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thecarnivorousmuffinmeta · 3 years

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Hey! I love your meta’s, a little while ago you talked about The Order of the Phoenix as an organization could you talk about the Death Eaters?

The post anon is referencing.

TL;DR the Order is incompetently hilarious and Dumbledore is a man who trusts no one.

Oh, the Death Eaters, what to say about the Death Eaters...

In a World Without Voldemort, They'd Probably Be Arsonists

One of the things JKR implies in the series, and something fandom seems to take for granted, is that Tom Riddle is the ultimate corrupting influence.

Were it not for him, the Wizarding World would be a much better place, and people like Bellatrix LeStrange would be productive members of society.

As soon as he is killed, even, by Harry, the good guys win, their problems all presumably solved, and Harry tells his son Albus Severus that it's totally fine if he's put into Slytherin.

I don't believe that though.

To me, it's not so much that Tom Riddle corrupted these people, but that he gave them an organized cause. The people themselves, oh, they were itching for a fight.

In a world without Tom I think they'd be a loosely, poorly organized, group (probably with Bellatrix as the ring leader) where they commit acts of domestic terrorism probably involving burning offensive shops to the ground or attacking muggleborns, halfbloods, and blood traitors.

Voldemort, to me, is designed to pander to them (and not the other way around).

The Death Eaters' Beginnings

So, first off, I think Tom's goals are not what he says they are. What he represents to his followers is exactly what they want to hear, wrapped in a grandiose theatric bow that they just love.

But how did this all start?

First, I don't believe in the Knights of Walpurgis. Instead I think Tom came relatively out of nowhere in the 70's uses parseltongue to prove his heritage as the Heir of Slytherin and thus of purer blood than any of them.

He throws these exciting rallies/parties that the rebellious, angsty, teenage heirs all go to. There he says everything they wanted to hear in the most eloquent manner they've ever heard, promises them the action that their fathers have never delivered, promises them a role in the glorious revolution and a place in history, and probably offers them mounds of cocaine.

All the Death Eaters we see, or the core of them, appear to be in this age range where they'd be in Hogwarts or just out of it when Voldemort came knocking. I can imagine they're all whipped up with excitement, YEAH LET'S BLOW UP THE MUDBLOODS and for some that's great, for others... things don't go the way they expected.

October 31, 1981: It All Falls Apart

Regulus famously steals Tom's horcrux. I imagine it wasn't so much that he learned the error of his ways but that he saw what Tom Riddle was really after: the destruction of his very society.

Lucius is riding high until October 31, 1981 and he sees the complete destruction of the entire Black family. Lucius' priorities greatly shift and as he grows older he prays Voldemort never returns. Unfortunately, Tom does, and he charges interest.

Bellatrix absolutely loses her mind, refuses to accept reality, and tries to torture the Longbottoms for information they do not possess. She is imprisoned in Azkaban and never truly recovers from this.

Snape ends up the cause of death for Lily Evans and must forever live with the guilt and be tied to her prophesied son. He also becomes Dumbledore's lackey forever, which ultimately gets him killed.

Point being, no one's having a good time. Some because they figure out being a Death Eater wasn't all it was cracked up to be, and others because they had the Voldemort rug pulled out from under their feet when Tom Riddle disappears.

Pettigrew flees and lives as the Weasley rat for nearly fifteen years.

They're left making a mad scramble as they try to pick up the pieces of their lives.

Canon Catches Up

More than ten years go by and then suddenly, in a muggle graveyard, the surviving Death Eaters discover that they are bound to Voldemort for the rest of their lives.

Death cannot stop this man and he has branded them: there's no escape.

Some are still enthusiastic supporters of the cause: Bellatrix is vindicated that her lord has returned, he rescues her from hell on earth, and everything's finally coming up Bella. Barty is similar in actively working for Voldemort's resurrection.

Lucius, meanwhile, lives in constant terror. Karkaroff desperately flees the country and hopes Tom will not find him. Snape, is in fact, Dumbledore's agent. Pettigrew only returned in utter desperation and has now cut off his own hand.

They're not the young men they were, some of them have families, to some of the past ten years have been utterly miserable. They have to watch as their children make the same damn mistakes they did, be sucked into this same hell hole, and there's nothing they can do about it.

There is a notable reluctance for the cause, and yet, they have to try with the same vigor or this madman will kill them all.

