Mysteries of McGonagall

[Susan McGee]

No: HPFGUIDX 4350

--- In HPforGrownups at egroups.com, "Joywitch " <joym999 at a...> wrote:
> --- 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


Hmmmm....after how many years? Remember Chapter 1 in PS/SS was 11 
years before we first meet Harry. Do we know how many years  
McGonagall was a professor at Hogwarts? Maybe she WASN'T his deputy
at that time? Maybe they didn't know each other too well.

OR perhaps their relationship developed in 11 years, and so they 
sounded "different" in that conversation.

Susan