Minerva McGonagall

Families

Married

• Spouse: Elphinstone Urquart

Parents

• Family: Married
  • Father: Robert McGonagall
  • Mother: Isobel Ross

Despite being nearly universally portrayed as a pure-blood in fan fiction, she is in fact a half-blood who grew up in the mundane world. She should be familiar with early 19th century fashion, customs and technology.

Analysis

I really want to like Professor McGonagall, but so much that happens at [Hogwarts] is troubling that I am conflicted about her. She is, in some ways, the quintessential Harry Potter Series adult. The Board¹ by Clell65619 shows a critical view of her that I am, despite myself, really drawn to. This view is more or less seconded by When Is It a Contract which focuses on the conflicts between her roles as Deputy and Head of House.²

Better detectives than I have pieced together her probable timeline, assuming you ignore the Fantastic Beasts movies. Born in 1935, she started [Hogwarts] in 1947.³ She joined [Hogwarts] at a time when there was more than one teacher in the Transfiguration Department, approximately 2 or 3 years after her graduation.⁴ She informs Umbridge that she will have been at Hogwarts "Thirty-nine years this December,"⁵ sometime in the beginning of fifth year, or 1995. That puts her start date in 1956. Despite this, we are told that she intervened when Leta Lestrange was bullied at age 13 in 1910,⁶ and when Theseus was a student.⁷ This would require her to have either left [Hogwarts] for a time, or to have been a teacher for at least 85 years.⁸

The first problematic moment is easy to miss. Per the timeline above, she was already teaching at [Hogwarts] in 1981, and yet, on November 1st 1981, she is able to spend the day on Privet Drive apparently waiting for [Dumbledore][AD1] to arrive any time all day, having heard from Hagrid that he would at some point be there.⁹ As head of house, did she not have an obligation to be available to her students in this time of excitement? As Deputy Head, should she not have stayed at the school to handle any emergencies there when the Headmaster was absent? Keep in mind, we are told that she is doing this of on her own initiative, as she was "not inducted into the Order of the Phoenix during Voldemort's first climb to power."¹⁰

The next is more obvious, the detention in the night she catches Harry and Hermione out after they deliver Norbert.¹¹ Earlier that night she had caught Malfoy, and believed him to be telling lies about Harry and a dragon. This resulted in a detention and a loss of twenty points.¹² On catching Harry, Hermione and Neville, she asks for an explanation, and when one is not forthcoming, infers one from the facts available to her. It is at this point that I believe that she sees in front of her James Potter and not [Harry Potter].

She infers that Harry and Hermione have maliciously tricked Malfoy into thinking they would be out after curfew to get him in trouble. Per that logic, Neville overheard the story, and was accidentally tricked as well. Let us play this out.

At the time she caught Malfoy, was this already in her mind? If not, she deducted thirty points less per student for Malfoy's (seemingly) identical actions. At the time she punished Malfoy, she supposedly thought him lying to her, out after hours for no good reason, during these "especially" dangerous times. When she found out about the other three, Draco is now found to have been, from his perspective, telling the truth. She neither reduces his (Draco's) punishment, nor gives Harry and Hermione the same punishment as Malfoy. Next, she gives Neville an identical punishment to Harry and Hermione, despite the fact that he is, per her theory, not involved in the plot on Malfoy, after all Harry and Hermione supposedly think it funny that Neville was caught also.

The punishment is entirely intended to be over the top. It is intended to cause the rest of the house to shun them. That is why she does not step in as people from three houses do not "trouble to lower their voices as they insulted him."¹³ McGonagall is not seeing Harry, small for his age (he has to be, see my page specifically on Harry), shy, and uncertain. No; she is seeing James, bold, brash, almost cruel in his pranks. She is purposefully going overboard to head off that type of behaviour. Better that Harry suffer rejection by his peers than mirror his father's early years in school.

The exact situation in Worldmaker's [Furious Angels][WMFA1] is different, but the description of McGonagall is spot on:

The entire situation was just troubling, and she didn't like troubling. She liked orderly. She liked quiet and peaceful and predictable. To the Transfiguration professor, chaos was to be avoided, and when it couldn't be avoided, it was to be put down quickly, efficiently, and with as much of a lesson to the chaos-maker as possible.¹⁴

While the rest of her backstory is bogus in [The Bonds of Blood][TBoB], that echos the characterisation of her as "a warrior of order" who "despised chaos."¹⁵

The part that makes this questionable is twofold. One, she knows full well that James grew up spoiled and loved where Harry grew up in a family she herself had observed and had doubts about. She should have known by that point that Harry behaved nothing like James. Secondly, Neville did not need to be crushed. If Harry was cruelly amused that Neville was caught up in the prank, there is no need to give Harry and Neville identical treatment. Is it her intention to warn Neville away from associating with a troublesome Potter?

