ESE!McGonagall (not what you think)

[caspenzoe]

No: HPFGUIDX 164335

--- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, juli17 at ... wrote:
>
> First, some questions to ponder about McGonagall:
>  
> 
>  
> 1. Why do we know less about McGonagall's past than we do about  
any other 
> major adult characters (heck, than some of the minor adult 
characters)?  Snip!
>  
> In addition, JKR has said virtually nothing about McGonagall. Snip!

 Is  
> this
> lack of notice just because McGonagall is essentially a one-note 
and rather 
> boring character? Or is there some reason JKR as revealed so little 
about 
> McGonagall?
> 
> 2. Why isn't *she* Dumbledore's confidante? The two have known  
each other 
> since
> McGonagall was a student herself--for more than 50 years--and have 
been at  
> Hogwarts
> as colleagues most of that time. Snip!

> 3. Why does Dumbledore never share any sensitive information with  
McGonagall?
> He evades her questions and gives half-answers from the first scene 
between 
> them in front of the Durlseys house, right through HBP where she 
has no  idea
> about any of Dumbledore's activities (the hand damage, the Horcrux 
hunt  with
> Harry, the Prophecy, etc). Snip!

> So what's the alternative to ESE!McGonagall? ESE!McGonagall, of  
course!
> That is, ESE!--Ever-So-Enchanted!--McGonagall. A McGonagall who 
has  been
> "enchanted" by Tom Riddle, perhaps since their school days. And 
here I  use
> enchanted to mean she's been literally brainwashed or hynotized,  
not that she
> finds him so charming or fascinating that she'll willingly do 
anything for  
> him.
 
Caspenzoe here.

I am delurking because I wanted to add some notes to this discussion 
that I haven't seen anyone else mention yet. I hope the elves will 
forgive me if my posting style has gotten sloppy, because it's been 
awhile since I've tried it.

I am and have remained intrigued by ESE McGonagal theories, and find 
Julie's Enchanted Mcgonagall theory intriguing as well, for her 
reasons raised in 1. and 2. above. I do think that another reasonable 
explanation for JKR's not having said much abot Minerva may be that 
the fans haven't really asked her; at least I haven't noticed many 
requests for information about her on the sites I've perused, 
including JKR's, and those reporting her interviews, her Q&A 
sessions, etc. Perhaps the character is so well and convincingly 
written that most of us simply believe her as a whole, and don't feel 
the need for more information. In fact, I didn't until I first heard 
about these theories.

In any case, here are some other things that occurr to me now. First, 
assuming Minerva is a spinster, we should consider that one of the 
reasons some people remain single is unrequited love; i.e.: to use a 
quaint old expression, they carry a lifelong torch for someone, they 
didn't get or can't have. If, as another poster responding to Julie 
postulated, Minerva was in her 7th year at Hogwarts when Tom Riddle 
was in his 5th, I don't think we can rule out the possibility of 
Minerva's having been attracted to a younger, but very handsome and 
absolutely brilliant student. In fact, I think such an attraction is 
more likely than not, regardless how disgusting it may seem after 
what Riddle's become. I'm sure I'll be corrected if I'm wrong, but I 
believe Cho is a year older than Harry, after all, and she was 
attracted to him. 

Alternatively, a person suffering under the kind of enchantment Julie 
proposes is likely to feel very fulfilled as a single person, with 
out ever consciously wondering why. As we learn in HBP, a propensity 
for resorting to methods of compelling love is not unheard of in 
Riddle's gene pool. 

Finally, it strikes me that Minerva's and Tom's respective timelines 
do seem to parallell each other closely. Minerva's been teaching at 
Hogwarts for approximately 40 years as of HBP (OOTP, P.321, American 
hard-cover ed.), which means she returned to Hogwarts as a teacher 
approximately 10 years after she left. Tom would have graduated two 
years after Minerva. He asked for a teaching position immediately, 
but was turned down (HBP). We know that he then waited 10 years to 
attempt to return to Hogwarts from his pensieve recounted interview 
with Dumbledore (HBP). That would have been only a couple years, at 
most after Minerva had taken up her own teaching position.

We know that Tom spent his first few post-Hogwarts years working for 
Borgin and Burkes, but he left them abruptly after Hepzibah Smith's 
murder and disappeared (HBP). This seems to me to leave a gap of at 
least two years during which neither Tom nor Minerva is at Hogwarts, 
and during which both their whereabouts are completely unaccounted 
for in cannon so far. That seems to me to be plenty of time to either 
activate a slumbering passion on Minerva's part or rekindle one, or, 
alternatively, to enchant and plant Minerva as a sleeper agent in 
Hogwarts. 

Whom, after all, is the other help Draco Malfoy claims access to at 
Hogwarts in HBP? Rosemerta seems to be of limited use at best.

Just some thoughts.

Caspen