[HPforGrownups] Evil!McGonagall revisited (briefly)

[Sherry Garfio]

No: HPFGUIDX 48464

Wendy wrote:
> In an amazing 
> Trelawnyesque cosmic conjunction of events <g>, I happened across a tiny 
> little Evil!McGonagall canon tonight, while reading Goblet of Fire.
<snip Wendy's Trelawneyesque cosmic conjunction, which had to do with
McGonagall grabbing Hermione by the neck to stop herself falling>

And then she referred us to the following posts:
> #39470 by Elkins; #38783 by Porphyria; and #39495 by Cindy). 
which were before my time, so my curiosity led me to go read them.

Okay, you've convinced me.  McGonagall is eeeevil.  Well, I'm not sure I
totally believe it yet, but it certainly seems possible, and it would be a very
JKR-esque turn of events, especially if it comes late in the series and
therefore is a BIG bang.

I have one thing to add, which may contribute to this theory, or may just be a
tangent.  In post #39495, it is mentioned that the hostages for the Second Task
are put into their bewitched sleep in *McGonagall's* office, which got me
thinking (and hopefully this hasn't been done to death).  I've always found it
interesting that *three* of the four hostages have strong connections to Harry:
his two best friends and his crush.  He is baffled by this for a few minutes;
he's not been told what will be taken from him, and then when he is confronted
with these four people (I suspect he didn't realize it would be a person), he
hesitates as to which of them is for him.  Of course, it doesn't take him *too*
long to figure out that Cho is there for Cedric and Hermione is there for Krum,
but there is doubt on Harry's part: he doesn't want to lose *any* of the three.
 As it turns out, the extra hostage he ends up having to "save" is the only one
he doesn't personally care about.

Now, do we know *who* decided who the hostages would be?  They were put to
sleep in McGonagall's office, and she was also the one who called Ron and
Hermione out of class (maybe Cho too, we don't know).  Did she have a hand in
selecting the hostages?  Did she purposefully select hostages for Cedric and
Viktor who would also mean something to Harry?  Fleur's sister isn't mentioned
prior to this, so presumably she was back home, indicating that hostage
candidates weren't limited to people who were close at hand.  Why was Hermione
chosen for Krum, if not to confuse Harry?  Krum had just met her a few months
ago.  Is his life so empty that a 14-year-old girl (okay, maybe 15) he just met
is the one thing he couldn't stand to lose?  Similarly, it appears that Cedric
had just hooked up with Cho at the Yule Ball.  They at least attend the same
school, so it's entirely possible that their romance had started much earlier,
and Harry was just too infatuated with Cho to notice until it came time to
actually ask her out.  But if it *did* start with the Yule Ball, again, why
Cho?

Again, these questions may have nothing to do with McGonagall and her potential
evilness; this thread just got me thinking about this again.  I still question
why three of the four hostages were people Harry wouldn't want to lose, whether
it supports Evil!McGonagall or not.  Any theories/past posts to point me to?

- Sherry
Who lives in the US and is now reading the UK version of PS to her children,
and really can't understand *why* Scholastic thinks so little of our school
children that they couldn't just leave the text intact and provide a glossary
to inform us that a jumper is a sweater and that sherbet lemons are lemon drops
(and also agrees with GulPlum's take on "Sorcerer's Stone" and proposes that we
should just call it the Stone)


=====
"The one thing that unites all human beings, regardless of age, gender, religion, economic status or ethnic background, is that, deep down inside, we ALL believe that we are above-average drivers."

      -Dave Barry, "Things That It Took Me 50 Years to Learn"

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