ESE!McGonagall (not what you think)

[justcarol67]

No: HPFGUIDX 164425

KJ wrote:
> >One of the reasons that I find McGonnagal interesting is because 
Dumbledore is a compulsive collector of strays. He has Hagrid, a half
giant, who would not be accepted in WW society. He has Flitwick, also
a half-breed, who's non-human half would not be accepted. We have
Snape, who is a Death Eater, and would be hard pressed to find
suitable employment outside of Hogwarts, and we have Sybill, who is
rather too fond of the cooking sherry. We also have Firenze, who has
been thrown out of his herd, and has nowhere else to go.
> 
Nikkalmati responded:
> I just want to point out the ST is not shown as getting into the
sherry  until she is under pressure from Delores and her job is
threatened.  I  don't think she was drinking before OOP.  Its not an
original part of her  character (unless you think she had been
drinking in the Hogs Head).

Carol adds:
As for Snape, if it were widely known that he had been a DE, he surely
wouldn't have been teaching at Hogwarts. The parents would have
written letters of complaint, just as Lupin said they would do about
him if it were known that he was a werewolf. If the kids knew, the
rumors about him would be much worse than "he favors the Slytherins"
or "he wants the DADA job." Certainly, if Rita Skeeter had known, she
would have listed him among DD's unwise hiring chioces (a werewolf, a
half-giant, a paranoid Auror). She wasn't likely to pass up a juicy
tidbit like that. Sirius Black didn't know, and he was Snape's enemy
and an Order member before his arrest. Apparently, his name wasn't
published along with those who pled the Imperius Curse. The charges
against him were dropped entirely. And Dumbledore would want to
protect the identity of his spy and would not want the reason the
charges were dropped to be publicized. The fewer people who knew that
Snape was or had been a Death Eater, or was spying for DD at great
personal risk, the better.

Once he showed his Dark Mark to Fudge, he probably ruined any career
prospects he might have had at the MoM or St. Mungo's if he chose to
leave Hogwarts, but I don't think Fudge knew until that moment that
Snape had been a DE. Nor, it seems, did Minerva mcGonagall or Sirius
Black.

Carol, who agrees that DD was protecting Snape, but not from the
Wizarding public