Order Only: Private message to Severus Snape

[alt_mcgonagall]

Tosha has asked me to "tea and strategy."

To reproduce his message in part:

...even were you not my own true sister for this life and beyond, I would stand in your corner in this upcoming battle, as I find Dolores's attitudes and vision to alternate between insipid and saccharine. My observations over the past two months have led me to several potential courses to stand quietly against her machinations without escalating into outright warfare, and I would like to begin putting several of them into place.

 

Do you believe he means what he says? He has been reliable, that is true: but I do not know whether there is some hidden dagger here.

Comments

[alt_severus]

Antonin Dolohov is tricky to evaluate properly. On the whole, you can trust that he will behave in a predictable fashion, and to mean precisely what he says -- but you must also be careful that you have identified the full and entire implications of what he is saying, and while his behaviour is generally predictable, it is predictable only when taken within his own parameters and not as compared to others.

I have been careful to avoid him since his arrival, as it is not beyond the realm of possibility that he would be capable of the leap of intuition necessary to identify my deception, but I cannot imagine he has changed significantly in the past dozen years. When I knew him, he was both most diligent in his application to the Dark Lord's wishes, and quite eager to share his love of his subject. Of the Dark Lord's followers, he was also one of the more likely to behave in such a way as to reinforce the supposed brotherhood of that company: while I do not believe he likes many of that lot, nor that they matter to him in the least with several exceptions, he was always scrupulous at acting the part. If given the choice between supporting one of that company and one not of that company, I do not believe there would be a question in his mind as to where his loyalty should lie.

Given those parameters, the question of whether or not you can trust his sincerity in that offer hinges, I believe, on the nuances of the Dark Lord's dictates to him in his role. If he has been ordered here as instructor alone, or directed only to educate the future citizens of the Protectorate to the best of his ability, his offer is undoubtedly sincere. If he has been sent here to accomplish some other task, in addition to or in primacy over his role as a teacher, his offer is also likely sincere, but in service to his additional goals.

One thing is certain: he is a master manipulator, and quite practised at convincing others to not only do what he wants of them, but to think it was their own idea. If he is offering to deploy those skills in your service, there is no doubt they will serve your purposes in addition to his own. What you must determine is whether or not your purposes are aligned.

I regret that I cannot be more reassuring. My best suggestion is for you to take him up on his offer, and to pay careful attention to his actions and statements throughout. He does not often lie directly, and so if he says something outright, you likely can trust it; if he is to lie to you it will be with misdirection and implication, allowing you to come to conclusions that are not warranted. If you would like help in deciphering the implications of what he says, you have only to ask.