Is the Dark Mark always visible?
Jul. 5th, 2020 04:56 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
sunnyskywalker posting in ![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png){kind=small}
deathtocapslockIt’s a common assumption that the Dark Mark is always visible on a Death Eater's arm, like a Muggle tattoo, and so Death Eaters must never, ever roll up their long sleeves. (I suppose this means they can never go swimming again, unless it’s at the Annual Death Eater Picnic.) Everyone knows about it, so characters might get suspicious if friends suddenly start taking unusual care about keeping their sleeves down. Romantic liaisons might end abruptly in shattering discoveries.
But does canon support this assumption?
Barty Jr. as Moody taunts Snape with the knowledge, so presumably he thinks Moody knows. (If it wasn’t already common knowledge, maybe it came up during the trial.) On the other hand, Barty might believe that Moody would have found out sometime between 1982 and 1994 and be wrong. Or maybe he just forgot what Moody should and shouldn’t know for a moment.
Regardless, Moody knowing the mark exists wouldn’t prove either that it’s permanently visible or that it’s common knowledge. Barty could have cracked and told Moody under torture rather than anyone seeing it, for example.
What about Snape’s explanation to Fudge? He says that it isn’t as clear now as an hour ago, when it burned black, which makes it sound like it’s always visible but looks extra-sharp when Voldemort’s summoning them. On the other hand, it could be invisible by default, he’s doing whatever Death Eaters do to make it visible when they choose, and he doesn’t mention this detail to Fudge because he’s focusing on the more important “it proves he’s definitely back” part of the story. So this isn’t strong evidence.
I think circumstantial evidence points more strongly toward the mark being invisible by default.
The fact that Death Eaters all had the Dark Mark branded into them doesn’t seem to be common knowledge as of 1994. Hermione explains that it’s Voldemort’s symbol, as she read in The Rise and Fall of the Dark Arts, and Arthur explains that Death Eaters cast it into the sky whenever they’d killed. Neither says, “And every Death Eater was branded with it, so if you’re suspicious of someone, find a way to rip their left sleeve off before they’ve had time to cover it up.” Under the circumstances, that should be one of those potentially life-saving tips they would be eager to pass on. Nor does Hermione think of it when Harry mentions Karkaroff showing Snape “something on his arm,” so it probably really wasn’t in any of her books.
And when Snape shows Fudge his mark, he thinks it necessary to explain what it is. If it were common knowledge, he’d have said something like, “You know what this means, Minister. All Death Eaters were bound to him with this. With the mark so clear, you know he must have returned.” But no, he acts as if he thinks it’s completely new information to Fudge.
How is this possible, if the mark really was constantly visible? Wouldn’t someone at the Ministry have noticed that some of the suspects they killed or interrogated had these tattoos, and put it on one of those personal safety leaflets? Even if they thought some were victims, branded as a reminder that the Death Eaters had power over them or something, they must have noticed that others were, well, known Death Eaters. Rosier’s and Wilkes’s corpses would have had them, the Lestranges would have had them when arrested, etc. How could it not have been common knowledge by the time the war ended?
There is a limit to how dense I can assume wizards to be. But for the sake of argument, is it possible that it’s always visible, but the Death Eaters were really good at keeping their sleeves down, and so only people directly fighting them (the Order and the Aurors) knew—and they kept it confidential?
In that case, you would expect Sirius to know about it. However, when Harry tells him that Karkaroff—someone Sirius knows to be a Death Eater—showed Snape something on his arm, Sirius is “frankly bewildered.” Whatever Sirius’s character flaws, he genuinely wants to protect Harry. If he knew about the Dark Mark, why wouldn’t he explain? “On his arm? Harry, you’re right, that is alarming. Death Eaters were all branded with the Dark Mark, so if Karkaroff is showing Snape his for some reason… I thought Dumbledore would never have hired Snape if Snape had served Voldemort, but maybe I was wrong. If Snape has managed to fool Dumbledore all these years, you need to be extremely careful.” But Sirius says nothing of the sort. This doesn’t seem plausible if the Order of the Phoenix knew about the mark.
