ESE!McGonagall (not what you think)

[Bex]

No: HPFGUIDX 164338

Julie wrote:
 <snip>
> > First, some questions to ponder about McGonagall:
 <snip>
> > 2. Why isn't *she* Dumbledore's confidante?  
> > 3. Why does Dumbledore never share any sensitive information with  
> McGonagall?
 <snip>

 <snip>
> Caspenzoe here.
> 
> 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; 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. 
 <snip>
blitz:
I think you're on the right track, Caspen. She is a strong teacher,
with a wry sense of humor that pokes up every now and then, not much
of a politician, a tough-love kind of woman, with a big teddy bear
inside. She's an old softie. And because she hasn't really had any
major plot twists, we don't wonder too much about her. (Remember,
folks, no one really was concerned about Snape's backstory until PoA's
release.) No one has really been asking about her.

I think that McGonagall's weakest trait is also her best - she is
intensely loyal, to a fault. She is willing to take on the Minister
until DD tells her to stand down. She reminds me a bit of Sirius
Black, though a bit more dilute - a bit of a hothead, stands behind
her friends though hell and back, and stubborn as sin. Perhaps
Dumbledore sees her as potentially making some rash decisions with the
information he could give her? She was willing to risk inmprisonment
when DD faced off with Fudge in his office in OotP - she would
certainly have wanted to help with the Horcruxes in HBP, even though
she is *needed* at Hogwarts as second-in-command.

 <snip>
> 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. 
 <snip>

blitz:
You are correct - she is one year ahead of him. I do hope that she
isn't in Hogwarts in Book 7 - I think JKR only mentioned the timeline
difference once, and I am terrified that we shall see another Flint.

 <snip>
> 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.
 <snip>

My question is what did Minerva do before getting the teaching
position? Practice? Work at the Ministry? Perhaps she was a wife?
I don't think she has any children - the students (at least the
Gryffindors) seem to fill in that role. Perhaps that's why she gets
that catch in her voice in PoA when Harry wants to go to Hogsmeade
without a slip and she won't let him. Maybe she feels like she's
denying one of her own children the chance to have some fun. 

Maybe we're seeing someone who always wanted to be a parent, but had a
child?

 <snip>
> 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.
 <snip>

Where did he claim 2 people helped him? If I read that (I don't
remember it) I must have assumed it was Snape or one of the students. 

~blitz, the thread killer (we'll see if it works on this one!), who
sincerely hopes that McGonagall married a Mickey Mcgonagall - Mickey
and Minnie just make me want to smile!