And it's all worthless anyway: come 1998, Voldemort dies again (perhaps for real this time, who knows, Harry Potter seems to think so for whatever reason) and then they are imprisoned for their acts as Death Eaters.

And they just laugh, because how badly Lucius wishes he could go back in time and tell his eighteen-year-old self, "YOU DUMB FUCK, LEAVE NOW!"

But Do They Learn Anything?

No.

Just because we see some of them regret being Death Eaters doesn't mean they regret their beliefs. Their beliefs were fine, even blowing up people here and there, a bit gauche but fine.

But maybe following Voldemort blindly was a bad idea.

Are They More Competent Than the Order?

No.

Tom Riddle is terrifyingly competent in that he infiltrates the government with ease, has spies everywhere, and all but proclaims himself minister one day and nobody blinks.

He gains the full support of most of the wizarding world's wealthiest and prestigious families.

But he doesn't actually give these people anything to do. Because there's nothing for them to do, with them, Tom's won. He owns the Wizengamot, the Ministry, everything.

There's no need to fight. It's over, there never was a war. Society is primed to accept Tom Riddle as their ruler.

However, the likes of Bellatrix LeStrange thinks there's a glorious war on, so "uh, go out and blow up a few muggles, have fun." And the young Death Eaters (and the older ones), think they've committed this great, daring, brave, and very important act.

Tom only seems to hand out real assignments when in desperate straits or else when being particularly vindictive.

Lucius, after messing up with the diary, is told to retrieve a prophecy he is not allowed to touch in a department of the ministry he should have no access to. If he fails: Tom kills his entire family. When Lucius does fail, Tom assigns his son to assassinate an already dying Dumbledore. These aren't real tasks, though they do have the appearance of one, and consequences for failure.

Barty, Tom is forced to rely on, as he is trapped in this dying infant's body. And better Barty, someone who is truly loyal and seems fairly clever, than Peter Pettigrew who is a miserable scum bag who'd sell his grandmother for a bar of soap.

Barty, of course, fucks this up. Rather than just kidnap Harry Potter at any of the many easy points this could be done (Hogsmeade trip, lure Harry out to Hogsmeade with super secret serial information about Voldemort/Snape being a Death Eater, etc.), Barty is determined to make use of the Triwizard Tournament to destroy his father's legacy.

This means rather than a few weeks, it takes months to kidnap Harry, and even then they bring along an extra boy who then gets killed and provides some evidence that Tom Riddle has in fact returned. (Somebody murdered Cedric). It takes months and Barty actively ensuring Harry makes it through the tournament and does well, leaving open the possibility that he might get caught helping Harry cheat at any moment. And of course, Barty has to pretend to be Madeye Moody for months, keeping his man locked and drugged in his trunk.

Thankfully, Moody's such a paranoid wreck, no one even notices.

Quirrell, Tom is forced to rely on. Quirrell fucks up, though admittedly not as badly as Barty. Quirrell fails to steal the stone when it's in transit/in Gringotts. He fails to murder Harry Potter, an eleven year old boy in the world's most dangerous school. He rouses Snape's suspicion almost immediately. Then of course he doesn't get the stone. He at least gets to the room with the stone and nearly overpowers Harry and gets it had he not been mysteriously lit on fire by the power of love/Lily Evans.

The only one Tom ever really relies on by choice is Snape. Snape is charged with spying on Dumbledore and later running Hogwarts (which he fucks up).

There is only one competent man in Britain: Severus Snape. Which is, of course, why he's a double agent that Dumbledore and Tom both extensively rely on despite his being a double agent.

There's no one else.

Tom Riddle doesn't make use of the Death Eaters but given they prove themselves enthusiastically incompetent at every turn I don't blame him. Just pretend to give them something to do and hope it makes them feel important.

That's all I've got in general, you want anything else you'll have to ask for something more specific.

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thedungeonsbat · 5 years

Text

Muggle Love (Chapter 14)

Chapter 14

You woke up tired to find Erebus snuggled beside you on your bed, you must have left the window open. He looked so adorable and you had to fight the urge to cuddle him right there. A good way to wake up, you thought. And then you realised what his arrival meant.

There it was, tied to his leg was a piece of parchment and a box. Erebus looked very tired so you decided not to wake him up. Without disturbing him, you untied the package from its leg carefully. You wondered how hard it must have been to carry it all the way from wherever Severus was to here. But when you lifted the packet it felt light like a thin sheet of paper.

