I don’t believe- please correct me if I’m wrong (like I have to ask)- that Rowling has ever explained why Voldemort’s followers are called Death Eaters. (I know that they are Knights of the Order of Walpurgis as well, but that’s apocrypha.)
A theory:
Could Voldemort’s last horcrux have been made edible and then fed to the Death Eaters, somehow magically remaining in their body? (I’d wondered if the death mark tattoo could be somehow a horcrux also.)
Just a late night speculation. Your thoughts?
Voldemort’s main goal, above all else, is to conquer death.
I don’t know why it’s “Eaters”, though. Unless it’s some kind of communion allegory, maybe.
I dunno, I don’t think he’d take that chance. I mean, once a Death Eater eats it (heh), then wouldn’t their portion of the horcrux go poof? Unless there were some sort of provision for that.
And what about all the reformed/false (i.e. imperius’d) Death Eaters? Harry would have to off the lot of them to vanquish Voldy. Seems like a stretch (although a very compelling idea).
Although, it’d be interesting (but very unlikely) if all the Death Eaters have made horcruxes and have all partaken in every one, effectively making the whole lot pseudo-immortal. I don’t think though that Voldemort would offer up this piece of hard-earned knowledge – he’s too much of an elitist.
As I’ve already said, it’s pretty bleeming obvious that Harry is the final Horcrux. He has a direct window into Voldemort’s soul and emotional moods for chrissakes and is linked to him: doesn’t that pretty strongly point to the idea that Voldemort screwed up his final Horcrux murder (the murder of Harry), not only failing to kill him, but splitting his soul and lodging part of it in Harry? Doesn’t that explain everything: Harry’s linked powers, their similarity, their twin wands, the wands backfiring on each other, etc.?
I really doubt that Voldemort would ever invest something so precious in a bunch of people he finds to be so worthless, detestable, and most of all, expendable. Dumbledore drives this point home again and again: the DE’s are mere flunkies, not friends. Voldemort has no friends, cares nothing for other people, even those loyal to him.
And therefore, Apos, he’s going to top himself to defeat evil? A bit too obvious, I reckon.
Ack. The “Harry is the 6th Horcrux” Theory. The annoying thing is it might be right, dammit, which means he has to die. Boo.
I’d say though, that it isn’t the case because no-one died to make Harry a horcrux. Voldemort planned to kill Harry, so it can’t have been James or Lily’s deaths he used (well, unless he planned on keeping a dead baby corpse with him. Ew.). And Voldmort himself didn’t die.
The evidence, sadly, is that Voldemort may have died just enough to make it so. Also, the scar on Harry’s head is of a similar shape to the one on the Gaunt Ring - although, that being broken, would tend to suggest that Harry was once a horcrux but is no longer.
In regards to the OP, the horcrux tattoos are Proteus Charms.
It’s possible that the feeding of the death eaters is the case, but I doubt it - logically it would make sense that any kind of breaking up of the horcrux would break the magic, too. And Voldemort loves trophies - while I can see him thinking of the Death Eaters as his trophies, I can’t really see him making a loaf of bread into a horcrux and sharing it out. He just doesn’t believe they’re good enough for him.
I do think Harry Potter contains the final Horcrux, but I also think there will be a way for him to live and destroy it(perhaps by having Snape transfer it to himself and then sacrifice himself).
The ‘Harry-is-a-Horcrux’ theory has always bugged me for one simple reason: if Voldemort was going to murder Harry (and he was–he only got stopped because Lily died for her son, something he didn’t anticipate) why would he tag a dead body with a Horcrux? Pardon the rather graphic imagery, but dead bodies tend to decay and fall apart–talk about a really safe, secure vessel for a piece of your immortal soul…
Voldemort conquered death. He could probably just wave his wand and shout “embalmio!” and be done with it.
Still not buying it, but thanks for the grin. 
People seem to be forgetting that we’re doing with magic gone wrong. What happens when something rare and magical goes spectacularly wrong?
If it was something simple, predictable, and reproduceable people wouldn’t be walking around making such a big deal about Harry and the vanishing of Voldemort. Instead it’d be:
“Yeah, Voldemort tried to use his XP-38 model wand to do an avada kedavra against a MommyLove Mark Deuce Lifeshield while making a Horcux on the night of a harvest moon - what did he THINK was going to happen? I can’t believe we were all afraid of him. What a total boob.”
Maybe instead he was going to kill Harry to make his last Horcrux, but instead things went wrong, Voldemort was blown to atoms…and so was his Horcrux-to-be? It was actually going to be a picture he did in kindergarten that his damned muggle father would never put on the refrigerator no matter how hard he begged…and as part of things going wrong Harry became the Horcrux instead.
Part of this means you can’t go ahead and say “but why would Voldy…” because he WOULDN’T. Why would he go visit the Potters and throw away everything at the height of his power?
I’m gonna guess that wasn’t part of the plan…
-Joe
Yep: Merijeek said it. Voldemort’s killing curse aimed at Harry successfully split his soul as intended… but when it backfired all hell broke lose and it ended up in Harry. Voldemort wasn’t intending to make HARRY (a dead body) the Horcrux: he was intending to use that murder: that final murderour vanquishing of what the prophecy said was his nemesis, to make his final Horcrux. What he had planned to use we don’t know, though I suspect we will learn about some key Godric-related item in the next book.
