The Death Eaters are a fictional extremist organisation 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 branded 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. The Death Eaters also cast the mark into the sky to signify they had killed someone. 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 (2000). 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 (non-magical people), as well as anyone who opposed them. When a deadly curse from Voldemort rebounded off Harry Potter and disembodied Voldemort, the Death Eaters largely disbanded and vanished.Rowling, J. K. (2000). Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire. Bloomsbury Publishing. Chapter 33: The Death Eaters are revealed to have existed for over a decade before the events of the series, engaging in torture and murder.Rowling, J. K. (2003). Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix. Bloomsbury Publishing. Chapter 9: The Death Eaters targeted Muggles and opponents of Voldemort.Rowling, J. K. (1997). Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone. Bloomsbury Publishing. Chapter 1: The Death Eaters disband after Voldemort’s curse rebounds off Harry Potter and destroys his body.
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.Rowling, J. K. (2000). Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire. Bloomsbury Publishing. Chapter 9: Death Eaters gather at the Quidditch World Cup, causing panic and destruction.
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 (as Dumbledore advises immediately following Voldemort's return), 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.Rowling, J. K. (2003). Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix. Bloomsbury Publishing. Chapter 1 & Chapter 27: Cornelius Fudge refuses to believe in Voldemort's return, and the Death Eaters take advantage of the Ministry's denial. Chapter 25: Dementors and giants align with the Death Eaters. Chapter 33: Mass breakout from Azkaban, including Bellatrix Lestrange.Rowling, J. K. (2005). Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince. Bloomsbury Publishing. Chapter 27: Death Eaters infiltrate Hogwarts, leading to the death of Albus Dumbledore and several injuries.
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.Rowling, J. K. (2007). Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows. Bloomsbury Publishing. Chapter 36: The Battle of Hogwarts results in over 50 deaths. Voldemort’s Killing Curse rebounds and destroys him. The Dark Marks on surviving 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" (those with only wizards as parents) out-rank "half-bloods" (mixed parentage) and "mudbloods", a derogatory name for those born to non-magical parents (Muggles). 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 Alecto and Amycus Carrow Alecto and Amycus Carrow are siblings who participate in the assault on Hogwarts at the end of Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince. Amycus is described as being squat and lumpy, with a lopsided leer and a wheezy giggle; Alecto is described as a "stocky little woman" and shares her brother's squatness and laugh.
In Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, Alecto and Amycus become "teachers" at Hogwarts, severely disciplining students who oppose Voldemort. Amycus teaches Defence Against the Dark Arts, but as Neville Longbottom puts it, it becomes just "The Dark Arts" in which students are forced to perform the Cruciatus Curse against students who have been assigned to detention. Alecto teaches Muggle Studies, which becomes a compulsory subject, and teaches students that Muggles are like animals.
Ralph Ineson plays Amycus, and Suzie Toase appears as Alecto in the films.
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 and torturing Neville's parents with the Cruciatus Curse. His father, Bartemius Crouch, who headed the Department of Magical Law Enforcement at the time, sentenced him to life imprisonment in Azkaban after being exposed by Igor Karkaroff. However, Barty Crouch Jr. eventually escaped the prison with the help of his father, who placed him under house arrest via the Imperius Curse.
Barty Crouch Jr attended the 1994 Quidditch World Cup under an 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, thus demonstrating the unforgivable curses.
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 with the Imperius Curse 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 and summon Lucius and the Death Eaters. Voldemort attempts to kill Harry, but with the help of the ghost-echoes of Voldemort's previous victims, Harry escapes via the Portkey with Cedric's body.
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.
Antonin Dolohov Antonin Dolohov has a long, pale, and twisted face. He is confirmed in Half-Blood Prince to be one of Voldemort's first Death Eaters. Dolohov is one of the five Death Eaters who murder Gideon and Fabian Prewett (Molly Weasley's brothers). Dolohov is imprisoned in Azkaban but escapes during the mass break-out of 1996.