McGonagall in OOP. Was; Re: Too "Good" Harry / The resolution of Snape

[imamommy at sbcglobal.net]

No: HPFGUIDX 118691


--- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, Juli <jlnbtr at y...> wrote:

> Juli:
> 
> McGonagall acted very cool when she was faced with
> Umbridge, she put her in place, which I loved, but
> still think she could have done more for the kids
> while they were under the reign of terror of Umbridge,
> the kids were practically falling apart with the
> pressure of OWLS, so many restrictions and
> prohibitions, and she doesn't try to make their life
> any easier, all the says is You know who she works for
> Harry, son you'd better be on her good side, or
> something like that. Just like all the other adults at
> the WW she thinks the kids are better of without
> knowing anything, and she doesn't tell them anything,
> sure there was that law or whatever that prohibited
> the teachers from telling the students anything
> besides their classes, but still they could have found
> some time or place to tell them the basics about
> what's going on and how to behave.
> 
> Juli

imamommy:
I'm not going to completely disagree with these staements, but  would 
like to take a look at this from Minerva's POV.

The kids are not the only ones under stress.  MM has her own problems 
with Umbridge.  First, there's her innate desire to be "proper," and 
to have a sort of professional detachment from her students.  Face 
it, offering Harry a biscuit when he was sent to her office was one 
of the warmest gestures I've seen from her.  She also tries to warn 
him right then, at the beginning of term, that he needs to tread 
lightly.  Maybe she isn't very sympathetic, but that's how she runs 
her own affairs:  keep your head down and stay out of trouble, and 
you won't have to fight so many battles.  
Also, she is known to be very close to DD, so she knows Umbridge will 
be watching her very closely.  MM probably figures that the students 
are better off with her at Hogwarts than if she were sacked, so maybe 
she goes overboard to be "fair".  And let's not forget, when she took 
the matter of reforming the Gryffindor quidditch team to DD, Umbridge 
decided she needed another decree to be able to supercede other 
teacher's authority.  MM is also being deprived by the restrictions 
placed on the school, and she probably doesn't want to make it any 
worse for herself or any of her students.  
Thirdly, goodness knows what DD has asked her to not discuss with 
Harry, about LV, and the Order's plans, even though she knows about 
them and has to watch Harry suffer with these burdens.  

Minerva is not perfect, but I think she does the best she can under 
very trying circumstances.  She does what her character allows, and 
if she'd been all warm and fuzzy toward Harry we'd be screaming that 
her characterization was inconsistent with the rest of canon.

imamommy