Death Eater

Related terms:	Knights of Walpurgis (alternate term while the Harry Potter books were still a work in progress)
See also:	Voldemort
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A term from the Harry Potter books that refers to the followers of Voldemort. A secret sect, the inner circle of which have marks on their fore-arms.

Characters

There are many named Death Eaters in the Harry Potter books.

Fan favorites seem to be Lucius Malfoy, Severus Snape, Bellatrix Lestrange, and Fenrir Greyback.

A full list of Death Eaters can be found at The Harry Potter Lexicon.

Fan Fiction

Because of their role in the novels, Death Eaters are often used as the bad guys in fanfiction, and often they are portrayed as greedy, hedonistic, and/or amoral.

Death Eaters in fan fiction tend to fall into a few different categories:

• the villain
• the anti-hero (particularly in the case of Lucius, Severus, or Draco)--ie, the main character of the story who is not particularly a good person.
• the object of reform--ie, someone for the hero to help reform, or as an excuse for the government to rewrite law.