WEBVTT 1 00:00:04.080 --> 00:00:12.679 Athostudios. It is late and the fire is low, and 2 00:00:12.759 --> 00:00:15.679 I wanted to talk with you to night about someone 3 00:00:15.759 --> 00:00:18.879 who has been sitting in my mind for some time now, 4 00:00:20.079 --> 00:00:22.640 some one who stands at the center of a great 5 00:00:22.719 --> 00:00:28.039 many stories, and yet somehow remains in the popular imagination 6 00:00:28.920 --> 00:00:34.880 a bit of a caricature, a stern professor, a stern face, 7 00:00:35.960 --> 00:00:40.399 a voice like cold stone. And yes, there is truth 8 00:00:40.520 --> 00:00:44.719 in those impressions. But there is also a great deal more. 9 00:00:45.600 --> 00:00:48.079 And it is the more that I want to explore 10 00:00:48.079 --> 00:00:51.719 with you to night. We are going to talk about 11 00:00:51.759 --> 00:00:56.479 Minerva McGonagall. Now imagine that you have stepped through the 12 00:00:56.560 --> 00:01:01.159 portrait hole after hours, when the castle has gone quiet, 13 00:01:01.920 --> 00:01:05.640 and the only light stretches out before you, like a 14 00:01:05.680 --> 00:01:08.920 book you have been meaning to open for years. Somewhere 15 00:01:08.920 --> 00:01:12.719 above you, a stare preaks, and the martls with a matter. 16 00:01:13.239 --> 00:01:17.560 The plumbing still works in its own stubborn way. The 17 00:01:17.640 --> 00:01:21.519 clock on the mantle chimes the half hour, and you 18 00:01:21.599 --> 00:01:25.400 realize it is half past ten, and you are exactly 19 00:01:25.560 --> 00:01:29.280 where you want to be. We are going to spend 20 00:01:29.319 --> 00:01:34.040 this evening with Professor Minerva McGonagall, and I want to 21 00:01:34.079 --> 00:01:38.400 start by acknowledging something that might seem obvious but actually 22 00:01:38.519 --> 00:01:42.280 bears saying out loud. She is one of the most 23 00:01:42.400 --> 00:01:47.239 enduring presences in the entire film series. She appears in 24 00:01:47.400 --> 00:01:51.200 seven of the eight movies. She is there for the sorting, 25 00:01:52.079 --> 00:01:57.040 there for the quidditch matches, there for the battles, there 26 00:01:57.079 --> 00:02:00.000 for the quiet moments when Harry needs someone to tell 27 00:02:00.000 --> 00:02:03.359 tell him the truth when the truth is hard to hear. 28 00:02:04.439 --> 00:02:07.400 She is the stern face at the head of the table, 29 00:02:08.080 --> 00:02:12.680 the sharp she turns into a cat, and then, more 30 00:02:12.719 --> 00:02:16.680 often than not, there is a pause and a shrug, 31 00:02:17.759 --> 00:02:22.840 and the conversation moves on to some one else. Minerva 32 00:02:22.960 --> 00:02:26.960 Macgonagall is one of the most beloved characters in the 33 00:02:27.240 --> 00:02:32.039 entire franchise, and I would argue she is also one 34 00:02:32.039 --> 00:02:37.280 of the most overlooked. We adore her, we quote her, 35 00:02:38.039 --> 00:02:43.319 we mim her, we dress as her for Halloween, but 36 00:02:43.400 --> 00:02:46.639 when it comes time to really dig into who she is, 37 00:02:47.639 --> 00:02:51.719 to understand the weight of her choices, and the depth 38 00:02:51.800 --> 00:02:55.599 of her history and the full measure of her character, 39 00:02:56.599 --> 00:03:00.919 we tend to skim the surface and move on. She 40 00:03:01.080 --> 00:03:04.520 is a character we think we know, but do we 41 00:03:04.639 --> 00:03:08.639 really What does it mean that we love her so much, 42 00:03:09.199 --> 00:03:13.680 and yet examine her so little. Is it that she 43 00:03:13.879 --> 00:03:17.800 is so perfectly drawn that we feel we have nothing 44 00:03:17.879 --> 00:03:24.240 left to uncover? We adore her, we quote her, we 45 00:03:24.360 --> 00:03:29.960 meem her, we dress as her for Halloween. But when 46 00:03:30.000 --> 00:03:32.919 it comes time to really did into who she is, 47 00:03:34.039 --> 00:03:38.400 to understand the weight of her choices, and the depth 48 00:03:38.520 --> 00:03:42.479 of her history, and the full measure of her character 49 00:03:43.840 --> 00:03:48.120 with face value, the way we might accept a stone 50 00:03:48.240 --> 00:03:53.280 wall without wondering what plies beneath. I do not believe 51 00:03:53.319 --> 00:03:57.439 it is the former. I do not believe that Minerva 52 00:03:57.520 --> 00:04:00.919 macgonagall is a character who has given her everything she 53 00:04:01.000 --> 00:04:04.800 has to offer. Or is it that she is so 54 00:04:04.879 --> 00:04:09.560 perfectly drawn that we feel we have nothing left to uncover. 