I've Been Sorted!

The entire welcome message just made me feel like I'd finally come home.

Minerva McGonagall *SPOILERS*

Childhood

 

Minerva McGonagall was the first child, and only daughter, of a Scottish Presbyterian minister and a Hogwarts-educated witch. She grew up in the Highlands of Scotland in the early twentieth century, and only gradually became aware that there was something strange, both about her own abilities, and her parents’ marriage.

Minerva’s father, the Reverend Robert McGonagall, had become captivated by the high-spirited Isobel Ross, who lived in the same village. Like his neighbours, Robert believed that Isobel attended a select ladies’ boarding school in England. In fact, when Isobel vanished from her home for months at a time, it was to Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry that she went.

Aware that her parents (a witch and wizard) would frown on a connection with the serious young Muggle, Isobel kept their burgeoning relationship a secret. By the time she was eighteen, she had fallen in love with Robert. Unfortunately, she had not found the courage to tell him what she was.

The couple eloped, to the fury of both sets of parents. Now estranged from her family, Isobel could not bring herself to mar the bliss of the honeymoon by telling her smitten new husband that she had graduated top of her class in Charms at Hogwarts, nor that she had been Captain of the school Quidditch team. Isobel and Robert moved into a manse (minister’s house) on the outskirts of Caithness, where the beautiful Isobel proved surprisingly adept at making the most of the minister’s tiny salary.

The birth of the young couple’s first child, Minerva, proved both a joy and a crisis. Missing her family, and the magical community she had given up for love, Isobel insisted on naming her newborn daughter after her own grandmother, an immensely talented witch. The outlandish name raised eyebrows in the community in which she lived, and the Reverend Robert McGonagall found it difficult to explain his wife’s choice to his parishioners. Furthermore, he was alarmed by his wife’s moodiness. Friends assured him that women were often emotional after the birth of a baby, and that Isobel would soon be herself again.

Isobel, however, became more and more withdrawn, often secluding herself with Minerva for days at a time. Isobel later told her daughter that she had displayed small, but unmistakable, signs of magic from her earliest hours. Toys that had been left on upper shelves were found in her cot. The family cat appeared to do her bidding before she could talk. Her father’s bagpipes were occasionally heard to play themselves from distant rooms, a phenomenon that made the infant Minerva chuckle.

Isobel was torn between pride and fear. She knew that she must confess the truth to Robert before he witnessed something that would alarm him. At last, in response to Robert’s patient questioning, Isobel burst into tears, retrieved her wand from the locked box under her bed and showed him what she was.
Although Minerva was too young to remember that night, its aftermath left her with a bitter understanding of the complications of growing up with magic in a Muggle world. Although Robert McGonagall loved his wife no less upon discovering that she was a witch, he was profoundly shocked by her revelation, and by the fact that she had kept such a secret from him for so long. What was more, he, who prided himself on being an upright and honest man, was now drawn into a life of secrecy that was quite foreign to his nature. Isobel explained, through her sobs, that she (and their daughter) were bound by the International Statute of Secrecy, and that they must conceal the truth about themselves, or face the fury of the Ministry of Magic. Robert also quailed at the thought of how the locals - in the main, an austere, straight-laced and conventional breed - would feel about having a witch as their Minister’s wife.

Love endured, but trust had been broken between her parents, and Minerva, a clever and observant child, saw this with sadness. Two more children, both sons, were born to the McGonagalls, and both, in due course, revealed magical ability. Minerva helped her mother explain to Malcolm and Robert Junior that they must not flaunt their magic, and aided her mother in concealing from their father the accidents and embarrassments their magic sometimes caused.

Minerva was very close to her Muggle father, whom in temperament she resembled more than her mother. She saw with pain how much he struggled with the family’s strange situation. She sensed, too, how much of a strain it was for her mother to fit in with the all-Muggle village, and how much she missed the freedom of being with her kind, and of exercising her considerable talents. Minerva never forgot how much her mother cried, when the letter of admittance into Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry arrived on Minerva’s eleventh birthday; she knew that Isobel was sobbing, not only out of pride, but also out of envy.

