The discussion about Dolohov’s loyalties appearing strained post-V-death-and-resurrection sort of struck me oddly, so I have gone on an archive dig. (I had noticed his increasing tendency towards strikeouts; because there’s so much material I’m just scanning quickly for strikeouts that appear relevant rather than rereading everything in detail.) I started checking back in October, and didn’t find anything relevant there or in November.
The first one that I noticed was
this private message exchange with Barty, located on 23 December and in the aftermath of the bombing that killed Arthur, which included the strikeouts “My heart nearly stopped when He was looking in your direction when” and “Do you ever sometimes want to just”. The first seems to be a clear sign of concern about V’s instability and likelihood to lash out at just anyone; the latter … much more complicated, and I’m not sure what I can pin down about that other than “Wistful pining for life to be different”.
Next,
conversation with Seamus prior to the sacrificial ritual. He swaps “agreed” for “dictated” in his first response, and I’m not sure what to make of that: whether this is to disavow responsibility for replacing Seamus as the victim, or to more accurately represent a case of “When I brought this up, V seized upon it and commanded it”. Later in the same conversation, he strikes out “However, I would not like to see Our Lord’s reaction should you [fail]”. (My interpolation added.) Again, anticipation of disproportionate response, which might in this case be anticipated to not only fall on Seamus but on those who proposed the substitution.
Though it doesn’t have strikeouts (by Dolohov at least),
this conversation between Dolohov and Lucius is well worth reviewing for insight into Dolohov’s
printable thoughts about current politics at that time – which I will note falls immediately after the sacrificial ritual, while he is still on the high.
Most of the next posts from Dolohov are occupied with the aggravation of Umbridge (band name!) and discussions of his medical condition with Poppy. There is a comment (struck out) about Barty “being a mother hen”, which clearly has “worried” substituted for it in order to preserve Crouch’s dignity. ;) Soon after that, he goes into the coma. When he comes to, much of his strikeoutness has to do with Umbridge;
this conversation with Lucius touches on events at the Frost Faire interestingly, though it contains no strikeouts. Then our interests combine, in
this conversation with Siz he strikes out “And before Our Lord decided it would amuse Him to see what happens” regarding the potential for getting rid of Umbridge.
Next, Linus. Oh, Linus. Linus happily finding things to analyse, who starts doing Quiddich team evaluations on Death Eaters, seeing which ones work best together, who it’s a danger to work with at all. And here
the strikeout is “It would not have been quite so volatile had he not also included Our Lord in his [analysis].” In other words, Linus handed Dolohov mathematical proof/evidence/whatever that working with V is seriously bad for your health, which he nearly mentions to Barty.
Back to Umbridge: Dolohov is
displeased with the whole situation in which Harry is supposed to deal with the matter, and strikes out “I am almost ready to explain matters to him and offer to hold his robes for him while he skins the woman alive”. Here, his frustration with the notion that Harry – who he elsewhere describes as having the “killer instinct of a wet grape” – should figure out he needs to act against Umbridge without support from the adults who are aware of the scheme. (Incidentally, one thing I really appreciate about Alternity, you players? The fact that this is the only time I can think of where the plot has major aspects of “the grownups are depriving Harry of critical information”, unlike
every single plot of Rowling’s ever. Ahem.)
Then there’s this conversation
with Barty, which really deserves to be read in full, but which contains eliding “our Lord’s wishes” (presumably because he does not want to admit that people he cares about are being harmed by the whole ‘Umbridge is kept in position until Harry deals with her’ thing), “And if He permitted her to dispose of Minerva and Raz, how could I expect Him to speak for me when she decides I am next”, and “Before anything else can happen to”, apparently expecting things to go badly for those he cares about in general, or in a manner that interferes with his adoption of Barty.
(Worth noting here, though not relevant to my investigation, is
Dolohov’s response to Fawcett’s ‘death’, which includes his comment that Fawcett was “entrusted to my care” and “they are mine for the length of time they and I are both here, and I cannot help but advocate for them, even those who will not amount to much.” Dolohov appears here to take his role as teacher as including some sort of protector aspect, which may explain part of his reaction to the DoM raid: that his self-conceived duties as an advocate for the students include protecting them
even from Barty. Certainly, they extended to going to great effort to trying to locate a student that he himself considered unremarkable, if passingly useful. He also tells Harry, later, not to feel indebted to him for saving Cedric, as that would be “imply[ing] [he] did something other than [his] duty”.)
Whoof, anyway, that brings me up through April; May is harder to check but I don’t find anything further checking plausible entries in summaries, and I’m not digging back through the last week! Summary of findings so far: Dolohov’s opinions of what’s going on can be read in the strikeouts and between the lines of his comments primarily to Barty and Lucius, secondarily to Siz, and occasionally elsewhere.
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