55 00:04:09.960 --> 00:04:13.599 I think shares a character who has been hiding in 56 00:04:13.719 --> 00:04:20.160 plain sight, a character whose richness is there for anyone 57 00:04:20.240 --> 00:04:24.160 who is willing to look a little longer. We are 58 00:04:24.199 --> 00:04:28.680 going to do Cephis. We are going to do depth. 59 00:04:30.000 --> 00:04:35.279 We are going to read between her lines, examine her history, 60 00:04:36.480 --> 00:04:40.480 and pull apart the moments that seems simple on the 61 00:04:40.560 --> 00:04:47.000 outside to see what is really happening underneath. We are 62 00:04:47.040 --> 00:04:52.399 going to ask why she loves the students she pretends 63 00:04:52.600 --> 00:04:57.720 not to love why she bends the rooms when she 64 00:04:57.800 --> 00:05:02.759 bends them, why she stays at a school that has 65 00:05:02.800 --> 00:05:09.399 asked her to sacrifice so much for so long. We 66 00:05:09.439 --> 00:05:13.600 are going to find a woman behind the bun, and 67 00:05:13.680 --> 00:05:16.959 I think we are going to be surprised by what 68 00:05:17.160 --> 00:05:23.759 we find, so let me pour myself something warm. Let 69 00:05:23.759 --> 00:05:28.319 me settle deeper into this chair and let the fire 70 00:05:28.680 --> 00:05:34.560 crackle low while we begin. We are going to find 71 00:05:34.680 --> 00:05:39.360 the woman behind the bun, and I think we are 72 00:05:39.399 --> 00:05:44.879 going to be surprised by what we find, So let 73 00:05:44.920 --> 00:05:52.079 me pour myself something warm. Menorda the Gunnegar is one 74 00:05:52.120 --> 00:05:57.680 of the most beloved characters in the entire Wizarding World. 75 00:05:59.319 --> 00:06:03.240 She is below it for good reason, but beloved characters 76 00:06:03.720 --> 00:06:06.759 as when her one liners and we do not remember 77 00:06:06.800 --> 00:06:11.519 the silences. So to night, we are going to do 78 00:06:11.560 --> 00:06:16.639 something that Minerva herself would approve of. I think we 79 00:06:16.680 --> 00:06:20.480 are going to be rigorous. We are going to be honest. 80 00:06:21.680 --> 00:06:23.800 We are going to look at her the way she 81 00:06:23.839 --> 00:06:26.879 would look at one of her own students if that 82 00:06:27.120 --> 00:06:30.199 student had handed her an essay that was full of 83 00:06:30.279 --> 00:06:36.959 feeling but short on evidence, with care, with high standards, 84 00:06:37.839 --> 00:06:41.360 with a refusal to look away from the truth even 85 00:06:41.480 --> 00:06:46.000 when the truth is complicated, and I think we will 86 00:06:46.040 --> 00:06:50.199 find in the end that the truth about Minerva Agnagul 87 00:06:50.879 --> 00:06:53.879 was born in the Scottish Highlands in the autumn of 88 00:06:53.959 --> 00:06:58.759 nineteen thirty five, the eldest of three children in a 89 00:06:58.800 --> 00:07:02.680 family that was in its own way, as her father 90 00:07:02.959 --> 00:07:08.040 was a Presbyterian minister, a man named Robert McGonagall, who 91 00:07:08.160 --> 00:07:11.639 was proud of his daughter's magical ability in the way 92 00:07:11.680 --> 00:07:15.160 that a man of his generation and his faith might 93 00:07:15.199 --> 00:07:18.160 be proud of a miracle. He could not quite explain. 94 00:07:19.360 --> 00:07:22.680 He loved her. I think he was proud of her, 95 00:07:23.519 --> 00:07:27.199 but he also could not quite understand her, and that 96 00:07:27.319 --> 00:07:32.839 gap between love and understanding would shape much of Manava's childhood. 