'Wow..' You said while weighing it in your hands. This sort of magic would have been so useful to all wizards, you thought. You were impressed once again, you would never be done with admiring his skills. How you longed to be like him and to be a part of his world.

You unrolled the parchment tied with a deep green ribbon, the box was wrapped with the same.

The words on the letter were blurry because you had just woken up. You rubbed your eyes, stretched and yawned. You tried to read again and this time with better vision.

Your face melted into a smile as you began reading it. You side-glanced the pack lying next to you now. You continued reading the letter and instantly took the box in your hands, eyeing it with eyes filled with interest. You quickly unwrapped it and opened it to find all the wizard sweets Severus had sent.

At first, you were slightly confused because they all looked normal but when you read the labels, you realised they were not ordinary at all. They were wizard sweets!

Of course, they were. You smiled broadly as you re-read Severus' letter. But what did he mean by being 'careful' with these? They are just chocolates and candies and cakes. What could they do?

You got your answer when you tasted a soap flavoured bean. You somehow managed to not spit it out. Hopefully, the others would taste fine. You also checked a box full of chocolate frogs, you were not very interested in tasting these, they were even hopping around like real the ones.

More interesting were the cards with these, they had pictures of many people which when you read the cards realised, were witches and wizards. The one you opened had a moving elderly wizard named Armando Dippet. 'Fascinating' you said to yourself starting at them with gleaming, wide eyes.

It felt like Christmas. Waking up to find a present by your bedside. It was almost like reliving your childhood.

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You began accepting the fact that you might like Severus and want something more than just a friendship with him. But you were still very afraid of what might be the result of this.

You wanted to talk about it, it was hard to keep all of this to yourself but you couldn't possibly risk revealing who Severus is in front of anybody. Not even your Dad or Carl or Holly, who still, by the way, tried to squeeze something about the 'mystery guy' out of you. She was very good at it though. Carl just usually commented and teased you during your daydreaming sessions.

You wondered if Severus was thinking about you or if it was just you, he did mention he cared in his letter. It meant a lot to you. Everything he had ever said and did mattered.

After a long while, you came across your old sketchbook. You hadn't had much time for hobbies lately, it was mostly just your studies dominating your time-table. You dusted it off and went through it, eventually you came across Severus' sketch which you drew long ago. You noticed you did not do his nose so right.

You drew another one that day, much more detailed, with the exactness of each and every one of his features, especially the hands and eyes. His eyes seemed empty yet were so deep when he was nearer. You missed those moments you shared.

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Many of your feelings were shared by him and one more was the need to share, to talk and to express. It was rare, very rare in fact when he got into a talkative mood. Surprisingly (or maybe not), he wanted to talk about the same things as you, how he felt towards you...

Severus counted each passing day as it meant that the end of the term was one day nearer. Even though be had more important issues to focus on, his thoughts drifted to you. The sweet smile you were always ready to give, your gentle voice and something he'd love to experience more, your caressing touch.

To his satisfaction, you wrote to him more frequently and he replied in just a few words which did not satisfy you. In your most recent letter you had mentioned your plans on Christmas, you were going to visit your father and brother but would return to London before New Year. Only then he remembered there was another holiday coming up and this time he would not forget bringing you something.

During the small breaks he had between classes, he wondered what would be suitable as a gift for you. In this situation not even Malfoy would be able to help him, what would he know about your taste. Also, it would be extremely weird for him to ask his student something like that and he certainly did not want any rumours flying around.

He couldn't think of anything at all. He failed miserably at coming up with even one idea. He indeed was bad at it. He shouldn't be blamed though, he had never met anyone worthy of this kind of affection from him. That was before he bumped into you at the railway platform. When he thought about it, a smile automatically appeared onto his face. It all felt like yesterday but the rare smile disappeared as soon as the seventh years Gryffindors and Ravenclaws began filling the classroom. Some girls whispered and giggled and Severus really wished they did not notice.

Back to his cold and dangerous self, he began the lesson. Lucky for the Gryffindor who messed up his potion, their professor was in a good mood and surprisingly indeed, he simply corrected him without taking any house points. A few Ravenclaws began whispering and the Gryffindors exchanged surprised looks.

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"Did you decide what you're gonna buy him?" Holly casually asked after turning the 'Open' sign hung on the shop's door to 'Closed' when finally all the customers had left and the cleaning was done. You occasionally helped her out with Carl.