But consider this: Voldemort had only six Horcruxes out of an intended seven when he went to Godric’s Hollow to kill the Potters. Dumbledore tells us this (how does he know this, by the way? He doesn’t know what all the Horcruxes are, and yet somehow he knows that Voldemort had six by the time he went to kill Harry. He doesn’t ever say how he knows, though I have my suspicions). Voldemort has a flair for the dramatic: there’s no way he’d NOT make such an important murder part of his Horcrux-creating scheme. So we can be pretty certain that Horcrux making was on his mind and in his enchantments when he cast that final curse. Given the results, I’d say that it’s painfully obvious that Harry has a piece of Voldemort’s soul in him. Again: how else can you possibly explain how “Voldemort transferred some of his power into you,” how Harry can experience what Voldemort is thinking and feeling, why they are so connected? Why would even a backfired Avada Kedavra spell do all that? Another enchantment was involved on top of the Avada Kedavra, obviously. The Horcrux making enchantments. And something: perhaps just Lily’s protection, or perhaps some other charm she had worked to confound magic, screwed that enchanment up.
Remember: Dumbledore repeatedly notes that Harry was MADE, not born, into being Voldemort’s nemesis. He is MADE, by Voldemort, into someone and something that is very very much like Voldemort himself… even has portions of Voldemort’s power… and yet he is different, different because of his capacity to love: something Voldemort is incapable of. That protects him: allows him to bear a portion of the Dark Lord’s soul and yet come out unscathed.
Dumbledore pretty much spells it all out in the books, though it’s questionable whether Dumbledore himself really knew or not. He says he suspects the snake. I think most of us surmise that this suspicion is wrong. But why is it in the book then? Simple: to open up and state the possibility that Horcruxes can be living creatures… perhaps even people.
Didn’t Harry get the seven horcruces figure from the new potions teacher’s memory?
Do we really ever see any familiars in these books?
If not, it seems rather odd that Voldemort has one. That’s why I think that the snake is actually a Horcrux.
-Joe
Hang on a mo - hasn’t Voldemort tried to kill Harry on several occasions? Surely if he was a horcrux, you’d be avoiding him?
Just to set out what Dumbledore thinks the Horcruxes are (in case you don’t know, although i’m guessing you all do)
[spoiler]
Other suggestions:
8) Harry
9) An unknown Gryffindor item.
I think it’s safe to say #1 and #2 were definetly Horcruxes. It’s pretty safe to say, from the sixth book, that #3 is, too. #7 has to be there.
It’s reasonably certain that #4 is, given that we know Voldemort possessed it at one time.
It’s possible that #5 is correct, although we don’t know any items of that house. It’s much less likely to be #9, because the only two artifacts of that house are the sword and the sorting hat (that we know of, but still).
I’d say #6 was more likely than #8, but only because I don’t want Harry to die, dammit 
Remember, children, in GoF that Voldemort insisted that he would ONLY take Harry’s blood to enable his complete rebirth. This despite Pettigrew’s insistence that the blood of ANY witch or wizard would accomplish the task.
If Harry is/was a horcrux I’m pretty certain that Voldemort took that part of his soul back with the blood he took from Harry at the end of GoF.
I don’t know if I believe it, myself. But using the arguments here that’s how I’d see it playing out.
The movie suggested that having Harry’s blood as part of the spell broke the protection that Harry’s mother’s sacrifice had created. I don’t think miss Rowling would let something like that go through if it contradicted the book, so I’m guessing that’s why he wanted it.
There might be something to the horcrux theory, but a major part of book 5 was how Harry’s sense of Voldemort became stronger. If having part of Voldy’s soul enabled that, it doesn’t seem like having that soul taken back would strengthen it.
Remember, though, Dumbledore said there was only one artifact of Griffindor left. Given that we know of at least two, this suggests a certain level of sloppiness on Dumbledore’s part in keeping track of Griffindoriana. So there might be something else which he overlooked, as well.
As for the possibility that Harry himself is the last Horcrux, this does not necessarily mean that he has to die. Remember, Dumbledore managed to de-Horcruxify the ring without actually destroying it. It’s also possible that Harry could de-Horcruxify himself without dying. However, if the sharing of Voldemort’s soul is what gives Harry his extraordinary power, then this might have the effect of removing some or all of Harry’s magical ability, a sacrifice many have already speculated Harry might have to make at the end.
Another thought, incidentally: Assuming that Harry himself is not a Horcrux, that means that Voldemort never had his soul in seven parts, and knows it. According to Dumbledore’s surmises (which are in no way extraordinary; he’s just making the same sort of guesses we are, but with a greater understanding of how magic works and of Voldemort’s psyche), V. intended Harry’s death to make the last horcrux, but failed. Then, Harry destroys the diary, and Voldemort finds out. And it’s only after this that he’s in a condition to make Nagini into the “final” Horcrux (presumably using the murder of the old Muggle caretaker). So Voldemort’s still one short at that time, and is presumably trying to make another (or two, if he’s somehow deduced that the ring is gone, too).
Incidentally, has anyone else figured out where the locket is? I think I know, and if so, the moviemakers are going to have a hard time making up for omissions in Goblet of Fire.
Doesn’t Voldemort detail why they’re called Death Eaters in his resurrection scene in GoF?