97 00:07:33.879 --> 00:07:38.360 Her mother, however, was a witch. Her name was Isobel, 98 00:07:39.160 --> 00:07:42.360 and she was fierce and proud, and she had spent 99 00:07:42.480 --> 00:07:46.319 her own life navigating the strange terign between the muggle 100 00:07:46.399 --> 00:07:51.920 world and the magical one. Isobel understood what her daughter was, 101 00:07:52.680 --> 00:07:56.240 and she understood what her daughter could become. And she 102 00:07:56.399 --> 00:08:00.639 was determined that nothing, not her husband's quiet deday discomfort, 103 00:08:01.399 --> 00:08:05.160 not the isolation of the harulance, not the cold and 104 00:08:05.199 --> 00:08:09.000 the stone and the long winters would stand in the 105 00:08:09.000 --> 00:08:12.920 way of that becoming. And so Minerva grew up in 106 00:08:12.959 --> 00:08:16.839 a house that was half ministry and half magic, and 107 00:08:16.879 --> 00:08:20.240 she relearned very early that the world there was tension 108 00:08:20.319 --> 00:08:23.319 in that house, the kind of tension that does not 109 00:08:23.519 --> 00:08:26.879 her sow itself in arguments, and to read the weather 110 00:08:27.000 --> 00:08:29.879 in her father's face, and to read the weather in 111 00:08:29.959 --> 00:08:33.759 her mother's face, and to know when to speak and 112 00:08:33.799 --> 00:08:38.279 when to hold very still. She was the eldest child, 113 00:08:38.519 --> 00:08:41.639 and the most ambitious, and the most aware of the 114 00:08:41.679 --> 00:08:46.679 stakes of every small moment. Her younger siblings, a brother 115 00:08:46.759 --> 00:08:50.960 and a sister whose names we never quite learn, looked 116 00:08:51.000 --> 00:08:54.360 to her, I think in the way that younger siblings do, 117 00:08:55.240 --> 00:08:59.279 with admiration, with a little bit of fear, with the 118 00:08:59.360 --> 00:09:02.879 sense that she always knew what she was doing, even 119 00:09:02.919 --> 00:09:06.799 when she did not. But she was also a child, 120 00:09:07.120 --> 00:09:10.120 and she was lonely in a particular way that children 121 00:09:10.200 --> 00:09:15.360 of such complicated households often are. She was brilliant, and 122 00:09:15.480 --> 00:09:19.039 her brilliance set her apart. And she knew from a 123 00:09:19.159 --> 00:09:22.320 very young own age that she was different from the 124 00:09:22.399 --> 00:09:28.559 other children in the village, not better, exactly different. She 125 00:09:28.639 --> 00:09:32.080 could do things they could not do and see things 126 00:09:32.159 --> 00:09:35.480 they could not see. And they knew from a very 127 00:09:35.559 --> 00:09:39.000 young age that she was different from the other children 128 00:09:39.039 --> 00:09:45.919 in the village, not better, exactly different. She could do 129 00:09:46.000 --> 00:09:49.320 things they could not do, and see things they could 130 00:09:49.399 --> 00:09:53.840 not see, and that knowledge sat in her chest like 131 00:09:53.879 --> 00:09:57.440 a stone that she could not swallow and could not 132 00:09:57.559 --> 00:10:02.440 spit out the first time she saw We are told 133 00:10:02.960 --> 00:10:06.279 in the stories that the castle appears to those who 134 00:10:06.320 --> 00:10:09.120 are coming to it for the first time as though 135 00:10:09.159 --> 00:10:12.399 it has bent her entire life, feeling as though she 136 00:10:12.440 --> 00:10:15.919 did not quite fit anywhere. The site of a place 137 00:10:16.039 --> 00:10:19.720 that was built specifically for people like her must have 138 00:10:19.799 --> 00:10:24.440 felt like the first full breath after years of breathing shallowly. 139 00:10:26.120 --> 00:10:30.000 She was sorted into gryffinder, and this is important because 140 00:10:30.039 --> 00:10:33.240 it is so often presented as though it were inevitable, 141 00:10:33.519 --> 00:10:36.480 as though Minerva a Gonagul were always going to be 142 00:10:36.519 --> 00:10:40.000 a gryffinder, as though the sorting hat had no real 143 00:10:40.200 --> 00:10:44.360 choice to make. But the books tell us, and this 144 00:10:44.519 --> 00:10:47.480 is a detail that is easy to overlook, that the 145 00:10:47.519 --> 00:10:52.679 storting hat considered putting her in Ravenclaw, considered it seriously, 146 00:10:54.120 --> 00:10:57.039 and I think that matters. I think it tells us 147 00:10:57.080 --> 00:11:01.720 something we should not skip past. Because Minerva Agnacle was 148 00:11:02.000 --> 00:11:06.000 above all else a woman of the mind. She was brilliant, 149 00:11:06.320 --> 00:11:09.600 She was precise. She was the kind of student who 150 00:11:09.639 --> 00:11:13.960 made other students feel inadequate simply by being in the room. 151 00:11:14.320 --> 00:11:16.759 And she was that way not because she tried to 152 00:11:16.799 --> 00:11:20.240 make them feel inadequate, but because she could not help 153 00:11:20.279 --> 00:11:24.080 being exactly what she was. Ravenclaw would have made