School Career 

 

As is often the case where the young witch or wizard comes from a family who has struggled with its magical identity, Hogwarts was, for Minerva McGonagall, a place of joyful release and freedom.
Minerva drew unusual attention to herself on her very first evening, when she was revealed to be a Hatstall. After five and a half minutes, the Sorting Hat, which had been vacillating between the houses of Ravenclaw and Gryffindor, placed Minerva in the latter. (In later years, this circumstance was a subject of gentle humour between Minerva and her colleague Filius Flitwick, over whom the Sorting Hat suffered the same confusion, but reached the opposite conclusion. The two Heads of house were amused to think that they might, but for those crucial moments in their youths, have exchanged positions).

Minerva was quickly recognised as the most outstanding student of her year, with a particular talent for Transfiguration. As she progressed through the school, she demonstrated that she had inherited both her mother’s talents and her father’s cast-iron moral sense. Minerva’s school career overlapped by two years with that of Pomona Sprout, later Head of Hufflepuff House, and the two women enjoyed an excellent relationship both then, and in later years.

By the end of her education at Hogwarts, Minerva McGonagall had achieved an impressive record: top grades in O.W.L.s and N.E.W.T.s, Prefect, Head Girl, and winner of the Transfiguration Today Most Promising Newcomer award. Under the guidance of her inspirational Transfiguration teacher, Albus Dumbledore, she had managed to become an Animagus; her animal form, with its distinctive markings (tabby cat, square spectacles markings around eyes) were duly logged in the Ministry of Magic’s Animagus Registry. Minerva was also, like her mother, a gifted Quidditch player, although a nasty fall in her final year (a foul during the Gryffindor versus Slytherin game which would decide the Cup winner) left her with concussion, several broken ribs and a lifelong desire to see Slytherin crushed on the Quidditch pitch. Though she gave up Quidditch on leaving Hogwarts, the innately competitive Professor McGonagall later took a keen interest in the fortunes of her house team, and retained a keen eye for Quidditch talent.

My Wand

Dogwood with Phoenix Tail Feather
12 1/4 inches
Slightly Springy

Phoenix

This is the rarest core type. Phoenix feathers are capable of the greatest range of magic, though they may take longer than either unicorn or dragon cores to reveal this. They show the most initiative, sometimes acting of their own accord, a quality that many witches and wizards dislike.
Phoenix feather wands are always the pickiest when it comes to potential owners, for the creature from which they are taken is one of the most independent and detached in the world. These wands are the hardest to tame and to personalise, and their allegiance is usually hard won.

Dogwood

Dogwood is one of my own personal favourites, and I have found that matching a dogwood wand with its ideal owner is always entertaining. Dogwood wands are quirky and mischievous; they have playful natures and insist upon partners who can provide them with scope for excitement and fun. It would be quite wrong, however, to deduce from this that dogwood wands are not capable of serious magic when called upon to do so; they have been known to perform outstanding spells under difficult conditions, and when paired with a suitably clever and ingenious witch or wizard, can produce dazzling enchantments. An interesting foible of many dogwood wands is that they refuse to perform non-verbal spells and they are often rather noisy. 

The Keeper of the Keys

• Continuity Error: Hagrid tells Harry that James an Lily were Head Boy and Head Girl when they were at Hogwarts.  However, later in the series, we learn from Sirius that he and James were never Prefects, that Lupin was the only one to get the badge.  A student cannot become Head Boy unless he has been a Prefect.

•  Possible Continuity Error:  I always wonder why Hagrid is allowed to do Magic in front of the Dursley's when Harry is not.  He's not alone, either.  Mr. Weasley performs magic in front of them, and so does Dumbledore for that matter.  However, when Harry casts a patronus in the fifth book, he's not just in trouble for using magic while still underage, he's also in trouble for doing magic in front of a Muggle.  Yet no one says anything to anyone else when they do it.

