McGonagal and l was Re: Missing 24 Hours

[bluesqueak]

No: HPFGUIDX 58468

--- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, "Kelly Grosskreutz" 
<ivanova at i...> wrote:
> > Becky Walkden  wrote:
> >   Oh I agree with you totally about McDougall, Lee.  She is both
> > trustworthy and capable and a very good person.  But for whatever
> > reason, she still seems to be on the outside of "what's 
> > happening" and not part of Dumbledore's "inner circle".  Well 
> > that's what itlooks like, but like everything else, we'll find  
> > out soon enough!

> > Lee: thinking about it i know what you mean, some of the more
> > secretive things have been discussed without her presence. I just
> > always assumed she was well in with the group, because it seems 
> > there is no reason why someone of her capabilities would not be 
> > involved.As you quite rightly say though we will find out real 
> soon,

Kelly:
> I was giving some thought to this last night.  I see McGonagall as 
> being around more to assume the day-to-day duties of running 
> Hogwarts, leaving DD free to do other things (like run the war, in 
> this case).  It's somewhat reminiscent of my high school set-up, 
> where the vice-principal seemed to be more involved with the 
> students and discipline, while the prinicipal stayed more in his  
> office and did the paperwork (and handled the very serious
> problems).  Since McGonagall is the one overseeing the everyday 
> running of Hogwarts, she does not need to know every last thing 
> about V-related matters.  DD does trust her, but needs her to 
> handle that end of things.

Pip:
I think Dumbledore might also want to give McGonagall 'plausible 
deniability.' As Deputy Headteacher, she is the person who may have 
to take over if Dumbledore's position is untenable. It could 
therefore be very important (in a world with things like 
Veritaserum) that she can *truthfully* say that she didn't know 
anything.

'Sirius Black? Never saw him. Black's an illegal animagus? He is? No 
one told *me*'.

And so on. So she's 'out of the loop' for a very good reason; it's 
important that a reliable person takes over and thus she has to 
be 'protected' from any suspicious/dodgy/downright illegal activites.

The trouble is, of course, we only see what Harry sees (with rare 
exceptions). We don't know what the behind the scenes instructions 
are. Was McGonagall panicking in CoS? Or was she acting according to 
instructions along the lines of:
'Keep the school open, *unless* someone gets killed. If anyone dies, 
send all the students home as fast as possible.'

That would be entirely in keeping with her behaviour in CoS. 

If Dumbledore *didn't* trust her, I don't think she would have been 
in the 'Assault Team' at the end of GoF. 

Pip!Squeak