Evil!Minerva? - I think NOT, Names have meaning in Potterverse

[Linda C. McCabe]

No: HPFGUIDX 39726


Athena has been awakened from a deep slumber brought about by being behind
hundreds of posts and has heard that Elkins has dared to attack the good
name of Minerva McGonagall.  She reads the lengthy scroll of can(n)on
arguments and shakes her head.  She notices that others quickly pile on
attacking her.  It is as if a Witch Hunt were starting.  It is sad that the
long wait for OoP has come to this.  A woman being besmirched and later
accused to be Voldemort's secret lover.

Athena shakes her head.  No, No, No.  That is because JKR has set up the
Potterverse so that names have meanings.

She scribbles something down on a new piece of parchment.  You can go and
see the various characters and the meanings of their names:

http://www.angelfire.com/mi3/cookarama/namemean.html

There, for those who seem to have forgotten (or never read Greek/Roman
Mythology), Minerva is the Roman name for Athena.  The Goddess of Wisdom and
Victory.  A Goddess who sprung fully grown from the head of her father Zeus.
Now, would a woman named for such a noble mythological figure be eeevil?
Not if JKR continues on naming her characters with clues about their true
characteristics.

And yes, as Naama pointed out


<<<<McGonagall *cannot* be an undercover DE, cannot be Ever So Evil -
because McGonagall appeared on the Foe Glass as Crouch!Moody's foe!!!>>>>


If Minerva had been a secret ally of Crouch, then the foe glass would have
only shown Dumbledore and Snape.  Incriminating statements or suspicious
actions notwithstanding, if she were a double agent and had supported
Crouch/Voldemort - then she would not have appeared in that Auror device.
JKR could simply have had her come in moments later after Dumbledore blasted
through the door.  But no, she was there along with Snape.  This was to
emphasize McGonagall's importance to Dumbledore, otherwise what was the
purpose for that magical device?  Why did JKR create it and place it there?
As was mentioned before, was it only to show Snape looking strangely at a
mirror-like object?  To give another possible clue of his oft-debated
vampirism?  There's enough other clues for that if JKR decides to go with
that theme.

And according to the website linked above (Arabella Figg's Hogwarts Express)
finds this as the meaning of her surname:  The Scottish name McGonagall (or
McGonigle, McGonegal) is from the Celtic name Conegal, meaning "the
bravest," plus Mc, or "son of."

So the name Minerva McGonagall literally translates to:  Goddess of Wisdom
and Victory and is the Bravest.

Sounds like Gryffindor material to me and not Ever So Evil.  Someone who
would Stand Up to Evil.

Besides, the Greek Goddess was one of several Virgin Goddesses.  She did not
allow herself to be possessed by any man.  That would preclude any nefarious
relationship with Voldemort regardless of whether or not it meant any hot
sweaty nights in sheets with a formerly handsome Head Boy.  Perish the
thought!!!

Athena finds herself ducking to avoid the flying hedgehogs buzzing over her
head with Sirius Black and Remus Lupin's names on them.  No, these men have
suffered enough.  They must be loyal to The Cause.  They do not serve the
same literary device and one betrayal by a close friend of Harry's parents
is more than enough.

Other hedgehogs as evil...Bagman? Fudge? Trelawney?  Fire away!  The Goddess
has no objections to having them turn out to be ever so evil.

Sirius being the grandson of Grindlewald?  HA!  She exclaims.  Why anyone
involved in a war who is as shrewd as Dumbledore would surely know all of
his opponent's closest family and allies.  If Grindlewald had a daughter
such as hypothesized by Dicentra, then surely Dumbledore would have kept
close tabs on her and any child she would have had.  Yes, Dumbledore
believes that it is our choices and not our abilities which show our true
selves.  That's why he allows the children of Death Eaters to attend
Hogwarts.  He also allows people second chances, but ask yourselves...Would
he give someone a second chance who he would be naturally suspicious of?
Would he have not expelled Sirius after The Prank if he was Grindlewald's
grandson?


