McGonagall and Sirius / Snape's Task

[hfakhro at nyc.rr.com]

No: HPFGUIDX 23507

First of all, thanks to Luke and DinaYS I understand a logical reason 
for Dumbledore wanting the Weasley parents to know about Sirius. They 
are essentially acting as Harry's guardians since Sirius cannot fully 
assume that position yet, and should know everything. I also liked 
the idea that Molly is giving him a mother's love, thanks DinaYS. As 
silly as I may sound, that had not occurred to me! Thanks for 
pointing that out.

Luke wrote:
'I think McGonagall probably would eventually be accepting of the 
fact that Sirius Black is innocent.  She does seem like the type to 
be very stubborn, but she also seems to have a deep-seated enough 
respect of Dumbledore to believe what he says.  However, I'm not sure 
this would be the best way to go about it even if he did intend to 
tell McGonagall.  It'd probably be better to sit her down and talk to 
her, not just spring it on her.'

The McGonagall thing still bothers me however. The reason being that 
this woman is deputy headmistress. I don't think she'd react unduly. 
She has *tremendous* faith in Dumbledore. When Harry's name came out 
of the goblet of fire her reaction was:

'"Dumbledore, you know perfectly well you did not make a mistake!" 
said Professor McGonagall angrily. "Really, what nonsense! Harry 
could not have crossed the line himself, and as Professor Dumbledore 
believes that he did not persuade an older student to do it for him, 
I'm sure that should be good enough for everybody else!" She shot a 
very angry look at Professor Snape.'

This is a very significant passage, I think, in terms of the Sirius 
part. I think she would accept Sirius' presence without question. 
Perhaps she might be shocked at first, like Molly, but I think she 
would realize that if Dumbledore believed it, then it must be OK. The 
quote above shows that McGonagall is more ready to believe 
Dumbledore, without questioning him, than Snape is, which is why I 
think it's very strange that he let Snape see Sirius and not 
McGonagall who seems to accept Dumbledore's word at face value.

But then, Luke also wrote:
'Obviously, Dumbledore's most pressing need at that moment was to get 
Severus and Sirius to acknowledge each other so this 'intrusion' by 
McGonagall would not be acceptable.' 

This is brilliant! Dumbledore's pressing need is to get Snape and 
Sirius to meet as allies, but why? Perhaps this is the key to 
predicting what Snape's task actually is. Forgive me if this has been 
used as evidence, but I haven't seen it before. Perhaps Sirius' task 
of alerting the old crowd and whatever Snape's task is overlap, and 
for that reason they *must* meet at that time (it is Dumbledore's 
pressing need, after all). I really like this, but I still have no 
idea what Snape's task could be that makes it so urgent for him to 
see Sirius. If even McGonagall who is officially Dumbledore's second, 
and who has unswerving faith in him, couldn't be trusted by 
Dumbledore to see Sirius, there must be something *very* urgent about 
Sirius and Snape meeting as allies. So to anyone who is more creative 
than me, it would be interesting to hear your ideas as to why these 
two needed to meet and why they needed to shake hands at that moment 
in time. As I look over this post, I realize this Snape/Sirius thing 
must have been very obvious to everyone else, but it was Luke's 
phrase 'most pressing need' that made it clear to me.

Thanks,
Hella