a 154 00:11:24.159 --> 00:11:26.759 kind of sense for her the life of the intellect, 155 00:11:27.200 --> 00:11:30.799 the pursuit of knowledge for its own sake, the company 156 00:11:30.840 --> 00:11:35.039 of others who valued wit and wisdom, and the sheer 157 00:11:35.120 --> 00:11:40.320 pleasure of understanding. It tells us that beneath the intellect, 158 00:11:40.799 --> 00:11:45.159 beneath the precision and the discipline, there was a courage 159 00:11:45.200 --> 00:11:49.720 that even she did not fully understand. It tells us 160 00:11:49.759 --> 00:11:54.519 that beneath the intellect, beneath the precision and the discipline, 161 00:11:55.240 --> 00:11:59.039 there was a courage that even she did not fully understand. 162 00:12:00.320 --> 00:12:04.960 A willingness to choose the harder path, a willingness to 163 00:12:05.000 --> 00:12:09.120 put herself in situations where she could be hurt, where 164 00:12:09.159 --> 00:12:14.639 she could fail, where she could be proven wrong. Gryffando 165 00:12:14.840 --> 00:12:18.799 was not the easy fit for her. Gryffando was the 166 00:12:18.919 --> 00:12:22.639 choice that made her stretch, and I think, if we 167 00:12:22.679 --> 00:12:26.879 are honest with ourselves, that is exact sac with Minerva 168 00:12:26.919 --> 00:12:31.639 would have wanted. She was not as we sometimes imagine, 169 00:12:32.320 --> 00:12:37.799 a stern child who grew into a stern adult. She 170 00:12:37.960 --> 00:12:42.159 was a child who was learning very carefully how to 171 00:12:42.240 --> 00:12:46.279 be stern with herself first and then with the world. 172 00:12:47.559 --> 00:12:53.879 The posture came later, the standards came later. In the beginning, 173 00:12:53.960 --> 00:12:57.480 I think there was just a girl who wanted very 174 00:12:57.519 --> 00:13:01.440 badly to be good enough, and who discovered that the 175 00:13:01.519 --> 00:13:05.279 world was not particularly interested in whether she was good 176 00:13:05.360 --> 00:13:10.720 enough for Section four war weariness, the woman who had 177 00:13:10.759 --> 00:13:15.480 time for romance. Her years at the Ministry were conspented 178 00:13:15.559 --> 00:13:19.000 by work, by the slow climb up the ranks of 179 00:13:19.039 --> 00:13:23.799 the Department of Magical Law Enforcement. And she was good 180 00:13:23.840 --> 00:13:28.600 at her job. She was respected, and she was, if 181 00:13:28.679 --> 00:13:32.679 she was honest with herself, quite lonely in a way 182 00:13:32.720 --> 00:13:37.799 that she had long since stopped examining. She was good 183 00:13:37.840 --> 00:13:42.759 at her job, she was respected, and she was, if 184 00:13:42.759 --> 00:13:46.440 she was honest with herself, crowd lonely in a way 185 00:13:46.519 --> 00:13:51.519 that she had long since stopped examining. Now, in the 186 00:13:51.559 --> 00:13:57.519 autumn of her engagement, the offer came again. Dembledore was 187 00:13:57.559 --> 00:14:04.279 looking for a new transfiguration proferre. He wanted her. Minerva 188 00:14:04.279 --> 00:14:07.039 was not so sure she had one to her, witting 189 00:14:07.200 --> 00:14:10.879 quietly in the garden of a small cottage in Devon. 190 00:14:12.360 --> 00:14:15.440 She had been proud of them, proud of the way 191 00:14:15.480 --> 00:14:20.399 they had chosen to fight, proud to call them friends. 192 00:14:21.039 --> 00:14:25.720 Students were punished for the small infractions. They were forced 193 00:14:25.919 --> 00:14:29.960 to use dark magic on each other. He wanted her 194 00:14:31.159 --> 00:14:36.799 Mineva was not so sure. She had potentially understand their 195 00:14:36.840 --> 00:14:40.840 place with a more estatished human Menave watched it happen 196 00:14:41.200 --> 00:14:44.679 day after day and every part of her tenure here, 197 00:14:44.679 --> 00:14:49.600 making sure that everyone knows it. Let us move forward 198 00:14:49.679 --> 00:14:53.120 now to her years at Harcourt's, because this is where 199 00:14:53.159 --> 00:14:58.000 she became who she became. She was, by all accounts, 200 00:14:58.159 --> 00:15:02.960 a model student, top grades, perfect marks, the kind of 201 00:15:03.000 --> 00:15:06.240 academic record that makes other students want to throw their 202 00:15:06.279 --> 00:15:10.879 books into the nearest lake. She was, by all accounts, 203 00:15:11.000 --> 