it to summon them?

Also, I almost forgot. The faded or invisible Dark Mark was the reason
that the DEs believed, or claimed to believe, that Voldemort was dead.
Its return told them how wrong they were. (I think that Snape's faded
Dark Mark was one of DD's clues to what happened at GH, but I've
talked about that elsewhere.)

Ginger: 
> With regards to Draco- perhaps it was still new when he was at
Malkin's shop, and that it was either not yet set fully and was still
tender, or that he was still focused on it, like when you get a tooth
 pulled and you can't help but stick your tongue in the empty socket
until you get used to it.
> 
> So that's my answer.  Plain, simple and boring that it may be.
> 
> Ginger, noting (in reference to another thread) that the s'mores on 
> this list are calorie-free.
>
Carol:
I do think that Draco had a Dark Mark (which he showed to Borgin) and
that it was still painful. After all, the Dark Marks appear to be
*burned* into the DEs' skin. (If the Borgin and Malkin incidents were
red herrings, we'd have some other explanation for them.) But I don't
think he could have concealed it if he wanted to.

Carol, who's built like Trelawney and doesn't care about calories but
is glad to have Ginger's company at the s'mores party