McGonagall, Harry and the Ginger Newts/Potions (long)

[Kirstini]

No: HPFGUIDX 82646

Lynne wrote:
>>The reason why McGonagal was telling Harry to eat Ginger Newt was 
because they had the calming potion in them...Harry was very worked 
up about Umbridge......>>

Now, this is interesting. When this discussion thread came up a 
couple of months ago, I argued fervently against Professor McGonagall 
having any sort of agenda like that in this particular scene. I think 
somebody actually suggested that she was feeding him biscuits to keep 
his mouth shut so she could get a word in! 
I can still see my original point. Feeding a student a particular 
potion without their knowledge in order to get a particular response 
is something *Umbridge* does, and McGonagall, more than any other 
character, is set up as a foil for Umbridge in OoP. But yet, there we 
have it. Two powerful female teachers, two offices, two sets of 
snacks offered to Harry. Hang on a sec while I grab my handy, pocket 
sized OoP...
Ah, here we go. Harry has been sent to her office by Umbridge, and 
has just attracted her attention by doing his ALL CAPS SHOUTY THING 
outside her door (at Peeves). Apologies for quoting at length.
*********************************************************************
'Well?' said Professor McGonagall, rounding on him. 'Is this true?'
'Is what true?' Harry asked, rather more aggressively
 than he had intended.'Professor.' he added, in an attempt to sound 
more polite.
<snip exchange>
Professor McGonagall sat down behind her desk, watching Harry 
closely. Then she said, 'Have a biscuit, Potter.'
'Have - what?'
'Have a biscuit,' she repeated impatiently, indicating a tartan tin 
lying on top of one of the piles of papers on her desk. 'And sit 
down.'
   There had been a previous occasion when Harry, expecting to be 
caned by Professor McGonagall, had instead been appointed to the 
Gryffindor Quidditch team. He sank into a chair opposite her and 
helped himself to a Ginger Newt, feeling just as as confused and 
wrong-footed as he had done on that occasion.
  Professor McGonagall set down Professor Umbridge's note and looked 
very seriously at Harry.
  'Potter, you need to be careful.'
Harry swallowed his mouthful of Ginger Newt and stared at her. Her 
tone of voice was not at all what he was used to; it was not brisk, 
crisp and stern; it was low, anxious and somehow much more human than 
usual.
<snip bit where McG talks to Harry (returning to her usual manner)>
'...Just remember: tread carefully around Dolores Umbridge.'
'But I was telling the truth!' said Harry, outraged. <snip - we all 
know Voldemort is back>
'For heaven's sake, Potter!' said Professor McGonagall, straightening 
her glasses angrily...'DO you really thing this is about truth or 
lies? It's about keeping your head down and your temper under 
control!'
She stood up, nostrils wide and mouth very thin, and Harry stood up 
too. 
 'Have another biscuit,' she said, irritably, thrusting the tin at 
him.
'No thanks,' said Harry coldly.
'Don't be ridiculous,' she snapped. 
He took one.
'Thanks,' he said grudgingly.
 <snip bit about what DU's speech was about. Harry is confused in his 
response, but this could be because he wasn't listening>
Professor McGonagall eyed him closely for a moment, then sniffed, 
walked around her desk and held the door open for him.
'Well, I'm glad you listen to Hermione Granger at any rate,' she 
said, pointing him out of her office.
**********************************************************************

So - what do we think. Is Honourable McGonagall dosing up her 
students without their knowledge or their parent/guardian's 
permission? I really feel that this merits examination, as the moral 
implications for the character are fairly huge if she has.

The two occasions when she foists biscuits on him come immediately 
after his outbursts, and there is all that suspicious "eyeing" that 
she gets up to - in the first occasion she could be deciding whether 
or not he needed a Calming potion, in the second checking for 
response. The direct linking of her actions - watching Harry closely 
to biscuit-proffering - in the first instance certainly seems 
designed to make us think this. The second instance of "eyeing" is 
more directly linked to an appraisal of Hermione's skills, and 
Harry's listening to them, IMHO.
Two points against biscuits-with-agenda:
Firstly, the narrator doesn't record Harry experiencing any response 
to the biscuits. There isn't even a noticably calmer response flagged 
up, and as he boils over again a minute later, I would say that the 
first biscuit hadn't been particularly successful. JKR, much as I 
love her, does tend to over-emphasise responses to things like this. 
But this passage is utterly devoid of description of sensual 
experience.
Secondly - and my original objection - it is utterly out of 
character. The same person who runs accross a lawn to defend Hagrid 
from an unfair attack resorts to underhand tactics to manipulate her 
students? It doesn't make sense.
So why on earth include the Ginger newts at all?
Another quote, if you'll let me. Umbridge's office, this time...hem 
hem...
*********************************************************************

'Well, now,' she said, finally, setting down her quill and surveying 
him complacently, like a toad about to swallow a particularly juicy 
fly. 'What would you like to drink?'
'What?' said Harry, quite sure he had misheard her.
'To drink, Mr Potter,' she said, smiling still more widely. 'Tea? 
Coffee? Pumpkin juice?'
<snip drinks appearing and snidey remark about Umbridge having a 
short wand>
'Nothing, thank you,' said Harry.
'I wish you to have a drink with me,' she said, her voice becoming 
dangerously sweet. 'Choose one.'
'Fine ... tea then,' said Harry, shrugging.
She got up and made quite a performance of adding milk with her back 
to him. She then bustled around the desk with it, smiling in a 
sinisterly sweet fashion.
<snip>
When several long minutes had passed into silence, she said 
gaily, 'You're not drinking up!'
He raised the cup to hiss lips and just as suddenly lowered it. One 
of the horrible painted kittens behind Umbridge had great round blue 
eyes just like Mad-Eye Moody's magical one, and it had just occured 
to Harry what Mad-Eye would say if he ever heard that Harry had drunk 
anything offered by a known enemy.
**********************************************************************

So, does this prove anything at all apart from that, if McGonagall 
*is* working with an agenda, she's much better at hiding it than 
Umbridge is? Does the second passage perhaps serve to comment on the 
first, setting up further comparisons between DU and MMcG? Does it 
create a rather unsavoury parallel between them? Harry remembers not 
to drink anything given to him by a known enemy (bright boy, that), 
but I wonder if the Mad-Eye reference serves another purpose, as Mad-
Eye is famous for not drinking anything given to him by *anyone*, 
friends included. Is JKR setting McGonagall up for an ESEin the early 
part of the book? If she is, she's certainly not going about it 
explicitly, and I think that McG's elevation to heroic status towards 
the end rather counteracts any previous ill will towards her.
I wonder about all these potions, though. When reading OoP for the 
first time, I was convinced that Kreacher had been secretly poisoning 
Sirius with some of those hot-headed plants (can't find the 
whereabouts of that particular quote), and that the emphasis on food, 
drink, and posions throughout was going to amount to something a bit 
more spectacular than Snape mixing up fake Veritaserum.
I still wonder. The Second Voldemort War is still very much an 
underground war, and I think it will continue to be despite the 
captured DEs. And in an underground war, you use poisons and death-
stoppering potions rather than flashy AKs. I think all this emphasis 
on trust (who can you?) particularly concerned with food, is leading 
us somewhere. Although personally I would feel a lot happier if 
McGonagall's integrity wasn't laid on the line as a result. 

Thoughts?
Rotten tomatoes?

Kirstini