00:15:15.720 a model student, top grades, perfect marks, the kind of 204 00:15:15.759 --> 00:15:18.960 academic record that makes other students want to throw their 205 00:15:19.000 --> 00:15:23.679 books into the nearest lake. She was, by all accounts, 206 00:15:23.840 --> 00:15:28.600 a model student, top grades, perfect marks, the kind of 207 00:15:28.600 --> 00:15:32.039 academic record that makes other students want to throw their 208 00:15:32.080 --> 00:15:36.440 books into the nearest lake. She was, by all accounts, 209 00:15:36.639 --> 00:15:41.799 a model student. Top grades to perfect marks, the kind 210 00:15:41.799 --> 00:15:45.080 of academic record that makes other students want to throw 211 00:15:45.159 --> 00:15:50.200 their books into the nearest lake. She was, by all accounts, 212 00:15:50.440 --> 00:15:56.039 a model student, top grades perfect marks, the kind of 213 00:15:56.080 --> 00:15:59.399 academic record that makes other students want to throw their 214 00:15:59.440 --> 00:16:04.360 books in to the nearest lake. She was, by all accounts, 215 00:16:04.679 --> 00:16:09.639 a model student, top grades perfect marks, the kind of 216 00:16:09.679 --> 00:16:13.000 academic record that makes other students want to throw their 217 00:16:13.039 --> 00:16:18.039 books to the nearest lake. She was, by all accounts, 218 00:16:18.320 --> 00:16:23.679 a model student, top grades perfect marks, the kind of 219 00:16:23.720 --> 00:16:27.120 academic record that makes other students want to throw their 220 00:16:27.159 --> 00:16:32.039 books into the nearest lake. She was, by all accounts, 221 00:16:32.279 --> 00:16:37.919 a model student, top grades perfect marks, the kind of 222 00:16:37.960 --> 00:16:41.320 academic record that makes other students want to throw their 223 00:16:41.360 --> 00:16:48.159 books into the nearest lake. She saw the warmth beneath 224 00:16:48.240 --> 00:16:55.799 the frost, She saw the fear beneath the confidence, and 225 00:16:55.879 --> 00:16:59.360 that defense are not the same as the thing they 226 00:16:59.399 --> 00:17:07.160 are defending. Their friendship lasted for decades, through school and beyond, 227 00:17:08.200 --> 00:17:10.720 and I think it is one of the most important 228 00:17:10.759 --> 00:17:17.480 relationships in Minerva's life, not the most dramatic, certainly not 229 00:17:17.599 --> 00:17:24.279 the most written about, but the most steady, the most reliable, 230 00:17:25.640 --> 00:17:28.319 the kind of friendship that does not need to prove 231 00:17:28.519 --> 00:17:34.839 anything to any one, least of all to itself. She 232 00:17:35.000 --> 00:17:38.920 was morrow heavily from that method. Later, though, she would 233 00:17:38.960 --> 00:17:43.200 strip away some of the theatricality and replace it with 234 00:17:43.279 --> 00:17:51.079 something more direct, more efficient, more hers. But there was 235 00:17:51.119 --> 00:17:54.039 another side to her hogaut years that we do not 236 00:17:54.160 --> 00:17:58.759 always talk about, and that is her relationship with quidditch. 237 00:18:01.279 --> 00:18:05.680 We learn in the later books that Minerva McGonagall was 238 00:18:05.720 --> 00:18:10.079 once a fierce quiddage player, a chaser, with a reputation 239 00:18:10.279 --> 00:18:14.039 for being ruthless on the pitch. But I think it matters. 240 00:18:14.839 --> 00:18:18.680 I think it matters a great deal because quidditch is 241 00:18:18.759 --> 00:18:22.279 not just a sport in the wizarding world. It is 242 00:18:22.319 --> 00:18:27.559 a demonstration of courage, of reflexes, of the willingness to 243 00:18:27.599 --> 00:18:30.200 put your body at risk in pursuit of a goal. 244 00:18:31.279 --> 00:18:35.920 It is, in other words, deeply griffinder, and the fact 245 00:18:35.960 --> 00:18:39.759 that Minerva played it and played it well tells her 246 00:18:39.839 --> 00:18:42.880 something about who she was when no one was watching. 247 00:18:43.720 --> 00:18:46.279 She was not just the bookish student who sat in 248 00:18:46.359 --> 00:18:49.599 the front row and took perfect notes she was some 249 00:18:49.680 --> 00:18:53.680 one who understood on a gut level what it meant 250 00:18:53.839 --> 00:18:58.440 to take a risk, what it meant to fly, what 251 00:18:58.599 --> 00:19:01.720 it meant to want something badly enough to let yourself. 