[HPforGrownups] Re: ESE!McGonagall (not what you think)

[elfundeb]

No: HPFGUIDX 164427

blitz:
If she was entrusted to very important information, like the existence
of Horcruxes, I think that she would act on it somewhat rashly,
including wanting to help DD/Harry find them.

Debbie:
Are you saying that other Order members, say Sirius, for example, would
*not* act rashly on important information?

va32h:
 think if she were told about the horcruxes, far from acting rashly,
she would declare that Harry was far too young to hear about them,
much less try to find them. If asked to help find them, she would
make lists and map out possible locations, approach the whole thing
in a rational and orderly fashion.

These are not bad qualities in themselves, but confronting the ever-
changing face of evil requires a little more spontanaiety than
Minerva is likely to have.

Debbie:
Except that McGonagall still doesn't have these qualities, yet she is now in
the Order.  This leads me to believe that the issue is one of trust, not her
combat skills.

Carol chimes in:
I think her usually concealed softness or emotionalism is the reason
that DD doesn't trust her with every detail of his anti-Voldemort
plan, that and her already heavy workload and his need-to-know policy.

Debbie:
If that's the case, it's exactly the issue that frustrates me.  For
McGonagall to be excluded from the Order because of *softness* or
*emotionalism* -- both characteristically feminine traits -- says to me that
fighting Voldemort is a man's job, and McGonagall needn't bother herself
over it.  Besides, Dumbledore hasn't exactly shown a knack for weeding out
potential Order members who might be security risks.  What about Hagrid?
Talk about security leaks!  And Sirius?  His bad judgment could also be
phrased as softness or emotionalism, but Dumbledore never tried to keep him
out of the Order.  And it's not just that McGonagall tends to keep her own
counsel; that would have excluded Lupin as well.

In any event, it's not that Dumbledore doesn't trust her with every detail
of his plan; nobody has all the details, as far as I know.  But if
McGonagall was not in the Order, he must not have trusted her with *any*
details.  This is why I tried to come up with a scenario in which Dumbledore
had reason to distrust her loyalty.  And based on the information we've been
given, the only thing that seems to fit is a prior relationship with Riddle,
that she failed to disclose to Dumbledore.

Carol again:
She doesn't need to know about the blood protection, for example,
because she's not involved. McGonagall is quite competent as a
teacher, disciplinarian, HoH, and assistant headmistress, but that's a
heavy workload for a woman of her age, "sprightly" or not, witch or
not. He only uses her, at least until OoP, for matters directly
related to Hogwarts and its students, and even there it's not clear
what she does for the Order during the summer holidays. something not
too strenuous, probably, involving a disguise as a Muggle.

Debbie:
Until OOP, I don't think she did *anything* for the Order.  Based on her
absence from Moody's photograph, she was not recruited until the Order was
reconvened at the end of GoF.  Prior to that, Dumbledore relied on her in
matters directly related to Hogwarts because that was her job as Deputy
Headmistress -- and we don't even know whether Dumbledore appointed her to
that position or if the Board of Governors did it.

Carol:
But she's a
cat Animagus, too. Why haven't we heard more about that?

Debbie:
Much as I'd like to see McGonagall's cat animagus take on a real role in the
series, I'm afraid it might just be little more than window dressing, like
the movable staircases at Hogwarts.  The only real purpose it served was to
introduce the concept early on -- like Sirius, this took place in PS/SS ch.
1 -- and thereby lay a foundation for the revelations in PoA.

blitz:
I'm just curious as to what she did with those ten years. I don't
think it has anything major to do with the story line - perhaps she
got married, or even widowed before her husband and she could start a
family?

Debbie:
Oh, I know -- maybe she married Riddle! <g>

Debbie
who really wants to know why Flitwick isn't in the Order, since he's a
duelling champion and all that, and ready to whip up a suitable backstory
involving irrational wizarding fears of part-goblin rebellions


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