The Vanishing Glass

I'm always surprised by the sheer abuse Harry is put through by his family.  I know that they put out that he's an uncontrollable trouble maker, but I always wonder that no one in the neighborhood ever seems to notice how awful they treat him and call child protective services.  I know that would kind of spoil a major plot device, but still.  Logic wins out on this one.  And, now that I know everything I do about Petunia, I'm kind of surprised at her as well.  It's not that I think her incapable of hating Harry simply because of what he represents, I just find it hard to believe that she could be that abusive to a child, no matter what the circumstances.  It's one thing to keep him downtrodden.  It's another to actively harm, which is what they're doing.  The fact that he suffers from child abuse every time he goes home is kind of glossed over, almost made funny.  It's a bit disturbing to me, really.  And, why does Dumbledore never step in?  Why does he never insist that Harry at least be treated with human decency.  This really bothers me.

I wonder why the snake in the reptile house chose to communicate with Harry.  How did it know he was different?  It's not like snakes regularly start winking at zoo patrons.

Vernon and Petunia Dursley Meet *SPOILERS*

From Pottermore

Harry's aunt and uncle met at work. Petunia Evans, forever embittered by the fact that her parents seemed to value her witch sister more than they valued her, left Cokeworth forever to pursue a typing course in London. This led to an office job, where she met the extremely unmagical, opinionated and materialistic Vernon Dursley. Large and neckless, this junior executive seemed a model of manliness to young Petunia. He not only returned her romantic interest, but was deliciously normal. He had a perfectly correct car, and wanted to do completely ordinary things, and by the time he had taken her on a series of dull dates, during which he talked mainly about himself and his predictable ideas on the world, Petunia was dreaming of the moment when he would place a ring on her finger.

When, in due course, Vernon Dursley proposed marriage, very correctly, on one knee in his mother's sitting room, Petunia accepted at once. The one fly in her delicious ointment was the fear of what her new fiancé would make of her sister, who was now in her final year at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. Vernon was apt to despise even people who wore brown shoes with black suits; what he would make of a young woman who spent most of her time wearing long robes and casting spells, Petunia could hardly bear to think.

She confessed the truth during a tear-stained date, in Vernon's dark car as they sat overlooking the chip shop where Vernon had just bought them a post-cinema snack. Vernon, as Petunia had expected, was deeply shocked; however, he told Petunia solemnly that he would never hold it against her that she had a freak for a sister, and Petunia threw herself upon him in such violent gratitude that he dropped his battered sausage.
The first meeting between Lily, her boyfriend James Potter, and the engaged couple, went badly, and the relationship nose-dived from there. James was amused by Vernon, and made the mistake of showing it. Vernon tried to patronise James, asking what car he drove. James described his racing broom. Vernon supposed out loud that wizards had to live on unemployment benefit. James explained about Gringotts, and the fortune his parents had saved there, in solid gold. Vernon could not tell whether he was being made fun of or not, and grew angry. The evening ended with Vernon and Petunia storming out of the restaurant, while Lily burst into tears and James (a little ashamed of himself) promised to make things up with Vernon at the earliest opportunity.

This never happened. Petunia did not want Lily as a bridesmaid, because she was tired of being overshadowed; Lily was hurt. Vernon refused to speak to James at the reception, but described him, within James' earshot, as 'some kind of amateur magician'. Once married, Petunia grew ever more like Vernon. She loved their neat square house at number four, Privet Drive. She was secure, now, from objects that behaved strangely, from teapots that suddenly piped tunes as she passed, or long conversations about things she did not understand, with names like 'Quidditch' and 'Transfiguration'. She and Vernon chose not to attend Lily and James' wedding. The very last piece of correspondence she received from Lily and James was the announcement of Harry's birth, and after one contemptuous look, Petunia threw it in the bin.

