A Dark Glamour - Voldemort's Appeal

[Mike]

No: HPFGUIDX 178920

"Riddle undoubtedly felt no affection for any of them. This group had 
a kind of dark glamour within the castle. They were a motely 
collection; a mixture of the weak seeking protection, the ambitious 
seeking some shared glory, and the thuggish gravitating toward a 
leader who could show them more refined forms of cruelty." ^1


"As an unusually talented and very good-looking orphan, he naturally 
drew attention and sympathy fron the staff... Nearly all were most 
favorably impressed by him." "... he charmed so many of my 
colleagues." ^2

Mike:
It isn't hard to imagine how Tom Riddle managed to get others to 
follow his lead while he was at Hogwarts. From Dumbledore's words, he 
managed to charm the staff into believing him Minister of Magic 
material. It seems the other students would hardly be able to resist 
those same charms. By all accounts, Riddle had everything going for 
him. 

But then he disappears from wizarding Britain for ten years. When he 
returns to ask for the DADA position he has a few Death Eaters in tow 
and is already exibiting signs of his eventual snake-like appearance. 
It is hard to imagine that he already has his full compliment of DEs 
at this point in time.

Which begs the questions: How did he get so many followers? Why would 
anyone *now* choose to follow this Lord Voldemort guy? What was the 
appeal in this snake-faced guy that never showed affection to his 
followers?

By the repetition of names of the DEs, it appears that LV turned 
being a DE into a family avocation. The names Lestrange, Avery, 
Mulciber, Nott come up in different generations. And, of course, we 
have Harry's generation with Malfoy, Crabbe and Goyle showing every 
sign of following in their father's footsteps.

Which is all well and good, but that's not near enough DEs. What 
attracts the Malfoys, the Severus Snapes, the Bellatrix and Narcissa 
Blacks to join the dark team? We've found out that Severus and 
several others in his generation have fancied themselves as future 
DEs before their fifth year at Hogwarts is out, and probably before 
then. And yet, Dumbledore will lament that the Wizarding World has 
had "precious little to celebrate" since at least before Severus 
entered Hogwarts. (Trust me, or do the math yourself <g>).

There seems to be a disconnect here. We've seen how Voldemort treats 
his DEs in the graveyard scene from GoF. We know he has no 
compunction against using torture on his followers from both GoF and 
OotP. And if anything things are worse by the beginnning of DH. Why 
would anyone willingly join his team? When he disappears at Godric's 
Hollow, there a celebrations breaking out all over Britain's WW. Were 
these newer DEs blind to what was happening?

No, I don't think so. Sure, the thuggish like Crabbe, Goyle, and the 
Carrows wouldn't have been bothered by a little torture now and then, 
theirs or others. But I don't think Snape or the Malfoys would be so 
willing to join had they known they would be a party to or the 
subject of torturing. So, how did Voldemort do it?


"Voldemort doesn't march up to people's houses and bang on their 
front doors, ... He tricks, jinxes, and blackmails them. He's well 
practiced at operating in secrecy." ^3

Mike:
As Sirius said, Voldemort doesn't operate in the open during VW1. It 
seems that many in the WW are unaware of what is happening and when 
they do hear of something, they don't know why or who caused it. 
Also, as we've seen, the MoM isn't above hushing up bad news in some 
mis-guided attempt to keep morale up. Of course, LV had a lot of 
practice in this aspect of his guerilla warfare.


"Rigidly controlled by Riddle, they were never detected in open 
wrongdoing, although their seven years at Hogwarts were marked by a 
number of nasty incidents to which they were never satisfactorily 
linked" ^4

Mike:
As Dumbledore told us, Riddle learned his craft young when he only 
had to fool the Hogwarts staff. By the time he returned to the 
British WW, he has spent ten years off of everybody's radar. Keeping 
his name out of the papers and eluding the bumbling MoM must have 
seemed like child's play by the time of VW1.

