How can the DEs not know...

[justcarol67]

No: HPFGUIDX 171319

Tandra wrote:
>
> Ok so in the 5th book it seems like the DEs are all shocked when
Harry declares that their beloved leader is a half-blood himself at
the MoM. That seems odd to me because by then shouldn't they have
figured it out?
> 
> When they met him at Hogwarts wouldn't they have know there was no
pure blood Riddle family? <snip>
> 
> OK, so back on topic, if they didn't figure it out when he was at
Hogwarts, what about during the time in the Cemetery in GoF? He
mentioned that Harry was standing on the grave of his muggle father
no? Why did no one raise and eyebrow then? So, why is it in OoTP, they
all act appalled and like they had no clue he wasn't a pure blood?
<snip>

Carol responds:

Voldemort tells *Harry* that he's standing on the grave of LV's Muggle
father ("You stand, Harry, upon the remains of my late father, a
Muggle and a fool," GoF Am. ed. 646), but only Wormtail, who, BTW, is
probably a rare Muggle-born DE, overhears this revelation. Later,
Voldemort tells the assembled DEs that the restorative potion required
him to "come here, where [Tom Sr.] was buried," to obtain "my father's
bone" (656), but he says nothing to the DEs about his father's having
been a Muggle. They could only deduce that fact if 1) Muggles and
Wizards have separate cemeteries and 2) wizards and wiches are never
buried in the Muggle cemeteries. 

I don't think that's likely, myself. Even if the DEs can tell a Muggle
cemetery from a wizarding one, a wizard might wish to be buried in a
Muggle cemetery if, say, he wants to be buried in his hometown, which
has only one cemetery (clearly the case with Little Hangleton) or the
wizard is a Muggle-born or Half-Blood (which, for all they know, Tom
Sr. could have been). He would at least still have been a wizard and
not a Muggle. Those who went to school with Tom Jr. may have assumed
something of the sort or, more likely, were so charmed by him and so
impressed by his unusual powers that they didn't care that he was a
Half-Blood. They also seem to know, and be impressed by, his descent
from Salazar Slytherin, which would make up in their minds for any
taint of Muggle blood on the other side of his family. The younger
ones (Lucius Malfoy excepted) might not even know that LV was ever Tom
Riddle, and Lucius certainly knows that Tom Riddle was the Heir of
Slytherin and that he opened the Chamber of Secrets before Lucius was
born. Some of the other DEs, say Macnair, may be Half-Bloods
themselves and not as obsessed with genealogy as Bellatrix Lestrange.
(I'm guessing that the Lestrange brothers, like Bellatrix, regard
Harry's words as lying slander. As for, say, Dolohov, he's probably
too cruel and evil to care whether Harry's words are true or not. He
just wants a license to kill and torture, IMO.) 

At any rate, we don't know for sure that separate Wizarding graveyards
even exist. I imagine that James and Lily Potter are buried in a
churchyard in Godric's Hollow even though they were a witch and a
wizard. If the Potters can be buried in a Muggle graveyard, which
seems likely, why not Tom Riddle Sr., supposed Half-Blood or
Muggle-Born? IOW, I don't think that the graveyard and the reference
to LV's father's bone, casually mentioned (like the reference to LV's
going farther than anyone toward immortality, which does not seem to
alert them to the existence of the Horcruxes) in the atmosphere of
tension and mystery and excitement and terror that surrounds
Voldemort's return, made much impression on the assembled DEs, any
more than the presence of the "dead" Wormtail did (assuming that they
knew who he was, which seems to me unlikely). Maybe, like Harry seeing
Snape's reflection along with DD's and McG's in the Foe Glass in GoF,
they don't fully process everything they see and hear or fully
comprehend its significance.

In any case, Lucius Malfoy, who was present at the graveyard, says
nothing when Harry blurts out that Voldemort is a Half-Blood in OoP.
Some of the other DEs let out "a low hiss" when Harry speaks
Voldemort's name, but it's only Bellatrix, who was in Azkaban and
missed out on the events in the graveyard, who makes a fuss. She tries
to Stupefy Harry and Lucius deflects her curse for fear of injuring
the Prophecy orb. Bellatrix screams that Harry, the "filthy
Half-Blood," has dared to besmirch the Dark Lord, but Lucius roars at
her to wait till they have the Prophecy before hurting Harry (OoP Am.
ed. 784-85). Either Lucius hasn't concluded that LV's father was a
Muggle based on Tom Sr.'s burial place and thinks that Harry is just
winding Bellatrix up (easy enough to do), or he doesn't think that
LV's status as a Half-Blood is important--at least, not nearly as
important as the Prophecy orb. 

I'm guessing that Lucius doesn't really care whether LV is a
Half-blood or a Pure-Blood. (He's not a "Mudblood," after all. *That*
would cause blood supremacist Lucius to reject him, I'm sure--but
then, LV would never have recruited blood supremacists as his
followers if he were a Muggle-born, however much he hated his Muggle
heritage.) Being a Death Eater presumably provides Lucius with an
outlet for his evil impulses (and he's self-serving, in any case, with
his own agenda, in contrast to, say, Bellatrix or Barty Crouch Jr.).
Besides, whatever Voldemort was before he became a snake-faced Dark
Lord, he's now the most powerful Dark wizard in a century, and Lucius,
who has already faced his wrath (at some point after the graveyard
scene) for allowing the diary to be destroyed, is determined in OoP to
do LV's bidding as efficiently as possible and avoid further
punishment. Unfortunately for Lucius, the Prophecy plot is thwarted
and Voldemort places the blame squarely on him. (If he suspects
Snape's role, he's kept quiet about it so far.)

It's possible that Snape will try to subvert Lucius in DH, in which
case he could use LV's not being a pure-blood as one reason (out of
many) why Lucius would be better off rebelling against LV, but who
knows? As of OoP, LV's blood status seems to be the last thing on
Lucius's mind.

Carol, who had similar questions after reading the graveyard and MoM
scenes for the first time and has tried to answer them to her own
satisfaction