Even though Petunia was raised alongside a witch, she is remarkably ignorant about magic. She and Vernon share a confused idea that they will somehow be able to squash the magic out of Harry, and in an attempt to throw off the letters that arrive from Hogwarts on Harry's eleventh birthday, she and Vernon fall back on the old superstition that witches cannot cross water. As she had frequently seen Lily jump streams and run across stepping stones in their childhood, she ought not to have been surprised when Hagrid had no difficulty making his way over the stormy sea to the hut on the rock.

The Boy Who Lived

As I've just gained access to Pottermore, I find myself rereading the books from the very beginning.  However, the one thing Pottermore doesn't seem to have is a blogging tool.  I've left a suggestion for it but, until then, I've started this temporary blog to keep my thoughts in.


I don't really have much to say thus far about Pottermore.  Some of the side information is interesting but as I'm only in the first chapter, there's not much of it yet.  I enjoyed the story Joe posted about joining the British Weights and Measures Association merely to annoy her sister.  Other than that, though, there isn't much yet.

About the chapter: I think the first chapter of the first book is my favorite part of the whole series.  Yes it is filled with nonesense about the Dursleys and it's mostly got nothing to do, whatsoever, with the rest of the story.  But it just draws you so masterfully.  I love the shorter sentences of this chapter:
"None of them noticed a large tawny owl flutter past the window."
It puts the reader in the position of a normal person, catching just glimpses of this other world for the first time, which, in truth, we are.  We may not be as stuffy as the Dursleys, but this is our first introduction to the wizarding world, and we're catching it in snippets, just like everyone else.

This part always gives me chills: "Mr. Dursley sat froze in his armchair.  Shooting stars all over Britain?  Owls flying by daylight?  Mysterious people in cloaks all over the place?  And a whisper, a whisper about the Potters..."

• Continuity Errors:  Albus Dumbledore first appears on Privat Drive "so suddenly and silently you'd have thought he'd just popped out of the ground."  However, we know that apparation causes a cracking sound that can definitely be heard.

Looking back, I'm amazed that we didn't know he was gay.  "He was wearing long robes, a purple cloak that swept the ground, and high-heeled, buckled boots."  I think I might have to start keeping track of all the places we missed it.

• Possible Continuity Errors: Dumbledore says he has been trying to convince people not to call Voldemort You-know-who, or He who must not be named.  He says he's been trying to convince them to call him by his proper name, Voldemort, because fear of a name increases fear of the thing itself.  However, Voldemort is NOT his real name, and Dumbledore knows it.  Wouldn't people be a lot less afraid of him if he Dumbledore was calling him Tom instead of Voldemort?

Now that we know what went down immediately after the Potters were killed, and that Dumbledore, at the time, thought Sirius Black was the secret keeper, it puts a whole new spin on his line to Hagrid about picking up Harry, "No problems, were there?"


And now, to sum up this first entry with my thoughts from chapter 1, I'm going to close with what is, in my opinion, one of the greatest paragraphs in literature.  It has raised the hair on the back of my neck every time I've read it, right from the start.  I even love how, in the hardback version, it's the only paragraph on the last page of the chapter.

"A breeze ruffled the neat hedges of Privet Drive, which lay silent and tidy under the inky sky, the very last place you would expect astonishing things to happen.  Harry Potter rolled over inside his blankets without waking up.  One small hand closed on the letter beside him and he slept on, not knowing he was special, not knowing he was famous, not knowing he would be woken in a few hours' time by Mrs. Dursley's scream as she opened the front door to put out the milk bottles, nor that he would spend the next few weeks being prodded and pinched by his cousin Dudley.... He couldn't know that at this very moment, people meeting in secret all over the country were holding up their glasses and saying in hushed voices: 'To Harry Potter-the boy who lived!'"