ESE!McGonagall (not what you think)

[justcarol67]

No: HPFGUIDX 164352

Debbie wrote:
> Easy answers first.  Here's Elkins' original ESE! McGonagall post:
> 
> http://groups.yahoo.com/group/HPforGrownups/message/39470
> 
> I have long had a great fondness for this theory, and valiantly
defended it post-OOP after it was declared to have been sunk.
> 
> http://groups.yahoo.com/group/HPforGrownups/message/83852
> 
> Julie deserves credit for very creative thorising. But I do have
some problems with the nature and effect of this *enchantment*.

<snip refutation of the Enchantment theory, which I agree is untenable>
> 
Caspen wrote:
> And, as Julie asks, if she's so loyal, why doesn't Albus trust her
more, and why doesn't he confide in her? It really doesn't make sense
to me, regardless whether she's secretly a hot-head or not.
> 
Debbie responded:
> That trust issue looms large, doesn't it?  The reason I continue to
be enamored of ESE! McGonagall is that the only other reason I can
come up with for McGonagall to be so out of the loop is very
unpleasant -- it's that McGonagall (like most of the other women in
the story) doesn't really have a narrative function except to serve as
a stereotype spinster schoolteacher. And it does fit -- she's stern,
no-nonsense, competent and efficient, but underneath has a soft spot
for her 'children'.  She's a stock character in fiction, the type who
provides atmosphere -- she gets no action, no mystery, and no growth.
 <snip>

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.
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. But she's a
cat Animagus, too. Why haven't we heard more about that?
> 
Debbie:
> On days when ESE! McGonagall seems too heavyhanded, I lean toward
the still-carrying-the-torch-after-all-these-years theory, in which
McGonagall could not cleanse her mind of the pre-Voldemort, handsome
brilliant young Tom.  Instead of avoiding taking McGonagall in
confidence because she was under an enchantment, Dumbledore feared
that Riddle would attempt to possess her, and that McGonagall remained
particularly susceptible to his charms.

Carol:
I don't think we have any evidence one way or the other (except for
Tom's own claim that he could charm anyone he wanted to except
Dumbledore) that Minerva was charmed by young Tom (though, as I said
earlier, it's possible that she knew him slightly if they were both
Prefects or she was Head Girl). However, her refusal to celebrate
along with everyone else when Voldemort is defeated certainly doesn't
need to be interpreted that way. Hagrid isn't celebrating, either.
Both of them are more concerned with the deaths of people they knew
and liked, the Potters, and the fate of their orphaned child to be
celebrating. In fact, the celebrations always seemed to me to be
callous if not cold-hearted. A popular young witch and wizard have
just died, and people are shooting off the WW equivalent of fireworks?
Sure, they should be glad that Voldemort is apparently defeated
(exactly how anyone knows that is still a mystery to me), but he
murdered two people along the way. (Sirius Black's reaction--the
Potters are dead; I'll murder Pettigrew--makes sense by comparison. At
least he's mourning his friends' death, not celebrating "this happy,
happy day.")

> Debbie:
> IIRC, the timeline is that Riddle graduated in 1945 and returned in
1955 to request the DADA job.  McGonagall began teaching at Hogwarts
shortly thereafter (my calculation is that it was 1956 as OOP covers
1995-96).  The odd thing is that she seems to have started mid-term,
in December.  Why? Perhaps the DADA curse had just claimed its first
victim and the existing transfiguration teacher took over.  But that
doesn't answer the question why McGonagall was suddenly available.

Carol responds:
Tom Riddle was asking Slughorn when old Professor Merrythought, the
DADA teacher, was planning to retire when he (Tom) was only a sixth
year. Apparently, she retired after his seventh year, and he applied
to take her place, cursing ("jinxing") the DADA position when he
didn't get the job. However, all the DADA victims we've seen (with the
exception of the real Moody, who never actually taught the class) have
lost their position (or lives or souls) near the end of the term. The
curse would probably not strike in December, which is only three
months into the school year.

What happened, I think, is that the headmaster, Armando Dippet, died
suddenly in December  the asstant headmaster and Transfiguration
teacher Albus Dumbledore took over the position, leaving the
Transfiguration job open, so McGonagall, a Transfiguration whiz and
registered Animagus, got the job. (I realize that this interpretation
doesn't fit with Lupin's story of DD becoming headmaster just before
he went to school, but it does fit with the HBP timeline for Tom
Riddle's second DADA interview.) It doesn't have anything to do with
her sudden *availability*, only with a sudden job opening. DD may have
specifically wanted to hire a Gryffindor to take over as HoH as well
as Transfiguration teacher (just as, IMO, he wanted a Slytherin
Potions master to take over for Snape in HBP because Snape's
inevitable departure from Hogwarts at the end of his year as DADA
professor would mean that Hogwarts would need a new Slytherin HoH. Two
birds with one stone.) McGonagall's qualifications are what's
important, not her availability. (Of course, we do wonder what we did
before she became Transfiguration teacher, but it doesn't really
matter. People frequently leave one job for a better one. Maybe McG
was waiting for Dumbledore to retire!)

Carol, who wonders why McGonagall's cat Animagus form was introduced
so early and barely mentioned since that time