But where's the attraction? It's all well and good to not have your 
name or your organization not detected as evildoers, but how does 
that help you get more recruits?

It is my theory that Voldemort started his venture by eliminating any 
possible competition. IOW, Voldemort started out the same way Al 
Capone started. He knocked off any other dark wizards, no matter how 
minor, that had followers or the potential for followers. He then 
absorbs the dead rivals followers into his organization. Do we think 
all of Grindewald's followers evaporated after 1945? Wouldn't it be 
more likely that a few of them started their own enterprises? And 
that many of the rest were now free agents that would be vulnerable 
to recruitment by the likes of LV?

There is an added benefit to this strategy. If LV was only seen as 
eliminating the remnants of Grindewald's organization or taking out 
other dark wizards that were thorns in the Ministry's side, the MoM 
might be more inclined to look the other way even if they suspected 
LV. After all, he's just doing the same job as their Aurors, just a 
little more ruthlessly. Besides, we see that by the time of Barty 
Crouch Sr., the MoM has no problem using these same methods to fight 
the now too big LV.

Oh yeah, one more benefit. The lesser informed don't see inside 
Voldemort's organization. To the outsiders, he looks like the guy 
bringing order where the Ministry isn't able. Yeah, they probably 
suspect that he's not exactly restricting himself to Ministry 
approved methods. But to those curious enough to wonder what else is 
out there, Voldemort's organization has the aura of *dark glamour*.

One last ingredient is needed for Voldemort's recruitment potion to 
be complete. A message, a rallying cry. So Voldemort picks blood 
purity. Whether or not he believes this himself, canon is unclear. 
For my money, though he was a half-blood himself, I think he has a 
hatred for anything Muggle. It goes all the way back to his Muggle 
father abandoning his pregnant witch mother, causing her to die 
penniless in London. 

***************

So when did Voldemort change his tactics? When does he stop 
pretending to be the Ministry's vigilante arm and begin to openly 
pursue his true goal of WW domination?

My guess is actually quite late in VW1. In fact, I think the true VW1 
doesn't really begin until after the Marauders, Severus and Lily are 
out of school. I have two clues for my guess. 

Regulus joined the DEs when he was 16, most likely while Sirius was 
in his last year of school. And even though the elder Blacks weren't 
DEs, they seemed to approve of Regulus' choice, according to Sirius. 
A year plus later, Regulus has disappeared and presumed dead.

Now, add in this Sirius appraisal of VW1 from OotP:

"[T]here were quite a few people, before Voldemort showed his true 
colors, who thought he had the right idea about things.... They got 
cold feet when they saw what he was prepared to do to get power, 
though." ^5

If when Voldemort shows his true colors is when Regulus 
coincidentally sets off to reclaim the locket from the cave, we can 
surmise that Sirius reasons Regulus' death was a result of 
those "cold feet". 

This would mean that Voldemort's bloomers aren't showing until after 
MWPP, Lily and Severus have all graduated for at least one year. In 
fact, if my timeline guess is correct, Voldemort becomes the ruthless 
bastard that we all know around Holloween of 1979. If Carol and I are 
correct, that's when the prophesy happens, warning LV of his eventual 
conquerer.

Mike
****************************
A little add-on quest:

In the opening quote, Dumbledore gives some reasons why certain 
personality types would have been attracted to Riddle/Voldemort's 
cause. Or, maybe you've got a better reasons than Dumbledore's. 
I have an exercise for the readership. 

Pick one of Dumbledore's categories (or your own theory) and explain 
how that applies to Snape, Malfoy, or any other DE, and therefore 
why they were attracted to Riddle/Voldemort? 

(Is this what you had in mind, Carol? <wink>)
_______________________________________________
^1 Dumbledore in HBP, pp 361-2, US Ed.
^2 Dumbledore in HBP, pp 360-1, US Ed.
^3 Sirius in OotP, p 96, US Ed.
^4 Dumbledore in HBP, pp 362, US Ed.
^5 Sirius in OotP, p 112, US Ed.