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harry potter - Why didn't Voldemort use the Unbreakable Vow with his Death Eaters?


I don't remember how it was called in English, I guess it was like "Unbreakable Vow" or whatever, that charm that forced you to do something or die.


Well then, why didn't Voldemort use it with his Death Eaters to guarantee their loyalty?


Had Voldemort used it, his Death Eaters would have spent their days (after his incident with baby Harry) doing their best to find Voldemort, instead of hiding or pretending they were being controlled by the Imperius Curse.


Of course, it is possible that Voldemort did use it with some of them, but they really thought that Voldemort was truly gone forever, so the charm was pointless since Voldemort seemed to have gone. But I still think he didn't use the charm, because, as a minimum, he would have used it with Snape. And Snape undoubtly betrayed him.


Now then, maybe the charm can only be done once? Some kind of restriction? I don't remember any reference about that though...




Answer



One thing you must remember is that Big V was in it for himself. He was not willing to give others any form of power over him, and he was quick to promise power, wealth, etc to his underlings to gain their support, and threaten them to guarantee it.


As DVK said, the vows also had to be specific - Snape vowed to do specific actions. It's certainly reasonable to assume that vows have to be specific.


It's also reasonable that an intelligent underling, if promised something for his service, would make that part of the Vow. "I will do as you have commanded, and be rewarded as you have promised," or similar. The Vow would then bind both parties - and Voldemort was not one to easily surrender his freedom.


Voldemort is also smart enough to know that a clever subordinate or opponent might try to trick him into breaking a Vow, if they learned of it. I don't know if his Horcruxes would have let him survive breaking the Vow, but losing his body sure did inconvenience him. It's likely he'd be very leery of giving anyone power over his physical form, no matter how tenuous.


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