McGonagall's reference to "dangerous times"?

[regant4]

No: HPFGUIDX 41158

Hi All

I'm confused by Professor McGonagall's reference to "dangerous 
times" in PS/SS. 

On page 178 of the UK PS, when she's telling them off for being in 
the tallest tower (releasing Norbert) at night, we have the 
following quote:

"`I'm disgusted,' said Professor McGonagall. `Four students out of 
bed in one night! I've never heard of such a thing before! You, Miss 
Granger, I thought you had more sense. As for you, Mr Potter, I 
thought Gryffindor meant more to you than this. All three of you 
will receive detentions – yes, you too, Mr Longbottom, 
<i>nothing</i> gives you the right to walk around school at night, 
especially these days, it's very dangerous – and fifty points will 
be taken from Gryffindor.'"

What does she mean by "especially these days, it's very dangerous". 
The obvious answer is that she's referring to the school being used 
as a secure store for the Philosopher's Stone. There are two 
problems with this. 

Firstly, McGonagall doesn't think, at this point in the book, that 
Harry, Hermione, and Ron know about the presence in the school of 
the Philosophers Stone. Witness the following quote from 17 pages 
later, p195:

"`Look,' said Harry, throwing caution to the winds, `Professor – 
it's about the Philosopher's Stone –`
Whatever Professor McGonagall had expected, it wasn't that. The 
books she was carrying tumbled out of her arms but she didn't pick 
them up.
`How do you know -?' she spluttered."

Secondly, it could be the shadow cast by the failed robbery from 
Gringotts. We are told that breaking into Gringotts is noteworthy, 
even shocking, but a failed bank robbery hardly constitutes 
dangerous times. Even in the Muggle world failed robberies sometimes 
make it into the news (e.g. 
http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/uk/newsid_1010000/1010974.stm ) but 
we don't all keep tighter reigns on our children as a result. This 
is especially true if Professor McGonagall is one of the "old crowd" 
(though she's out of the room – GoF p.618 – when Dumbledore names 
them), for then she'd be familiar with far far worse than failed 
bank robberies. Even looking at the amazing dangers in the second, 
third, and fourth books tell me that the events McGonagall expects 
the children to know about before p178 hardly constitute dangerous 
times.

So that's the two obvious reasons disposed of. I'd also like to 
dismiss the reason I actually believe: that JKR made a timeline 
mistake in having McGonagall expecting the children to know about 
the Philosopher's Stone on p178, and being surprised that they do on 
p 195. However, such reasoning won't lead to interesting theories or 
discussions so let's dismiss it.

My final theory is that McGonagall is not talking to Harry, 
Hermione, and Ron at all. We know from p 195. that she doesn't 
expect them to be aware of the presence in the school of the 
Philiosopher's Stone, and we've no evidence that she knows that it's 
he-who-must-not-be-named who is after it. But suppose the comment is 
directed at Neville alone? Look back at the quote and she does say 
it directly to Neville:


 ", Mr Longbottom, <i>nothing</i> gives you the right to walk 
around school at night, especially these days, it's very dangerous"

So, is there a sub-plot that Professor McGonagall and Neville 
Longbottom are involved in that will surface in a later book? A sub-
plot that would explain why Neville and Minerva can refer to shared 
knowledge that the others are unaware of. If Neville knows that he-
who-must-not-be-named is after the Philosopher's Stone, and that it 
is hidden in the basement of the school, it might explain why he 
goes to such lengths to stop Harry, Hermione, and Ron from leaving 
their beds to retrieve the stone. Perhaps Neville's words were a 
cover-up when he proclaimed (p 198.):

"`You can't go out,' said Neville, `you'll be caught again, 
Gryffindor will be in even more trouble.'"

This would also explain why Dumbledore singled Neville out for the 
final public award of house points to Gryffindor that gave them the 
cup. I'm not saying that Neville's lackluster school performance is 
a cover-up to hide his super-hero role, but his background may give 
him knowledge and motivations that lead him into actions the other 
children cannot take.

My Neville / Minerva subplot theory also explains Minerva's odd 
behavior in PoA. Now, not everybody on the list may consider this 
odd, but I'm always perturbed by McGonagall's treatment of Neville 
in PoA. If I was a teacher and a child in my care was performing 
badly, or playing up, or doing stupid and dangerous things, but I 
knew that his parents had been tortured by the lieutenants of an 
evil despot, to the point that they were now confined to an asylum 
for the mentally ill, I would go out of my way to be kind to the 
child and to nurture him. But in PoA McGonagall crushes him (p. 200):

 "Neville was in total disgrace. Professor McGonagall was so furious 
with him that she had banned him from all future Hogsmeade visits, 
given him a detention and forbidden anyone to give him the password 
to the Tower. Poor Neville was forced to wait outside the common 
room every night for someone to let hi in, while the security trolls 
leered unpleasantly at him."

Now we know that McGonagall is kind, witness the food given to Harry 
and Ron after their car crashes into the Womping Willow, so why 
doesn't she temper her anger towards Neville? It's either because 
she knows stuff about Neville that we don't (my Neville / Minerva 
subplot theory) or that we know about Neville's background and she 
doesn't, which would take her well outside "the old crowd".

Enough for now. I do hope this hasn't been done to death on the list 
already. I did search through the archives as best I could.


			Yours,


	    Tim (aka Professor Dumbledad)