No, that theory just doesn't hold weight.  Not with someone who's infatuated
with Sirius.  Nope, I see him as an intensely loyal friend who was caught up
in his own cleverness and paid for it dearly by spending twelve years in
Azkaban and two years on the run eating rats.  The Hurt-Comfort aspect would
totally fall apart if he were somehow coveting Evil Overlord title himself.
(In contemplating what it would be like to live in the Forbidden Forest and
a cave for two years, I imagine that whenever he caught and started to eat a
rat that he visualized each one as having Wormtail's head.  A small form of
therapy.)

And as for Arabella Figg, my own personal favorite as a love interest for
Sirius (that is if she's been taking an aging potion all this time and is
far younger than she appears), her name translates to:

Arabella Figg: 1) Latin, ara and bellis, or "beautiful altar." (2) Possibly
from the German Amhilda, "eagle heroine/warrior." Figg may be variation of
fig, a fruit-bearing tree. In Biblical times, the fig tree was important to
Roman and Hebrew cultures as a valuable source of food and medicinal
ingredients. Its flowering meant winter was over. For Buddhists, this is the
tree under which the Buddha received enlightenment.

that is once again from Arabella Figg's Hogwarts Express page.

And for those worried, worried, worried that she is Polyjuiced up, I wish to
remind you that there are *three* mentions of cabbage in Year One PS/SS.
Paperback, US edition p. 22:

"Every year, Harry was left behind with Mrs. Figg, a mad old lady who lived
two streets away.  Harry hated it there.  The whole house smelled of cabbage
and Mrs. Figg made him look at photographs of all the cat's she'd ever
owned."

p. 25.  "But today, nothing was going to go wrong.  It was even worth being
with Dudley and piers to be spending the day somewhere that wasn't school,
his cupboard, or Mrs. Figg's cabbage-smelling living room."

p. 80. "Then they visited the Apothecary, which was fascinating enough to
make up for its horrible smell, a mixture of bad eggs and rotted cabbages.
Barrels of slimy stuff stood on the floor; jars of herbs, dried roots, and
bright powders lined the walls; bundles of feathers, strings of fangs, and
snarled claws hung from the ceiling."

I prefer the reading that if you have a large collection of magical
ingredients it can get quite odoriferous.  I quickly checked the first scene
of Snape's dungeon and there's no mention of any smell.  Perhaps the cold
damp dungeons keep the smells in check as opposed to an aboveground
Apothecary in Diagon Alley or a house in a suburban Muggle neighborhood?



*yes, yes, I know that p. 216 of CoS that the Polyjuice Potion is said to
have "tasted like overcooked cabbage."

However, I cannot for the life of me consider that Albus Dumbledore would
make an agent of his continually brew and drink a potion for *years and
years* in order to protect Harry.  Some other ruse would be much more
efficient.  I thought it was a bit of a stretch for Crouch, jr. to do it for
one entire school year.  Signing up to do it for over a decade is a bit much
for me.


By the way, in re-reading the First Chapter of the First Book, I noticed
that there are several instances of owls on Privet Drive.  Who else is a
witch or wizard that live(d) there?  And why didn't Aunt Petunia (rubber
necking over her neighbor's back fence never catch on?)

 p. 2. None of them noticed a large, tawny owl flutter past the window.

p.8  Mr. Dursley might have been drifting into an uneasy sleep, but the cat
on the wall outside was showing no sign of sleepiness.  It was sitting as
still as a statue, its eyes fixed unblinkingly on the far corner of Privet
Drive.  It didn't so much as quiver when a car door slammed on the next
street, nor when two owls swooped overhead."

Anyone have any thoughts as to who these inhabitants might be (or might have
been?)  it seems they might have been forcibly relocated if Dumbledore
worried intensely about a security zone about Harry and trusted very, very
few people.


And then as the Goddess was ready to retire to her chambers, she notices a
name meaning that sends alarm bells off.  Professor Sinestra:  The Latin
sinister meant "on the left," or more often, "unlucky." Something that is
sinister in Modern English means it is evil or suggestive of evil. The left
side was often associated with evil or bad luck in Roman and other ancient
cultures.

Ooooh, many wild theories have been woven with less yarn than this.


Didn't Crouch, Jr. dance with Sinestra at the Yule Ball?

Hmmm, the Goddess decides to contemplate that creepy image in her mind.



Athena