Character:Minerva McGonagall
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| Minerva McGonagall | |
| Birth | October 4, around 1924 |
| Appearance | black hair tied in a bun; beady eyes; square glasses |
| School | Hogwarts |
| House | Gryffindor |
| Hogwarts achievements | Hogwarts Staff |
| Patronus | cat with spectacle markings around its eyes |
| Special abilities | Animagus (cat); excellent Transfiguration skills |
| Allegiance | Order of the Phoenix, Hogwartian |
| Portrayer in the movies | Maggie Smith |
| First appearance in canon | The Boy Who Lived (PS) |
Minerva McGonagall was born on October 4, presumably in 1924 (JKRW, ABC). She started teaching at Hogwarts in 1956 and became Head of the Gryffindor House and a member of the Order of the Phoenix.
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Characteristics
McGonagall's human apparence
Minerva wears square glasses, black hair usually back into a bun (PS7). She has beady eyes (CS16).
McGonagall's Animagus form apparence
Minerva transforms into a tabby cat, which has marks around the eyes that resemble the shape of the glasses she wears in her human form (PS1).
Psychological
Minerva cares deeply about her students and their well-being, though she is undoubtedly strict. In Harry's second year, for instance, Minerva caught both he and Ron wandering the corridors alone, despite strict warnings from the school to stick together with their classes, professors, and/or prefects. Harry, desperate to avoid detention, makes up a story to cover his and Ron's tracks: they are going to visit Hermione, who is lying, Petrified, in the hospital wing. At first, Harry is afraid McGonagall will get angry at them, but she was, in fact, extremely sympathetic; a tear forms in her eye and she has trouble speaking, but she gives them her permission and understanding (CS16).
Hogwarts as a Student
McGonagall was sorted into Gryffindor, and attended Hogwarts around the same time Tom Marvolo Riddle did.
Teaching at Hogwarts
Minerva in Harry's first year
Minerva obtained the Transfiguration professor post at Hogwarts around ten years after she graduated; her previous jobs are unknown. She is known for her strictness and manages to keep the class quiet just by looking at them. She also has a marked interest in Quidditch (PS9).
McGonagall is the first witch to appear in the series. Vernon saw her in her animagus form on Privet Drive on the morning that followed the Potters death, after Hagrid told her that the headmaster would be there. She spent the whole day watching the Dursley family, sitting on the garden wall. The professor met Albus Dumbledore there, and interrogated him about the Potters' fate, and what would happen with Harry. When told that the Boy Who Lived would stay at his aunt's house, she complained that the [:Category:The Dursley Family|Dursleys] were the biggest Muggles she had ever seen.
Minerva seemed to be very upset about Lily and James' deaths, and also somewhat angry that wizards were celebrating in such an extravagant manner, causing even the Muggles to notice (PS1).
She was also the first professor that the students met upon arriving at Hogwarts. Minerva took the first-years through the school, and gave them a speech about the Sorting and the importance of the Houses. The professor took the first-years to the Great Hall, and placed the Sorting Hat in its place. Also, she was the one that called out the names of the new students to be sorted (PS7). In her first class with Harry's year, she gave them a speech warning the first-years that if someone messed around in her class, he or she would leave and not come back (PS8).
Later, McGonagall saw Harry trying to catch Neville Longbottom's Remembrall after Draco Malfoy threw it on the air. After seeing his impressive capture, she appointed Harry to the Gryffindor Quidditch team and told the boy that he had better train a lot or she would change her mind about the punishment he deserved (PS9). On Halloween, Minerva, Snape and Quirrell found the Trio in the bathroom with the troll. She took five points from Hermione once the girl said that she thought she might be able to fight the troll by herself and gave Harry and Ron five points each for knocking the troll down (PS10).
It was also McGonagall who punished Harry, Hermione, Neville and Draco for being out of their beds on the night Charlie's friends came to get Norbert. She took fifty points from each of them and put them in detention with Hagrid (PS15). When the trio claimed that they needed to talk to Dumbledore, she told them that the headmaster wasn't at the school. They went down through the trapdoor, and learned that Minerva's obstacle was a giant Wizard Chess board. Ron, as a great chess player, won the game, but was hit by her Queen (PS16).
Minerva in Harry's second year
Snape found Harry and Ron arriving at the castle after coming to school flying in the Ford Anglia, and took them to their office, threatning them with expulsion. Since he wasn't the Head of Gryffindor, and therefore couldn't take such a decision, he went back into the Great Hall and called McGonagall and Dumbledore to punish the boys. The Head of Gryffindor gave them a detention, and forbid the boys to go the feast (CS5). Ron endsed up doing detention with Filch, polishing the silver in the trophy room where he found the prize Tom Riddle won for Special Services for the School—and Harry went to detention with Lockhart where he first heard the Basilisk (CS7).
It was Minerva that found Colin Creevey's body after he was petrified. Dumbledore helped her take the boy to the Hospital Wing, and she told Pomfrey that he had some grapes with him, so they thought he was trying to visit Harry. The three of them discussed the attacks, and Dumbledore told them that the Chamber of Secrets was re-opened. McGonagall asked him who could have opened it, but he told her that the right question would be "how" (CS10).
When Nearly Headless Nick and Justin Finch-Fletchley are attacked, Peeves started to scream and Minerva ran out of her classroom—with her class behind her—and found Harry alone on the hallway. She then decided to take him to the Headmaster's office (CS11).
After Hermione and Penelope Clearwater were attacked on the day of Gryffindor versus Hufflepuff Quidditch match, Minerva took Harry and Ron to see the girl in the Hospital Wing. Cornelius Fudge came to Hogwarts to take Hagrid to Azkaban, and Lucius Malfoy also came to the gamekeeper's hut to inform Dumbledore that the school governors had decided to give him an Order of Suspention. McGonagall as the deputy Headmistress, stayed at Hogwarts as headmistress (CS14).
Three days before the exams started, Minerva told the students that the Mandrakes were finally ready for the cutting. On the same day, as Ron and Harry tried to get to Moaning Myrtle's bathroom, she found the boys walking by theirselves at the school and asked them what they thought they were doing. Harry told her that they wanted to visit Hermione, and the professor, deeply shaken, was almost in tears—and allowed them to go visit her(CS16).
After Ron, Harry, Lockhart and Ginny came back from the chamber, they went straight into McGonagall's ofice (CS17). They found the Head of Gryffindor inside, with Dumbledores and Mr. and Mrs. Weasley. The transfiguration professor gasped and clutched her chest in surprise as she saw them coming in. After the boys explained how they found out where the entrance to the Chamber of Secrets was, she reminded them that they broke "a hundred school rules into pieces along the way". Then, after the whole plot was explained, Dumbledore asked Minerva to go to the kitchens and warned them that there would be a feast. During the feast, McGonagall announced that the exams had been cancelled, as a school gift (CS18).
Trivia
- Hermione Granger's boggart in third year was McGonagall informing her that she had failed all of her exams (PA16)
Ships
Fanon
Heterosexual
Femmeslash
Group
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