I say, I don't think I quite put it as baldly as that. I don't recall saying that I never felt any respect or affection, what. Professor Dolohov makes it his business to be likable. Morover, his grasp of the concepts of his field is incontrovertible, what, though perhaps he put it to misguided use now and again. I admitted, even at the time, I had no choice but to feel some form of gratitude for imparting not only some portion of that knowledge, but a great deal of additional experience and training, without which I should not have been able to discharge my duties as an Auror, nor indeed, to withstand many of the assaults we faced at the Battle for Hogwarts and in many other places in those days.
However, as undeniable as Antonin's skills, depth of knowledge, generosity and personable qualities are, there are three important factors to bear in mind (and here he will undoubtedly object but nonetheless):
1. He is the sort of sociopath who likes expansively, but whose generosity is calculated to keep his new acquaintances returning for more and more, until they are ensnared, indebted, or otherwise blinded to his darker purposes; for
2. He is only willing or perhaps able to truly care about those he believes will be of use, what. Thus, his offers to 'help' students reach their goals are, in fact, ways of reaching his own;
3. However pleasant our interactions may have been at times, they were still predicated on false assumptions, which I, for my part, dared do nothing to dispel, and which he was equally adept at introducing in the interest of leading me down the path he desired me to follow. (I say, I shall be interested to hear his answer to your question about why he overruled my decision to withdraw from taking the N.E.W.T.!) You may also be forgetting that his 'field training', especially in my final year at Hogwarts, consisted of bringing me along to assist him in assassination, which may seem like a fun night out to some but, believe me, is jolly well not.
In short, for every act of kindness and every positive bit of encouragement he offered, I tried never to lose sight of the fact that hiding behind it was an expectation that one day, I would do something for him. Even if that something was simply to come into my own as someone he could claim to have trained.
Ask yourself whether you would find that an altogether satisfactory arrangement.
I shall allow him to explain the intricacies of De Rei Magiae--though I am also given to understand that the fine people here at Alternity have got several details about it in...oh, I say, something called a wookie? That can't be right, what.
Finally, what would I change? Well, I suppose I jolly well might have simply let him escape through Penzance, what! It happened in any case and if it had, we could perhaps have found him at a later time to answer for his acts. It was those acts I had in mind, though, when I went to Rachel. The idea that he might slip away and never be brought to account left far too sour a taste in my mouth. Or if I'd been a hair faster at the last moment, I might have at least finished him before Bellatrix ambushed me. I might say I would have tried harder to bring someone else along, what, only the delay might have cost us Rachel's life, instead or in addition to my own.
So, it's difficult to guess what actions might have led to a better outcome.
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Date: 2015-09-04 04:17 am (UTC)I say, I don't think I quite put it as baldly as that. I don't recall saying that I never felt any respect or affection, what. Professor Dolohov makes it his business to be likable. Morover, his grasp of the concepts of his field is incontrovertible, what, though perhaps he put it to misguided use now and again. I admitted, even at the time, I had no choice but to feel some form of gratitude for imparting not only some portion of that knowledge, but a great deal of additional experience and training, without which I should not have been able to discharge my duties as an Auror, nor indeed, to withstand many of the assaults we faced at the Battle for Hogwarts and in many other places in those days.
However, as undeniable as Antonin's skills, depth of knowledge, generosity and personable qualities are, there are three important factors to bear in mind (and here he will undoubtedly object but nonetheless):
1. He is the sort of sociopath who likes expansively, but whose generosity is calculated to keep his new acquaintances returning for more and more, until they are ensnared, indebted, or otherwise blinded to his darker purposes; for
2. He is only willing or perhaps able to truly care about those he believes will be of use, what. Thus, his offers to 'help' students reach their goals are, in fact, ways of reaching his own;
3. However pleasant our interactions may have been at times, they were still predicated on false assumptions, which I, for my part, dared do nothing to dispel, and which he was equally adept at introducing in the interest of leading me down the path he desired me to follow. (I say, I shall be interested to hear his answer to your question about why he overruled my decision to withdraw from taking the N.E.W.T.!) You may also be forgetting that his 'field training', especially in my final year at Hogwarts, consisted of bringing me along to assist him in assassination, which may seem like a fun night out to some but, believe me, is jolly well not.
In short, for every act of kindness and every positive bit of encouragement he offered, I tried never to lose sight of the fact that hiding behind it was an expectation that one day, I would do something for him. Even if that something was simply to come into my own as someone he could claim to have trained.
Ask yourself whether you would find that an altogether satisfactory arrangement.
I shall allow him to explain the intricacies of De Rei Magiae--though I am also given to understand that the fine people here at Alternity have got several details about it in...oh, I say, something called a wookie? That can't be right, what.
Finally, what would I change? Well, I suppose I jolly well might have simply let him escape through Penzance, what! It happened in any case and if it had, we could perhaps have found him at a later time to answer for his acts. It was those acts I had in mind, though, when I went to Rachel. The idea that he might slip away and never be brought to account left far too sour a taste in my mouth. Or if I'd been a hair faster at the last moment, I might have at least finished him before Bellatrix ambushed me. I might say I would have tried harder to bring someone else along, what, only the delay might have cost us Rachel's life, instead or in addition to my own.
So, it's difficult to guess what actions might have led to a better outcome.
Cheers,
-F-F