"Uh-what?" You said with a hint of absent-mindedness. Carl smirked from beside you,

"Thinking of Severus, are you?"

"Oh shut up!" You snapped. He could really be very annoying for you sometimes, especially when he mentioned Severus, not that you did not like him but you did not necessarily enjoy them teasing you.

"So, have you?" Holly asked again. She saw the look on your face which made clear you hadn't heard her the first time, so she kindly repeated with a smile, "Have you thought of a gift to buy for Severus?"

You blushed a light shade of pink and replied softly, "Oh.. That's actually been hard to decide..."

Carl looked as though he was going to say something, another teasing comment perhaps, but Holly silenced him with a glare.

"Why don't I help you? We can go shopping and get to spend some time together." She suggested.

"Yeah, I guess you're right but I don't really know what he likes. He doesn't really show a particular interest in anything exce-" You cut yourself mid-sentence. You were close to letting something spill. "I told you he isn't very chatty." You quickly added before they could question you.

"You'll figure it out," Carl said.

"Hmm, I hope so." You muttered and you continued walking.

Carl began talking about a new movie that was out and soon the conversation led to one thing and another and you ended up having a good walk home. You were left alone with Carl as Holly bid you goodbye.

He didn't say much and for the first time in months, you were the one to break the silence.

"When are you gonna ask her out?" You said. Carl turned to you with his eyebrows raised but you could clearly see him blushing a bit.

"I-I'm sorry, w-what?" He said and his bewildered expression caused you to burst out laughing.

"Don't think I haven't noticed. It's obvious." You said. He took his time to make sure you were talking about what he thought you were talking about.

He looked down again and his cheeks went even redder, "I don't know." He sighed and went on, "I don't want to spoil our friendship, you know? It's so great this way, what if it doesn't work out?"

Even if you were sometimes not paying complete attention to your surroundings, you had noticed the way Carl behaved around Holly. From the way he looked at her, it was pretty clear he liked her.

You rubbed his arm and gave him a sympathising look, "I understand." You said and smiled amiably at him.

True, you did understand. It was what you were afraid of too, ruining what you had with Severus. You would hate that and you understood Carl was not only scared of endangering his friendship with Holly but also it would get a whole lot awkward with you and her if things didn't work out (fingers crossed, hope things do work out for them).

You hugged Carl goodbye after one last reassuring smile.

____________

Several students lurked around Severus in the corridors trying to figure out why he was behaving more unusually than ever before. Why he was sometimes too cruel and then suddenly too kind was a topic of interest for many students.

Severus tried to ignore them but their curiosity only grew when his owl would swoop in among all other owls during breakfast, sometimes the black owl was spotted giving him letters in the corridors. One such time was in the presence of McGonagall whose eyebrows shot up and then furrowed in confusion. All she got in reply was an angry look from Severus.

"Who d'you reckon has been sending Snape so many letters?" Ron asked Harry before stuffing his mouth with a toast.

"No idea," Harry replied looking at the staff table, his eyes fixed at Severus as he pocketed another piece of paper and stroking Erebus' feathers. "I don't think even his family would write to him." He added through gritted teeth.

"That's mean, Harry. He's our professor." Hermione said.

"Who deducts house-points because you know the answer!" Ron complained.

"He hasn't taken any, even from Gryffindor, in weeks." Hermione protested.

"That is what's weird. Is he alright though?" Harry said, finally turning to his food.

"Who cares?" Replied Ron.

"I hope Professor Lupin's alright," Harry said in a concerned tone.

Hermione rolled her eyes, even though she wasn't very fond of their Potions Master either, she at least admired him as a skilled teacher.

The golden trio wasn't the only one discussing him. Most of the Slytherins had been discussing it too and there were all sorts of theories they made. Altogether, his snakes were happy to see their Head in a better mood.

McGonagall wouldn't miss any chance to interrogate him but got nothing out of him, after time she just settled with the fact that maybe he was just happy and there is nothing wrong. Ponoma took it all very well and always smiled delightfully at him whenever he passed her. And then, of course, Dumbledore got a bit oddly puckish, even more than before.

Severus was receiving more attention than ever and he wasn't enjoying it, he never liked to be the one whom everyone gossiped about. Though he was enjoying the reason, which was you.

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Thanks for reading!

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