Private Message to Professor Dolohov
Apr. 22nd, 2014 12:15 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
alt_linusSir,
A considerable number of eventful days have transpired since that fateful luncheon when you first discussed with me the two paths of the scholar and laid out a choice before me. It was not only my wish to atone for my lack of prudence regarding the ill-fated duelling club that made me choose the path I did. You were then and still remain quite correct when you say that the scholar who regards knowledge as a collection of Chocolate Frog cards, to be collected and admired and added to may be led about by things he does not know yet. As you said, "He will be used again and again by those around him who need his knowledge, his dedication, and his skill, and care little for the person in whom they are made manifest." That was my plight then. I will not have it be my plight now.
The other path, the one I chose, is as you described it: being a scholar to whom knowledge is a skein of yarn, to be knit up into connections, woven into garments, made into items that can be used and transformed -- and the scholar thus working is aware of the tapestry of the world in which individual facts and figures are woven.
I have never regretted my choice, sir, and see no reason I ever should.
In keeping, then, with that choice and that calling, I must now make report to you, for reasons you will soon see.
While Mr Montague stated at the outset that these challenges will test all the talents and strengths I have, I am not in the slightest confident that he is aware that among my strengths is the opportunity for counsel from one of the strongest and most loyal minds of the Protectorate. Indeed, the sole reasons I have only availed myself of your counsel sparingly thus far is that I hoped to stretch and grow and prove myself worthy of your great generosity in training me so far.
Mr Montague has offered me two options for the present challenge. Either I am to steal something valuable from Professors Siz and Raz while at the party at Spencer House, or I am to steal something valuable from your own New London abode.
The degree to which this challenge appalls me need not be stated. However, as you have taught me, appalling things are not merely a spur to epic poetry and daring deeds of renown. While I would be loathe indeed to comply with such a challenge in the normal order of things, if there is a way in which either complying or seeming to comply would serve purposes or advance an agenda of yours, I should be glad of it. (Perhaps a charmed object that reports the conversations of my sponsor -- though he did not say that I was to turn the stolen object over to him directly.)
After my regrettably unspectacular showing in the matter of the omnioculars and Finnegan's lack of proper security protocols and safeguards for those about whom he purports to care, I should wish to make a better showing -- and yet, such a challenge as this one makes me again question the wheels within wheels in this whole endeavour. As you are training me not only to think for myself but to recognise when I have come up against the limits of my knowledge or perceptions or ability to analyse, I must needs be true to that training. Herewith as a faithful hunting falcon I lay this intelligence at your feet.
Professor, will you guide me in this? For I believe it involves greater things than blunting one small instrument of the Protectorate. Certainly, as that instrument, I would not willingly have my ability to serve damaged or diminished. My sponsor is bent on inducing me to commit an act that would either destroy or strongly impair the excellent working relationship I have with the professor whose skill and knowledge in Astronomy is opening up whole galaxies of knowledge to me, or committing a similar act against the best mentor I have ever known outside my home. Either is repugnant to my personal honour, particularly given our discussions in the past of guest-friendliness and the rituals of hospitality.
Thus I await wisdom and guidance, having prudently alerted the one who is more a touchstone of discernment to me than a jumble-pated challenge sponsor could ever be. My thanks in advance, for this as for all your cultivation of my abilities.
I have the honour to be
most sincerely
Linus Moon
P.S. Should you find it necessary to assign me some detention or other in the course of whatever action seems necessary, I shall, per our earlier agreement, feel free to complain of your being a wholly unreasonable bastard who expects me to work my tail off at your whim (to use your own words).
A considerable number of eventful days have transpired since that fateful luncheon when you first discussed with me the two paths of the scholar and laid out a choice before me. It was not only my wish to atone for my lack of prudence regarding the ill-fated duelling club that made me choose the path I did. You were then and still remain quite correct when you say that the scholar who regards knowledge as a collection of Chocolate Frog cards, to be collected and admired and added to may be led about by things he does not know yet. As you said, "He will be used again and again by those around him who need his knowledge, his dedication, and his skill, and care little for the person in whom they are made manifest." That was my plight then. I will not have it be my plight now.
The other path, the one I chose, is as you described it: being a scholar to whom knowledge is a skein of yarn, to be knit up into connections, woven into garments, made into items that can be used and transformed -- and the scholar thus working is aware of the tapestry of the world in which individual facts and figures are woven.
I have never regretted my choice, sir, and see no reason I ever should.
