Apparate/Dumbledore, detentions, Lockhart, EvilMcGonagall

[jtdogberry]

No: HPFGUIDX 39620


Ok, I am beginging to think that I am the only person who doesn't 
think Mcgonagall is evil but then again...

--- In HPforGrownups at y..., "katzefan" <katzefan at y...> wrote:
> bluesqueak wrote
>  
> >Having been looking through CoS, a couple of pointers 
> >occurred to me.
> 
> >Why did Dumbledore sent *Snape* out to look for Harry and 
> >Ron? Why not McGonagall, their head of House? Surely 
> >someone else could have taken care of the Sorting for her 
> >when two of her own students were missing?

He didn't. Snape noticed that they weren't there because it is a 
typical Snape thing to do, keep an eye on Harry and get him into 
trouble hence the reason he wouldn't have fetch Mcgonagall, to give 
him some time to gloat and that she was busy with the sorting.

> >Have we seen any other detentions given by McGonagall? 
> >Porphyria is right, that first detention in the Forbidden Forest 
> >was incredibly dangerous. The ones given by Snape on the 
> >other hand, are perceptively nasty (and seem to be tailored to 
> >individual students' pet dislikes) but essentially safe. 
> 
But as Hagrid says it had to be done. The chances are that if the 
teacher doesn't have anything to do then she asks any others to if 
the need a student to do something. Hagrid probably felt bad so said 
that he would give one to Harry to let him off a bit. We have never 
seen one of Mcgonagall's detentions, only ones other teachers have 
given.
> 
> It was a different story with Ginny's disappearance [now that 
> somebody's raised the point :-)]; you *would* think McGonagall, 
> as second in command, would be planning some sort of rescue/
> recovery operation after the students had left.

Yes, but she didn't have a clue where she needed to look. As Binns 
said, no one has ever found the chamber. Mcgonagall's next duty is 
then to protect the remaining students.
 
> "cindysphynx" <cindysphynx at c...>  wrote:
Snip
> 
> >Heck no! She is teaching him how to turn beetles into buttons, 
> >needles into matches, porcupines into pin-cushions. And what 
> >exactly is Harry to do with these oh-so formidable 
> >Transfiguration skills? "Hang on, Lord Voldemort! Once I 
> >change this match into a needle, I am going to *prick* you to 
> >death!"
> 
> Not sure if this was a tongue-in-cheek post, but if not ... these 
> *are* only first-year students, and in magic, presumably as in 
> anything else, you have to develop your skills, starting with the 
> baby stuff. You wouldn't turn a first-year physics student loose in 
> a nuclear power plant or let a first-year med student do open-
> heart surgery.... 
> 

I'm going to agree here. You are phyiscally changing something into 
something else and it could nasty is done wrong. You can't do big 
stuff until you've mastered the basics.

>  "ssk7882" <skelkins at a... wrote:
> 
> <* very large snip with evidence about Ever-So-Evil McGonagall*
> >
> 
> >First off, McGonagall's very appearance on Privet Drive that 
> >morning is *highly* suspicious. Just what precisely is she 
> >doing there, anyway? She implies that she has been waiting 
> >there for Dumbledore -- and yet she keeps herself hidden from 
> >him, only revealing herself once he makes it clear that he 
> >knows perfectly well that she is there. 
> 
> <* further snip*>
> 
> >And what does she do then? Does she resume her human 
> >form so that she can speak with this man she has supposedly 
> >been waiting for all day long? Does she greet him, as one 
> >might expect?
> 
> >No. She does not. She lurks in the shadows, watching him 
> >carefully. She does not reveal herself to him until he leaves her 
> >no other choice:
> 
> This is just a little, persnickety objection ... she *isn't* 
skulking
> in the shadows. She is sitting on the Dursleys' garden wall, as 
> she has been doing for several hours now (she was there when 
> Vernon Dursley arrived home from work; PS/SS, paperack, p. 
> 10):
  
> Also (on p. 12) Dumbeldore spots the cat long before he actually 
> walks up to it and addresses it ("... he looked up suddenly at the 
> cat, which was still staring at him from the other end of the 
> street.")

I think Mcgonagall's just annoyed. Dumbledore must have gone 
somewhere and not told her a thing so she has been waiting all day on 
a brick wall. She also fels a little jealous that he won't tell her 
anything straight out that she has to hear it all second hand. As for 
the cat, I think she was wondering how he spotted her among so many 
other cats, it was dark, he shouldn't have been able to the glasses 
marking. 

> <* large snip*>
> 
> >There are also strange off-notes in McGonagall's 
> >characterization in this scene. Nowhere else in canon does 
> >McGonagall fawn. She is not  the sycophantic type. But she 
> >certainly does fawn all over Albus Dumbledore in this scene. 
> >It's actually quite disgusting:
> 
> >"'Everyone knows you're the only one You-Know -- oh, all right, 
> >*Voldemort* -- was frightened of.'"
> 
> >'You flatter me,' said Dumbledore calmly. 'Voldemort had 
> >powers I will never have.'
> 
> >'Only because you're too -- well -- *noble* to use them.'"

 
Er, no I disagree, she doesn't say this in a lovey dovey way. She is 
still very annoyed at this point and is using it as "you know you've 
got it, so use it" attitude.
Come off it guys, if you had been sitting on a wall all day, waiting 
for someone to finally show up, you'd be a bit cross.
 
> Yeah!!! Someone wrote quite some time ago that she's an 
> underwritten and boring character ... 

I don't know about boring, I quite like her but yes, she is shunned 
into the sidelines by Dumbledore and we can't see much of her 
character. But I don't belived that she is evil at all and that she 
does care about the students. She may bend the rules here and there 
but they are only minor ones. She is strict and fair and these type 
of characters aren't, on the surface, intresting to most people.

Dogberry