Then she sends the four of them into the Forbidden Forest, at eleven at night, to search for the same unicorn that is being hunted by something that is both dark (evil) and potentially dangerous. Do not get me wrong, I like Hagrid. I would even trust him to an extent, but I qualify that because as we see over and over again across the series, Hagrid does not have a realistic risk evaluation for people without his half-giant heritage. McGonagall should know this, and should be able and willing to compensate for it.

The only possible saving explanations for the detention are either that McGonagall had no choice, that [Dumbledore][AD1] in fact set it up and she was the messenger, or that she was in some way unaware of Hagrid's plans. If the former, I am disappointed that she continues to work for a man who would put students in his care in that situation. If the latter, I'm disappointed that she is that naive.

The next is less clear cut. I have trouble believing that everyone wearing the "Support Cedric" badges was so sneaky that McGonagall never saw the "Potter Stinks" version of them. The badges should have been confiscated, and it really would have only taken any responsible teacher (that is to day, not Snape) seeing the change once to know that they all did it and they all needed to go. Again, it is possible that [Dumbledore][AD1] tied her hands. If so, it says something less than positive about her that she allowed him to do so.

I have mixed feelings about her initial treatment when she is notified that Harry has a week of detentions with Umbridge. It seems to me that either as Deputy Headmistress or as Head of House, that her role is precisely to get involved in discipline issues. That is why Harry was sent to her at all in fact. Still, Harry does need to learn to keep his temper. I would tend to argue though that there is a difference between learning to pick your battles (which Harry needs to do) and learning to "keep your head down"¹⁶ which is what she advises him to do. Picking your battles and keeping your temper are life skills that Harry lacks and needs. Keeping your head down is an act of fear. I sympathise with Harry resenting that advice. Professor McGonagall has worked with teens for many years now. She should know that her Gryffindors will interpret her "keep your head down" as cowardice, and that she needs be more careful with her wording to successfully reach them.

As Harry's fifth year progresses, I wonder that the teachers did not resign in protest. At some point being complicit is a problem. Sure you can argue about wanting to protect your students to the extent possible. There is some merit to that argument. This was not (yet) however the situation with Headmaster Snape. Could the Ministry really have kept things under control if Sprout, McGonagall and Flitwick had refused to cooperate more overtly? Had they resigned, sure Fudge could have appointed more of his stooges. He could not have prevented the fact of their resignation from getting out however. If they had more backbone, I have to believe they have the connections to have made their opinions known.

With this history of either following [Dumbledore][AD1]'s lead as blindly and mindlessly as a sheep, or of complicit negligence in the many situations Harry found himself in, what kind of headmistress would McGonagall have made? Where [The Board][CTB2] assumes that she would not get the post, old-crow's version of [Unintended Consequences][OCUC1] assumes she does get appointed, but cannot really handle the position. It portrays her as someone totally devoted to enforcing [Dumbledore][AD1]'s vision for the school, even in the face of a situation where it is clearly apparent that vision must change. In this portrayal, she is indecisive, unable to let go of the authority she has been given (because someone else would implement the changes she dislikes) but also unable to fully embrace her new role (because she is a natural follower and teacher, not an administrator or leader).

I think this is a little bit overly harsh. I agree that McGonagall is not much of a leader, she is a natural follower. As such, she would make a poor head of school. However, I think she would do more to attempt to fulfil her new role. She would not leave vital teaching posts empty the way old-crow's version of her character does. That being said, I think old-crow is spot on in portraying her as someone who would resist change simply because it is change, and would resist incorporating non-magical classes no matter how needed or useful they might be.

[RBW1]: </Harrypedia/people/Weasley/Ronald Bilius/>/ [AD1]: </Harrypedia/people/Dumbledore/Albus Percival Wulfric Brian/> [Hogwarts]: /Harrypedia/Hogwarts/ [OCUC1]: https://www.fanfiction.net/s/13903544/ [CTB2]: https://archiveofourown.org/works/156533 [WMFA1]: https://www.fanfiction.net/s/4175909 [TBoB]: https://www.fanfiction.net/s/5435295