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[alt_draco]

I went to Saltash to see my father yesterday. Figured I'd give a brief overview of our conversation, since it offers us a Death Eater's view of events. Always a right treat to get that, am I right?

On Gringott's I think he was more impressed than he cared to let on. Possibly he hadn't realised that the goblins could be useful allies, or maybe he just thinks flying a dragon sounds snitch. Anyway, I told him that we've got rid of five horcruxes by now, and he re-iterated what he's said before, that there will be eight of them total.

As for what happened over the weekend at Dover, Mould-on-the-Wood, and the Metalworks - well, he was flatly surprised that Dumbledore seized Dover, and described MLEs response as acts of desperation rather than calculated strategy and clever tactics. Hydra, I described what happened between you, your mother, and Voldemort, and Father said that Voldemort probably wasn't pleased with Bella's strategy at Mould-on-the-Wood, but that he's also probably getting bored with her, and may possibly see you as her replacement. Which I realise has got to be completely unsettling, but at least you know your cover is air-tight.

I don't know. Even though he doesn't say as much out loud, I think he likes hearing about any progress we've made.

But even if my father is helping us, a little, and even though he appears to support (or at least not openly criticise) the advancements we've made, the only goal he fully shares with us is the removal of Voldemort, and that hasn't changed since he's been at Saltash. He's not going to like the society we erect to replace the Protectorate, and if he were able, he'd fight against it. And that's probably something to keep in mind when dealing with people like Dolohov, Desai, Crouch, or any of the rest of them. We're doing their dirty work, destroying the monster they helped to create. They'll probably be alright with that (excepting Bellatrix), but they're not going to like the rest of it.

Anyway, not terribly useful but there it is.

Comments

[alt_ron]

That last bit is dead right.

If I've learned one thing so far from connecting with the Aurors, it's that whatever they might think about Voldemort and the Council or the way things get done in the Protectorate, none of them want any kind of change where blood purity's concerned or keeping muggles as slaves or keeping everyone afraid of showing disloyal. Even if some of them would be secretly pleased about it if we managed to kill Voldemort (and I've got no idea which if any of them would be, really), they'd be dead set against us changing anything else about the Protectorate.

We want to count on them fighting us. And we need to be really cautious about believing any of them if there are any who try to get us to believe they're throwing in with us or that they're secretly our allies or that they're in any way working quietly for us rather than completely against us. Trusting to anything like that would be a bad bet.

[alt_sinistra]

Someone asked me something, while I was up at the Mortal Man (Ellen Liddle, Poppy.)

About how I could end up being there, where not so long ago I'd been marrying Raz. Which. Well. Point. Even if she started out so sharp about it.

Raz and I talked - rather often, really - about how he was brought up. Not spending much time at all people who weren't purebloods, and from a pretty limited constellation of families. Not up close, not to talk to, even at school.

It was Quidditch, got him doing it. And then the Borough Market, after. But a lot of people, they didn't do that. Which isn't any excuse, only - I don't know how you fix it, either. And especially not for adults with decades of habits.

One thing I did learn, is - people joined up for all sorts of reasons. And unless you sort out what their reasons were, it's hard to work out what to do about it. I know Tosha wanted a lot of things, but one of the major ones was that he really wanted for magic not to be secret and hidden any more. (Other things too, and I'm not excusing those, but I remember what it was like growing up, and it was so very different.)

And that's different than someone who thinks purebloods from a few dozen families should be the whole world. Or someone where there was family pressure, or risk if they didn't go along with it, or no way to keep doing a job they really loved. And some of those reasons fit with a world where there are lots of kinds of people with lots of different skills and gifts and talents, not just magic, and others, it never will.