Mysteries of McGonagall

[Joywitch]

No: HPFGUIDX 4318

--- In HPforGrownups at egroups.com, Peg Kerr <pkerr06 at a...> wrote:
> Amanda Lewanski wrote:
> 
> > Neil Ward wrote:
> >
> > > 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.
> >
> > Even odder, considering he was the Transfiguration teacher prior 
to his
> > headmastership.
> 
> I've always had a sense that the first chapter of that first book 
felt sort of
> "tentative" to me, and that it raised implications that JKR just 
didn't go back
> and fix when she had finished the book.  Something about McGonagall 
and
> Dumbledore's characterization felt a little bit different from the 
way they felt
> in the rest of the book; nothing I could quite put my finger on.

It is certainly possible that the difference in writing style of the 
first chapter is an inconsistency that JKR should have fixed.  But 
another explanation for the different feel of that chapter is that it 
is the only one (in PS/SS, anyway) that is told from the adult POV.  
Every other time we see Dumbledore, McGonagall and Hagrid they are 
interacting with Harry.  I think we all had the experience, as kids, 
of discovering how different teachers are when they interact with 
other adults than when they interact with their students.  Maybe that 
was what she was trying to capture.  On the other hand, maybe she 
just hadnt flushed (fleshed?) the characters out too well at that 
point.

-- Joywitch