And they should have known, if it were visible. When Snape defected, he told Dumbledore everything about the Death Eaters and Voldemort. Surely that included that oh, by the way, he was also branded with this mark Voldemort could use to summon him? And for all we know, track him? Dumbledore could easily have told the Order about a permanently-visible mark without revealing his source—he could claim that some unnamed person had accidentally spotted one, and, while he couldn’t be certain of any extra properties it might have, it was likely a mark of allegiance. That would give his followers valuable information they could use in the course of whatever it was the Order did exactly, and a way to check their own friends and family. Especially once they all knew there was a spy in the Order.
Speaking of which, shouldn’t it have been relevant in the hunt for the spy? After learning about it (whether earlier or in June 1995), shouldn’t Sirius wonder why Dumbledore didn’t have everyone roll up their sleeves back in 1981 and nip that problem in the bud? Learning that Dumbledore’s strategy (or carelessness) played a role in his best friend getting murdered ought to have had some visible impact on Sirius. But I don’t remember any sign of it.
The Dark Mark being invisible by default would solve these problems. No one could have accidentally seen their cousin’s forearm and escaped to tell the tale. No Auror would have noticed it on a suspect’s arm. Dumbledore couldn’t tell the Order about it without tipping Voldemort off that one of the Death Eaters was a traitor, because there was no other way for him to know. Sirius wouldn’t need a convoluted reason for knowing before the end of GoF yet not telling Harry. And if he did ask the obvious questions and got a fuller explanation, he might grudgingly agree that searching for an invisible mark wouldn’t have uncovered the spy and might have made things worse—and we wouldn’t necessarily expect to hear about the time Sirius thought maybe Dumbledore made a mistake, but got more information and decided it was still Peter’s fault after all.
So, here’s how I think it works: the Dark Mark is invisible unless either Voldemort or the Death Eater bearing it wills it visible, and it probably always burns visibly—and extra-clearly—when it’s actively summoning the Death Eater. It is, after all, a magical brand, not a Muggle tattoo with magic added after the fact.
This makes accidental discovery a lot harder, which might be inconvenient for some fanfic plots. On the other hand, it means that Voldemort at least started the war smart enough to think of basic security measures, which makes him a more credible villain. That seems like a fair trade.
But does canon support this assumption?
Barty Jr. as Moody taunts Snape with the knowledge, so presumably he thinks Moody knows. (If it wasn’t already common knowledge, maybe it came up during the trial.) On the other hand, Barty might believe that Moody would have found out sometime between 1982 and 1994 and be wrong. Or maybe he just forgot what Moody should and shouldn’t know for a moment.
Regardless, Moody knowing the mark exists wouldn’t prove either that it’s permanently visible or that it’s common knowledge. Barty could have cracked and told Moody under torture rather than anyone seeing it, for example.
What about Snape’s explanation to Fudge? He says that it isn’t as clear now as an hour ago, when it burned black, which makes it sound like it’s always visible but looks extra-sharp when Voldemort’s summoning them. On the other hand, it could be invisible by default, he’s doing whatever Death Eaters do to make it visible when they choose, and he doesn’t mention this detail to Fudge because he’s focusing on the more important “it proves he’s definitely back” part of the story. So this isn’t strong evidence.
I think circumstantial evidence points more strongly toward the mark being invisible by default.
The fact that Death Eaters all had the Dark Mark branded into them doesn’t seem to be common knowledge as of 1994. Hermione explains that it’s Voldemort’s symbol, as she read in The Rise and Fall of the Dark Arts, and Arthur explains that Death Eaters cast it into the sky whenever they’d killed. Neither says, “And every Death Eater was branded with it, so if you’re suspicious of someone, find a way to rip their left sleeve off before they’ve had time to cover it up.” Under the circumstances, that should be one of those potentially life-saving tips they would be eager to pass on. Nor does Hermione think of it when Harry mentions Karkaroff showing Snape “something on his arm,” so it probably really wasn’t in any of her books.
