Death Eater
The Death Eaters are a fictional extremist group from the Harry Potter series, led by the dark wizard Lord Voldemort. They follow a strict belief in blood purity, thinking that only pure-blood wizards should have power over the wizarding world. Because of this, they feel it is their duty to eliminate wizards born to non-magical families to keep their bloodline pure.
The Death Eaters have a symbol called the Dark Mark, which is a skull with a snake coming out of its mouth. This mark is placed on their left arm and can be used by Voldemort to summon them at any time. The mark burns to signal the call of Voldemort. It also helps them recognise each other. To hide their identities, Death Eaters usually wear black hooded robes and masks.
In the timeline of the Harry Potter series, the Death Eaters were formed as Voldemort's army during the First Wizarding War. During this time, their activities focused on fighting against the Ministry of Magic and the Order of the Phoenix, the two main opposing groups. They used attacks and threats against their enemies and their families to create fear and weaken their resistance.
The Death Eaters were first introduced as a group in the novel Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire. However, individual members such as Severus Snape, Lucius Malfoy, and Peter Pettigrew appeared in earlier books. The name of the group is only mentioned from the fourth book onward, but Voldemort’s followers are talked about in Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone and in Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets. The term "Death Eaters" is directly mentioned for the first time in Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban.
Concept
According to J.K. Rowling's speech at the 2007 Carnegie Hall event, the Death Eaters' beliefs are similar to the extremist ideas of the Nazi party. This is seen as a way to criticise racism and totalitarianism.Synopsis
Pre-Harry Potter
The Death Eaters first existed over 11 years before the events of the Harry Potter novels, torturing and murdering Muggles, as well as anyone who opposed them. When a deadly curse from Voldemort rebounded off Harry Potter and disembodied the Dark Lord, the Death Eaters largely disbanded and vanished.Re-emergence
Early in Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, a group of Death Eaters gathers at the Quidditch World Cup and spread chaos and fear amongst the wizarding community. Voldemort regains his full strength at the end of Goblet of Fire, and summons his followers to him.The Minister for Magic, Cornelius Fudge, deludes himself into believing that Voldemort could not have come back and that it was all a lie cooked up by Dumbledore, who Fudge believes had designs on his political office. The Death Eaters use this tactical advantage throughout Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix to maintain their secrecy. Because of the Ministry's refusal to remove the Dementors from Azkaban, the Death Eaters recruit the Dementors to their cause and make similar progress with the giants; the Dementors' revolt against the Ministry of Magic also allows the Death Eaters to bolster their ranks with the mass break-out of several imprisoned Death Eaters, including Bellatrix Lestrange.
Towards the end of Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, the Death Eaters attack Hogwarts for the first time, leading to the death of Albus Dumbledore and injuries to several of the school's defenders. A second, more deadly attack near the conclusion of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows results in over 50 deaths, including that of Voldemort, who dies when the Killing Curse he casts at Harry rebounds on him. All the Dark Marks on the remaining Death Eaters fade to scars.
Ideology
Voldemort's Death Eaters practise illegal and dangerous spells known as dark magic. They follow a racist ideology that places pure-blooded wizards at the top of a racial hierarchy, above all other magical or non-magical people and entities. They believe wizards are, as a genealogy book within the story phrases it, "Nature's Nobility"; other magical creatures and the non-magical are inferior and should be subjugated. Within the wizarding community, only those who are born to wizard parents are worthy of magical power, despite the fact that parentage does not in fact determine who possesses such powers. They categorise wizards according to blood purity; "pure-bloods" out-rank "half-bloods" and "mudbloods", a derogatory name for those born to non-magical parents. Death Eaters have also attacked pure-bloods who oppose them. Examples of this are pure-blooded members of the Order of the Phoenix such as Sirius Black, the Prewett brothers, who were murdered because of their loyalties, and the entire Weasley family. Such people are often called "blood traitors" by those who subscribe to Death Eater ideologies.In reality, the idea of blood purity is a misnomer – Voldemort himself is a half-blood – and it is unlikely that all of them could be pure-bloods, as very few, if any, such people could exist given the small gene pool. In Half-Blood Prince, Rowling depicts the Gaunts as a family who are obsessed with their ancestry and driven to inbreeding to preserve its integrity. Rowling has stated on her website that there are no true pure-blood families left but that those who call themselves such simply strike Muggles, Squibs, and half-bloods from their family records. On the other hand, "in rare circumstances" a Muggle-born wizard can become a Death Eater. They are also not above recruiting creatures they deem inferior, as proven by werewolf Fenrir Greyback and the giant clan from continental Europe, as long as they help further the larger Death Eater agenda.
