Minerva McGonagall's background

[Geoff Bannister]

No: HPFGUIDX 102848

--- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, "potioncat" <willsonkmom at m...> 
wrote:
>  "Salvador, Anjali" <asalvador at s...> wrote:
> > "How long have you been teaching at Hogwarts?" Professor Umbridge
> > asked.
> > "Thirty-nine years this December," said Professor McGonagall
> > brusquely, snapping her bag shut.
> > -Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, page 321 (American
> > edition)
> >  
> > Was anyone other than myself confused by this? Why would 
McGonagall
> > have started teaching in December? After all, she teaches
> > Transfiguration, and in CoS it says that Dumbledore taught
> > Transfiguration himself, so she, presumably was his successor. 
> What,
> > though, would have made Dumbledore stop teaching in the middle of 
> the
> > year?
> >  
> 
> Potioncat:

<snip>

> But it does seem that something happened that December to cause 
> McGonagall to come on in mid year.

Geoff:
It is not unusual in the UK for staff to change schools at the 
beginning of the Spring term in January. Promotions, moves, 
retirements etc provoke this activity.

Professor McGonagall could have been being ultra pedantic (being 
rather miffed with DJU). If she started at Hogwarts in January 1957, 
then she would be quite correct in saying that she was completing 39 
years of teaching in December 1995, because she would be /starting/ 
on her 40th year in January 1996.