Minerva McGonagall (was Re: Favorite ( or second favorite ;) character moment

[va32h]

No: HPFGUIDX 178339

--- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, "potioncat" <willsonkmom at ...> wrote:

> Now that I've started thinking about someone other than Snape, I 
> wonder, what was Professor McGonagall doing at Privet Drive all those 
> years ago? She wasn't ESE! She wasn't there by instructions. Hagrid's 
> left the castle; Snape can't be roused from his dungeon quarters; the 
> Headmaster is off on one of his little jaunts; and she takes herself 
> away from the castle to sit on a wall all day. She may have been an 
> Order Member. Do we know? But that wouldn't explain what she's doing. 
> Odd that the Deputy Headmistress would leave Hogwarts with such 
> strange goings on going on. Of course, she may not have been the 
> Deputy then.
> 
> I have an idea, and it will play into her actions in the later books. 
> Does anyone else have any thoughts?
> 
> ...about this, I mean. I know you all have very many thoughts.
>

va32h:

Well she definitely doesn't know why Dumbledore is there - she
expresses surprise at pretty much everything Dumbledore says.  She
doesn't know who the Dursleys are, that baby Harry is coming to them
or that Hagrid is bringing him.  Or even that James and Lily are
really dead and Voldemort really gone. Dumbledore seems amused to see
Minerva, but not shocked or dismayed. 

So here's what I think:  Minerva hears these rumors, goes up to
Dumbledore's office to ask for the scoop - DD is his usual cryptic
self and disappears.  Minerva sees the Dursleys address scrawled on a
piece of parchment on DD's desk (or overhears him telling *someone* to
meet him there) and thinks "right, I'm going to wait for him there and
demand some answers!)

I don't think she was in the Order (she's not in the photo that Moody
shows Harry in OoTP is she?) and she may or may not have been Deputy
Headmistress at the time.  It wouldn't necessarily have been OOC for
her to leave the school even if she were...she is ready to fight for
Dumbledore and risk her position until DD reminds her that Hogwarts
needs her more than he does. 

va32h