OOP:McGonagall's cookies (not really a spoiler - I don't think)

[Kirstini]

No: HPFGUIDX 67497

RJ (on McGonagall's biscuit tin): 
 Maybe like the Chocolate is a help with the Dementors a cookie, the 
 ginger cookies are some sort of help with anger, something about 
them in magical in helping Harry become calm again? He seemed less 
angry after eating them, not calm, but more in control, or did I 
misinterpert that scene?

Me(Kirstini, rereading PoA, so that's where all the examples come 
from): Ginger biscuits in a tartan tin! It made me laugh. It's such 
a classic thing for a wee Scottish old lady to have hanging around: 
my gran always presses them on me when I go to see her.
I think if there was anything magical about the biscuits, we would 
have been notified. When people try and make Harry eat and drink 
things that are going to have some sort of effect on him - Umbridge, 
Veriseterum (no texts for spelling. I've only got PoA, and it isn't 
there) - the narrative repecussions are picked up fairly quickly. I 
suppose McGonagall and her magical biscuits could have some sort of 
long-running plot significance, but I doubt it for two reasons.
McGonagall is a very straightforward character. She doesn't tend to 
be happy about having a secret agenda, and she's never particularly 
convincing when she does. She has trouble concealing her lack of 
respect for Trelawny, even in front of a class of thirteen year 
olds. She much prefers to march straight in and say something 
like "Yes, Potter, we are stripping down your new Firebolt to check 
if noted murdering fanatic Sirius Black has put any potentially 
fatal curses on it in order to have you killed." She doesn't mince 
her words. This aspect to her character is reinforced (to the power 
of about a million) in OoP. She is also no Dumbledoresque agendaite 
when it comes to Harry - there was never any question for her over 
whether her caring for Harry would get in the way of any plans for 
Weapon!Harry. She tells off Wood for having a similar agenda (on a 
smaller scale)in PoA:
"Bad news, Harry. I've just been to see Professor McGonagall about 
the Firebolt. She-er-got a bit shirty with me. Told me I'd got my 
priorities wrong. Seemed to think I cared more about winning the cup 
than I do about you staying alive." (PoA, Bloomsbury hardback, p181) 
In the first (or second?) chapter of PS, she's not bothered at all 
about all that Ancient-Blood-Protections stuff, because she knows 
that Harry is going to be bloody unhappy with the Dursleys.
And again, in OoP, it's McGonagall who makes sure that Harry and 
Marietta are out of the way of the cross-fire in Dumbledore's 
office. She takes in loco parentis far more seriously than most of 
her colleagues. Seems to me she's the last person to be feeding 
anyone, particularly a pupil, some kind of state-altering potion, at 
least without telling them what she was up to.

I think the biscuits are just a lovely little bit of character 
development. Lots of people propound "a nice cup of tea" as the 
solution to all life's problems(I think Ron says something about 
Molly doing this too at some point), Minerva's fevered biscuit-
pressing might be a manifestation of something similar. 
There were too many poisoning red herrings in that book. Was anyone 
else convinced that Kreacher was feeding something to Sirius?

And we've obviously found another bit of American/British 
translation. You peole might have trainers and jumpers now, but 
you've still got cookies instead of biscuits...

Kirstini
"McGonagall And Her Magic Biscuits" - quasi-ironic glam rock band 
name?