In keeping, then, with that choice and that calling, I must now make report to you, for reasons you will soon see.
While Mr Montague stated at the outset that these challenges will test all the talents and strengths I have, I am not in the slightest confident that he is aware that among my strengths is the opportunity for counsel from one of the strongest and most loyal minds of the Protectorate. Indeed, the sole reasons I have only availed myself of your counsel sparingly thus far is that I hoped to stretch and grow and prove myself worthy of your great generosity in training me so far.
Mr Montague has offered me two options for the present challenge. Either I am to steal something valuable from Professors Siz and Raz while at the party at Spencer House, or I am to steal something valuable from your own New London abode.
The degree to which this challenge appalls me need not be stated. However, as you have taught me, appalling things are not merely a spur to epic poetry and daring deeds of renown. While I would be loathe indeed to comply with such a challenge in the normal order of things, if there is a way in which either complying or seeming to comply would serve purposes or advance an agenda of yours, I should be glad of it. (Perhaps a charmed object that reports the conversations of my sponsor -- though he did not say that I was to turn the stolen object over to him directly.)
After my regrettably unspectacular showing in the matter of the omnioculars and Finnegan's lack of proper security protocols and safeguards for those about whom he purports to care, I should wish to make a better showing -- and yet, such a challenge as this one makes me again question the wheels within wheels in this whole endeavour. As you are training me not only to think for myself but to recognise when I have come up against the limits of my knowledge or perceptions or ability to analyse, I must needs be true to that training. Herewith as a faithful hunting falcon I lay this intelligence at your feet.
Professor, will you guide me in this? For I believe it involves greater things than blunting one small instrument of the Protectorate. Certainly, as that instrument, I would not willingly have my ability to serve damaged or diminished. My sponsor is bent on inducing me to commit an act that would either destroy or strongly impair the excellent working relationship I have with the professor whose skill and knowledge in Astronomy is opening up whole galaxies of knowledge to me, or committing a similar act against the best mentor I have ever known outside my home. Either is repugnant to my personal honour, particularly given our discussions in the past of guest-friendliness and the rituals of hospitality.
Thus I await wisdom and guidance, having prudently alerted the one who is more a touchstone of discernment to me than a jumble-pated challenge sponsor could ever be. My thanks in advance, for this as for all your cultivation of my abilities.
I have the honour to be
most sincerely
Linus Moon
P.S. Should you find it necessary to assign me some detention or other in the course of whatever action seems necessary, I shall, per our earlier agreement, feel free to complain of your being a wholly unreasonable bastard who expects me to work my tail off at your whim (to use your own words).
no subject
on 2014-04-23 02:08 am (UTC)Oh, dear.You shouldn't haveUndoubtedly Montague has noticed your partiality and is looking to test whether you are able to set that partiality aside in following instruction.
It is a truth of the Council that we all serve at Our Lord's pleasure, and our other loyalties are to be suborned to His desires. Should you proceed to earn His favour and His mark, there are times when His instruction may contradict your own preferences and your own qualms; too many others see only the power His Council can command, and do not see that the most important quality in a Councilwizard is our perfect submission to His will. There have certainly been times in His service when I was required to do something I did not think the wisest option, but His wisdom is greater than ours, and in those instances I was wrong and He knew better than I did.
You know that I find the opportunity to assist you in reaching your full potential to be a beautiful example of the joys a professor can find in mentorship, and your loyalty to me in return is touching. You are facing this challenge, however, as a Ravenclaw might, and forgetting that those who are setting the tasks are Slytherin through and through: this is, no doubt, an information-gathering expedition. And while I find your loyalty endearing, and quite proper for a wizard to his mentor, I have not ever wished for your loyalty to me to supplant your commitment to Our Lord and His dictates. I am Our Lord's loyal servant, as Professors Lestrange and Sinistra are, and we all understand that what Our Lord commands -- directly, or through one of His hands, such as in this challenge -- overrides all other preferences and always will.
My advice to you: remember that in pursuing this competition and selecting candidates for Our Lord's consideration, Jason Montague is doing Our Lord's work, and his commands to you should be treated as coming to you in Our Lord's voice. That reminder alone should suffice to make your next steps clear.
In service,
Professor Dolohov
no subject
on 2014-04-23 03:53 am (UTC)In service,
Linus Moon
no subject
on 2014-04-23 03:58 am (UTC)In service,
Linus Moon
no subject
on 2014-04-23 04:02 am (UTC)