[HPforGrownups] Mysteries of McGonagall

[Neil Ward]

No: HPFGUIDX 4153


I have always found it strange that she asked him how he knew it was her?
(After changing from cat to 
>Professor).  Has Dumbledore never seen her in her cat form?  After all
those years?  

Yes, I agree.  I posted something on that very point ages ago. Is Dumbledore
*that* lacking in observation? Perhaps he left that knowledge in his
Pensieve and forgot to put it back in his head. 

I'd always assumed that Minerva taught herself to become an Animagus...

BTW, I looked up Magus in the dictionary and the word is from Greek 'magos'
or Persian 'magus', so perhaps it is a unisex term.  It's a difficult one,
because Magus refers to a wise man (perhaps there's a completely different
term for a wise woman - Catlady will probably know). If it had Latin origin,
I would agree that Animaga was correct.  I still think it sounds like a
Japanese monster though.

... back at the ranch, I was talking about Minerva McGonagall.  I thought
she probably decided to become an animag-whatever when she first got the job
of Transfiguration teacher (does she say anything on this? I can't
remember).  I imagine that as a young woman she was a lot like Hermione and
would not do things by halves.  She would have felt an obligation to become
an Animagus so that she could demonstrate the ultimate in Transfiguration to
her students.  I also propose the idea that women who choose this are
subsequently unable to bear children: Did MM give up motherhood so that she
could pursue her vocation? Was there another, more significant reason she
chose to do this?  Was she appointed to Hogwarts *because* she was an Animagus?

The fact that McGonagall becomes a cat suggests that she has the sort of
aloof independence that cats demonstrate.  Everyone knows that cats own
people, not the other way round.  She may be loyal to Dumbledore in human
form, but she probably has her own agenda in cat form.  Who knows whose
dustbins and catflaps she might frequent of a night?

Neil 


 

            Flying-Ford-Anglia

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   "Then, dented, scratched and steaming, 
   the car rumbled off into the darkness, 
   its rear lights blazing angrily"

 [Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets]

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