And when Snape shows Fudge his mark, he thinks it necessary to explain what it is. If it were common knowledge, he’d have said something like, “You know what this means, Minister. All Death Eaters were bound to him with this. With the mark so clear, you know he must have returned.” But no, he acts as if he thinks it’s completely new information to Fudge.
How is this possible, if the mark really was constantly visible? Wouldn’t someone at the Ministry have noticed that some of the suspects they killed or interrogated had these tattoos, and put it on one of those personal safety leaflets? Even if they thought some were victims, branded as a reminder that the Death Eaters had power over them or something, they must have noticed that others were, well, known Death Eaters. Rosier’s and Wilkes’s corpses would have had them, the Lestranges would have had them when arrested, etc. How could it not have been common knowledge by the time the war ended?
There is a limit to how dense I can assume wizards to be. But for the sake of argument, is it possible that it’s always visible, but the Death Eaters were really good at keeping their sleeves down, and so only people directly fighting them (the Order and the Aurors) knew—and they kept it confidential?
In that case, you would expect Sirius to know about it. However, when Harry tells him that Karkaroff—someone Sirius knows to be a Death Eater—showed Snape something on his arm, Sirius is “frankly bewildered.” Whatever Sirius’s character flaws, he genuinely wants to protect Harry. If he knew about the Dark Mark, why wouldn’t he explain? “On his arm? Harry, you’re right, that is alarming. Death Eaters were all branded with the Dark Mark, so if Karkaroff is showing Snape his for some reason… I thought Dumbledore would never have hired Snape if Snape had served Voldemort, but maybe I was wrong. If Snape has managed to fool Dumbledore all these years, you need to be extremely careful.” But Sirius says nothing of the sort. This doesn’t seem plausible if the Order of the Phoenix knew about the mark.
And they should have known, if it were visible. When Snape defected, he told Dumbledore everything about the Death Eaters and Voldemort. Surely that included that oh, by the way, he was also branded with this mark Voldemort could use to summon him? And for all we know, track him? Dumbledore could easily have told the Order about a permanently-visible mark without revealing his source—he could claim that some unnamed person had accidentally spotted one, and, while he couldn’t be certain of any extra properties it might have, it was likely a mark of allegiance. That would give his followers valuable information they could use in the course of whatever it was the Order did exactly, and a way to check their own friends and family. Especially once they all knew there was a spy in the Order.
Speaking of which, shouldn’t it have been relevant in the hunt for the spy? After learning about it (whether earlier or in June 1995), shouldn’t Sirius wonder why Dumbledore didn’t have everyone roll up their sleeves back in 1981 and nip that problem in the bud? Learning that Dumbledore’s strategy (or carelessness) played a role in his best friend getting murdered ought to have had some visible impact on Sirius. But I don’t remember any sign of it.
The Dark Mark being invisible by default would solve these problems. No one could have accidentally seen their cousin’s forearm and escaped to tell the tale. No Auror would have noticed it on a suspect’s arm. Dumbledore couldn’t tell the Order about it without tipping Voldemort off that one of the Death Eaters was a traitor, because there was no other way for him to know. Sirius wouldn’t need a convoluted reason for knowing before the end of GoF yet not telling Harry. And if he did ask the obvious questions and got a fuller explanation, he might grudgingly agree that searching for an invisible mark wouldn’t have uncovered the spy and might have made things worse—and we wouldn’t necessarily expect to hear about the time Sirius thought maybe Dumbledore made a mistake, but got more information and decided it was still Peter’s fault after all.
So, here’s how I think it works: the Dark Mark is invisible unless either Voldemort or the Death Eater bearing it wills it visible, and it probably always burns visibly—and extra-clearly—when it’s actively summoning the Death Eater. It is, after all, a magical brand, not a Muggle tattoo with magic added after the fact.
This makes accidental discovery a lot harder, which might be inconvenient for some fanfic plots. On the other hand, it means that Voldemort at least started the war smart enough to think of basic security measures, which makes him a more credible villain. That seems like a fair trade.
