GF33: The Death Eaters – Harry Potter Lexicon

"How many will be brave enough to return when they feel it? And how many will be foolish enough to stay away?"
-- Voldemort

Voldemort summons the Death Eaters, chastises them, and reveals his plans, explaining how he came back to life.

Calendar and Dates

This chapter takes place immediately after end of the preceding chapter, the evening of June 24, 1995.

Interesting facts and notes

"You see that house upon the hillside, Potter? My father lived there. My mother, a witch who lived here in this village, fell in love with him. But he abandoned her when she told him what she was. ... He didn't like magic, my father . . .

'My true family returns...'

As we can see from this remark, Voldemort has no conception of what a family worth the name is like.

The air was suddenly full of the swishing of cloaks. Between graves, behind the yew tree, in every shadowy space, wizards were Apparating. All of them were hooded and masked. And one by one they moved forward . . . slowly, cautiously, as though they could
hardly believe their eyes Voldemort stood in silence, waiting for them.

"Welcome, Death Eaters,” said Voldemort quietly.

"Yet you helped return me to my body," said Voldemort coolly, watching Wormtail sob on the ground. "Worthless and traitorous as you are, you helped me ... and Lord Voldemort rewards his helpers... ."

"My Lord," he whispered. "Master ... it is beautiful. . . thank you... thank you. ..."

"Macnair . . . destroying dangerous beasts for the Ministry of Magic now, Wormtail tells me? You shall have better victims than that soon, Macnair. Lord Voldemort will provide. ..."

"Thank you, Master . . . thank you," murmured Macnair.
"And here" - Voldemort moved on to the two largest hooded figures - "we have Crabbe . . . you will do better this time, will you not, Crabbe? And you, Goyle?"

"The same goes for you, Nott," said Voldemort quietly as he walked past a stooped figure in Mr. Goyles shadow.
"My Lord, I prostrate myself before you, I am your most faithful -"
"That will do," said Voldemort.

"And here we have six missing Death Eaters . . . three dead in my service.

One, too cowardly to return ... he will pay.

This would be Igor Karkaroff. He turns up dead at the beginning of the next book.

One, who I believe has left me forever ... he will be killed, of course . . .

A reference to Snape?

and one, who remains my most faithful servant, and who has already reentered my service."

This would be Barty Crouch Jr. who is at this moment still impersonating Mad-Eye Moody back at Hogwarts.

"Master, we crave to know ... we beg you to tell us ... how you have achieved this . . . this miracle . . . how you managed to return to us. .. ."

What follows is a lovely bit of exposition from Voldemort, which is Rowling's way of catching us all up on what's been going on.

... for I had no body, and every spell that might have helped me required the use of a wand ...

Wandless magic is certainly possible. Harry performs the Lumos spell without his hand holding his wand in OP1. But Voldemort is not talking about a simple Lumos spell. The complex magic he would need to perform to regain his body would definitely require a wand.

"Then . . . four years ago . . . the means for my return seemed assured. A wizard - young, foolish, and gullible - wandered across my path in the forest I had made my home.

So we know that Quirrel's year off from teaching happened four years previous -- just before Harry came to Hogwarts. Why is this important? Because the timeline of Quirrel's teaching career is uncertain.

She told me many things. . . but the means I used to break the Memory Charm upon her were powerful ...

The Memory Charm was placed on her by Barty Crouch Sr. after she accidentally caught a glimpse of his son, who should have been locked away in Azkaban and not hanging around his father's home.

She had now served her purpose. I could not possess her. I disposed of her."

A line equally as chilling as "Kill the spare."