252 00:19:01.759 --> 00:19:06.480 The process of becoming and an abigas is notoriously difficult 253 00:19:07.039 --> 00:19:11.880 and notoriously dangerous. You have to be able to look 254 00:19:11.920 --> 00:19:15.599 at your own magical core and bend it to your 255 00:19:15.680 --> 00:19:21.559 will in ways that field at times like violence. For 256 00:19:21.680 --> 00:19:28.759 section three, Courtship with Elphinstone break decision to become teacher. 257 00:19:29.880 --> 00:19:34.799 But something had been growing in her quietly for months, 258 00:19:34.839 --> 00:19:40.240 a restlessness, a sense that the ministry work, however competent 259 00:19:40.400 --> 00:19:43.519 she was at, it was not the work she was 260 00:19:43.599 --> 00:19:47.839 meant to do. She had been offered a teaching position 261 00:19:47.960 --> 00:19:52.880 at Hogwarts before, in her early twenties, and she had 262 00:19:52.880 --> 00:19:57.960 turned it down. The timing had not been right. She 263 00:19:58.039 --> 00:20:02.599 had wanted more experience, more certainty. Lily had been in 264 00:20:02.680 --> 00:20:07.400 grim Fronder a few years behind Minerva, and even then 265 00:20:07.519 --> 00:20:11.319 there had been, to put it charitably, an enormous prap 266 00:20:11.440 --> 00:20:15.079 during their school years. But he had grown into a 267 00:20:15.119 --> 00:20:19.039 good man, a brave man, a man who loved with 268 00:20:19.119 --> 00:20:23.559 his whole heart. She was not his godmother. She was 269 00:20:23.599 --> 00:20:27.799 not his family, but she was his professor, and that 270 00:20:27.920 --> 00:20:31.920 meant she would protect him with everything she had. She 271 00:20:31.960 --> 00:20:36.079 had lived through one war already, she had buried friends 272 00:20:36.119 --> 00:20:39.759 and colleagues and students. She had seen the worst that 273 00:20:39.839 --> 00:20:43.920 wizards could do to each other. But nothing had prepared 274 00:20:43.960 --> 00:20:48.119 her for the slow, grinding cruelty of the Carrow regime, 275 00:20:49.000 --> 00:20:54.880 for the way they systematically dismantled everything that made Hogwarts Hogwarts. 276 00:20:55.400 --> 00:20:58.960 She had never trusted him, she had never forgiven him 277 00:20:59.000 --> 00:21:01.960 for what he had done, for the cruelty. There is 278 00:21:02.000 --> 00:21:06.279 a particular kind of loneliness that comes from being able 279 00:21:06.319 --> 00:21:11.319 to transform yourself that no one else will ever see. 280 00:21:12.519 --> 00:21:15.880 That you carry a secret so deep that it has 281 00:21:15.960 --> 00:21:23.039 become indistinguishable from your own skin. She was seventeen years 282 00:21:23.039 --> 00:21:31.079 old when she completed the transformation. She was, by any measure, extraordinary, 283 00:21:32.400 --> 00:21:38.480 and she was underneath all of that extraordinary, And she 284 00:21:38.720 --> 00:21:44.720 was underneath all of that extraordinary, and she could have 285 00:21:44.839 --> 00:21:50.359 done anything. She could have gone into research, she could 286 00:21:50.359 --> 00:21:55.200 have joined the ministry, She could have pursued a dozen 287 00:21:55.359 --> 00:22:01.480 different paths that would have been easier and safer, and perhaps, 288 00:22:01.960 --> 00:22:09.279 in my respect, otherness estragingly so he could have done anything. 289 00:22:10.480 --> 00:22:15.839 She could have underneath the quest. She chose to teach. 290 00:22:17.559 --> 00:22:22.960 She chose to stay at Hogwarts with top honors, and 291 00:22:23.039 --> 00:22:27.640 she could have done anything. She could have gone into research, 292 00:22:29.000 --> 00:22:34.039 she could have joined the ministry. She could have pursued 293 00:22:34.519 --> 00:22:38.799 at a dozen different paths that would have been easier 294 00:22:39.680 --> 00:22:46.200 and safer, and perhaps even more prestigious than the one 295 00:22:46.400 --> 00:22:52.680 she chose. But she chose to teach. She chose to 296 00:22:52.759 --> 00:22:57.160 stay at Hogwarts, in the very building where she had 297 00:22:57.200 --> 00:23:04.599 spent seven years learning who she was then November. It 298 00:23:04.720 --> 00:23:07.319 is the kind of love that looks at a student 299 00:23:07.440 --> 00:23:10.440 who is struggling and does not give up on them, 300 00:23:10.960 --> 00:23:16.240 