Severus reaches for his pen again, too, to point out, "Why would someone who had half the Ministry and the entire Prophet wrapped around his bank account ever need to avoid conflict or mask his opinions beyond bare civility?"
As Albus continues to speak, his face is wiped clean of expression, and he looks down, blank-eyed, at his hands--his hands, as worn with work and stained as ever, but their skin firmer than it had been in years. Divinity that shapes our ends my eye,, he thinks savagely, although not to anyone in particular. Isn't 'ineffable' just a synonym for 'twisted sense of humor'?