The Death Eaters seek complete power and control over the entire Wizarding world, wishing to restrict leadership to a small band of pure-bloods. The Death Eaters not only seek the restoration of pure-blood rule over the Wizarding community, but also the eventual subjugation of the Muggle community under Wizarding rule. During their control over the Ministry of Magic, they severely persecuted Muggle-born wizards, sending them to Azkaban for life or feeding them to Dementors.
Notable Death Eater characters
Barty Crouch Jr
Bartemius "Barty" Crouch, Junior was captured by the Ministry of Magic along with Bellatrix, Rodolphus, and Rabastan Lestrange soon after the initial fall of Voldemort. His father, Bartemius Crouch, who headed the Department of Magical Law Enforcement at the time, sentenced him to life imprisonment in Azkaban.His father orchestrates a plan to have Barty Jr. escape according to the wishes of his terminally ill mother. Barty Jr and his mother are disguised as each other and they switch places during a visit, so that she can die in Azkaban while he can walk free. His mother died and was buried as Barty Crouch Jr in Azkaban, and her death was staged shortly afterwards, with nothing being buried in a private funeral. Meanwhile, Barty Crouch Jr remained under an Invisibility Cloak at all times, and was placed under house arrest via the Imperius Curse by his father.
Barty Crouch Jr attended the 1994 Quidditch World Cup under his Invisibility Cloak. During the attack on the tournament by other Death Eaters, he overcame the influence of his father's Imperius Curse, stole Harry Potter's wand and cast the Dark Mark in the sky. He was not discovered, but was taken back home by his father and placed under the Imperius Curse again. Soon thereafter, he was freed from his house arrest by Lord Voldemort, who placed Crouch Sr under the Imperius Curse instead.
Crouch Jr later subdued and imprisoned Alastor "Mad-Eye" Moody, a famous Auror, and used Polyjuice Potion to assume Moody's appearance and infiltrate Hogwarts as the new Defence Against the Dark Arts teacher.
The revived Triwizard Tournament is held at Hogwarts, and Voldemort tasks Crouch Jr with ensuring Harry's victory. To do this, he puts Harry's name in the Goblet of Fire, bewitches Viktor Krum to attack Cedric Diggory in the maze, and stuns Fleur Delacour. When Harry and Cedric simultaneously touch the Triwizard Cup, which is a Portkey, it transports them to the graveyard in Little Hangleton, home of the Riddle family. There, after killing Cedric, Death Eater Peter Pettigrew uses Harry's blood in a ritual that returns Voldemort to a physical body. Voldemort attempts to kill Harry, but with the help of the ghost-echoes of Voldemort's previous victims, Harry escapes via the Portkey.
When Harry reappears at Hogwarts, the still-disguised Crouch Jr hopes to succeed where his master failed and kill Harry; however, Dumbledore, Snape, and McGonagall foil his plot. Under the effects of Veritaserum, he recounts his plan to them. Although he is closely guarded so he can later repeat his testimony, a Dementor acting as bodyguard to Minister for Magic Cornelius Fudge attacks Crouch and sucks out his soul before anyone can stop it. Crouch lives from then on in a vegetative state, bereft of his memories or sense of self.
He is played by David Tennant in the film adaptation of Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire.
Bellatrix Lestrange
Bellatrix Lestrange is the aunt of Draco Malfoy and Nymphadora Tonks. She is introduced in Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix. She is the most faithful member of Voldemort's inner circle. She is described as being highly attractive yet emaciated due to her time in Azkaban. Bellatrix is portrayed as paranoid, insane, sadistic, and fanatically devoted to Voldemort, seeing service to him as the noblest duty for any true wizard or witch.Draco Malfoy
Draco Malfoy is the pure-blooded son of Lucius and Narcissa Malfoy. He was a notorious bully to Harry Potter and his friends throughout the series. Draco becomes a Death Eater in his sixth year at Hogwarts and is assigned to kill Dumbledore. However, he fails and Dumbledore is ultimately killed by Snape. Draco, like his family, is part of Slytherin house. Draco repaired a vanishing cabinet to let the Death Eaters in from the inside.In the Cursed Child, Malfoy was married to Astoria Greengrass, and has a child named Scorpius, one of the two main protagonists in the eighth Harry Potter book, and best friends with Albus Severus Potter.
He is portrayed by Tom Felton in all of the films and by Tom Stephens in the Cursed Child.