even when the student has given up on themselves. Minerva 301 00:23:16.359 --> 00:23:21.000 McGonagall became a teacher because she believed that what happened 302 00:23:21.039 --> 00:23:25.440 in that castle mattered, that the young people who walked 303 00:23:25.480 --> 00:23:29.759 through its doors were worth investing in, that the world 304 00:23:29.880 --> 00:23:34.400 could be made better, one student at a time if 305 00:23:34.440 --> 00:23:37.880 you were willing to put in the work. And she 306 00:23:38.119 --> 00:23:43.440 chose transfiguration because it was the subject she understood best, 307 00:23:44.440 --> 00:23:49.160 and because it demanded the thing she valued most, which 308 00:23:49.240 --> 00:23:53.759 is precision, the ability to look at something and see 309 00:23:53.799 --> 00:23:57.519 what it could become. The ability to take a piece 310 00:23:57.559 --> 00:24:02.720 of matter and through skill and will and concentration, make 311 00:24:02.799 --> 00:24:08.640 it into something else. That is what transfiguration is at 312 00:24:08.680 --> 00:24:13.559 its core. It is the art of seeing potential and 313 00:24:13.759 --> 00:24:18.039 making it real. And if that sounds like a metaphor 314 00:24:18.079 --> 00:24:23.119 for teaching, well I think it is. She began teaching 315 00:24:23.160 --> 00:24:27.319 at Hogwarts in the early nineteen sixties, and she was, 316 00:24:27.599 --> 00:24:34.839 by all accounts exactly what we would expect. Stern demanding. 317 00:24:36.079 --> 00:24:40.039 If that sounds like a metaphor for teaching, well, I 318 00:24:40.079 --> 00:24:44.480 think it is. She began teaching at Hogwarts in the 319 00:24:44.519 --> 00:24:50.200 early nineteen sixties, and she was, by all accounts exactly 320 00:24:50.240 --> 00:24:53.559 what we would expect. But this was also the period 321 00:24:53.640 --> 00:24:57.200 in which her personal life took a turn that would 322 00:24:57.240 --> 00:25:01.440 shape a rear the professor and forget that she was 323 00:25:01.519 --> 00:25:06.039 also a woman who wanted very badly to be loved. 324 00:25:07.680 --> 00:25:12.599 She met a wizard named Elphinstone Urkertat, and she fell 325 00:25:12.640 --> 00:25:16.279 in love with him. And he was, by all accounts, 326 00:25:16.599 --> 00:25:21.720 a good man, a kind man, a man who loved 327 00:25:21.720 --> 00:25:25.559 her and who was willing to marry her, and who 328 00:25:25.599 --> 00:25:29.079 made her feel, for a brief time as though the 329 00:25:29.119 --> 00:25:34.720 loneliness that had been her constant companion might quietly be lifting. 330 00:25:36.519 --> 00:25:41.359 They became engagement in the early nineteen seventies, and she 331 00:25:41.440 --> 00:25:45.000 read her sims, who had a mugger father and a 332 00:25:45.039 --> 00:25:48.720 witch mother and a family history that could not be 333 00:25:48.799 --> 00:25:53.640 reduced to a simple label. And Elphinstone, who was a 334 00:25:53.680 --> 00:25:58.160 good man, accepted it, though we are told that he 335 00:25:58.279 --> 00:26:02.400 never married. We could say that she was being practical. 336 00:26:03.559 --> 00:26:07.720 We could say that she was being cowardly. We could 337 00:26:07.720 --> 00:26:11.920 say that she was being cowardly. We could say that 338 00:26:12.039 --> 00:26:16.519 she was prioritizing the war over her own happiness, and 339 00:26:16.599 --> 00:26:21.640 that would be true, but it would also be incomplete. 340 00:26:22.119 --> 00:26:25.720 I think the truth is simpler and more painful than 341 00:26:25.799 --> 00:26:31.359 any of those explanations. I think she was afraid not 342 00:26:31.480 --> 00:26:34.799 of the death eaters, not of the war, not of 343 00:26:34.839 --> 00:26:40.359 the danger. She was afraid of being a burden. She 344 00:26:40.519 --> 00:26:44.319 was afraid that had married witch with a husband who 345 00:26:44.319 --> 00:26:47.880 could not defend himself against the kinds of magic that 346 00:26:47.960 --> 00:26:51.240 had been her home since she was eleven years old. 347 00:26:52.000 --> 00:26:58.680 She simply continued, day after day, year after year, being 348 00:26:58.799 --> 00:27:03.079 exactly who she was, which was a woman who had 349 00:27:03.160 --> 00:27:09.279 chosen duty of a Cawkwortz. His name was Robert, and 350 00:27:09.400 --> 00:27:16.839 he was everything. She was not, unstudied, unimpressive, the kind 351 00:27:16.880 --> 00:27:20.559 of man who might easily be overlooked in a room 352 00:27:20.759 --> 00:27:26.279 full of witches and wizards. And yet there was I think, 353 00:27:27.319 --> 00:27:32.759 a quiet pride in her relationship with him, not the 354 00:27:32.880 --> 00:27:38.200 kind of pride that announces itself, the kind that simply is. 355 00:27:39.720 --> 00:27:44.400 She knew what he was worth. She knew that the 356 00:27:44.480 --> 00:27:50.079 work he did mattered, even if no one else seemed 357 00:27:50.079 --> 00:27:56.319 to notice. When he died, whither told that she was 358 00:27:56.400 --> 00:28:01.519 grief stricken, though she showed it to no one, said, 359 00:28:01.599 --> 00:28:05.759 perhaps the portraits on the wall, who were always listening. 360 00:28:07.559 --> 00:28:10.960 This is the period that I find most moving. Let 361 00:28:11.039 --> 00:28:14.720 us move forward now to the First War itself, because 362 00:28:14.759 --> 00:28:16.880 this is a version of the truth that has been 363 00:28:16.920 --> 00:28:22.000 polished smooth by retelling. Vollemort rose to power in the 364 00:28:22.039 --> 00:28:27.480 early nineteen seventies, and Hogwarts was not immune. The castle, 365 00:28:27.559 --> 00:28:31.000 which had always been a sanctuary, became a battle ground 366 00:28:31.039 --> 00:28:34.680 in ways that were not always visible. There were students 367 00:28:34.720 --> 00:28:38.200 in the school whose families were death eaters. There were 368 00:28:38.200 --> 00:28:41.640 students who were half blood or muggle born, and who 369 00:28:41.720 --> 00:28:44.519 lived in fear of what might happen to them if 370 00:28:44.559 --> 00:28:48.960 the wrong person found out. And menever a gonegul taught 371 00:28:49.000 --> 00:28:52.240 them all. She taught the children of the people who 372 00:28:52.319 --> 00:28:56.359 were murdering her friends. She taught the children who would 373 00:28:56.759 --> 00:29:01.160 in a few years pick up wands and cast curses 374 00:29:01.680 --> 00:29:05.000 and do things that she could not forgive, even as 375 00:29:05.000 --> 00:29:07.920 she sat across from them at the grading table and 376 00:29:08.000 --> 00:29:11.240 marked their gal scores with the same pench she taught 377 00:29:11.279 --> 00:29:14.839 everyone who sat in her class room, and she held 378 00:29:14.880 --> 00:29:20.720 them to the same standards. That is not neutrality, that 379 00:29:21.000 --> 00:29:25.640 is something else, That is a kind of courage that 380 00:29:25.759 --> 00:29:30.839 does not get enough credit. And then came the night 381 00:29:31.000 --> 00:29:35.880 that changed everything, the night that the Potters were killed. 382 00:29:37.400 --> 00:29:40.839 We are not told in the books where Minerva was 383 00:29:41.000 --> 00:29:44.559 when she heard the news. We are not told in 384 00:29:44.640 --> 00:29:49.000 the books where Minerva was when she heard the news. 385 00:29:50.119 --> 00:29:53.759 We are not told that the next morning she was 386 00:29:53.799 --> 00:29:57.759 at the borough, and that she was holding baby Harry, 387 00:29:59.039 --> 00:30:02.200 and that she looked at her him and knew exactly 388 00:30:02.279 --> 00:30:06.160 what had been asked of him, what had been asked 389 00:30:06.160 --> 00:30:10.319 of all of them, the burden that had been placed 390 00:30:10.359 --> 00:30:15.119 on his small shoulders before he had even learned to walk, 391 00:30:16.680 --> 00:30:20.319 and who would need someone to stand between him and 392 00:30:20.559 --> 00:30:25.400 the world that was going to use him up. She 393 00:30:25.519 --> 00:30:30.039 did not spoil him. She did not make excuses for him. 394 00:30:30.920 --> 00:30:34.640 She had him to the same standards she had any 395 00:30:34.640 --> 00:30:40.000 one else. She gave him the dignity of being treated 396 00:30:40.200 --> 00:30:45.400 like any one else, and that his future would require 397 00:30:45.480 --> 00:30:50.160 him to be brave, and that she would not lower 398 00:30:50.200 --> 00:30:57.519 the bars simply because the bars was high. The decade 399 00:30:57.599 --> 00:31:03.720 that followed was a long one, a slow war, a 400 00:31:03.839 --> 00:31:09.119 war of attrition fought not on battlefields, but in the 401 00:31:09.160 --> 00:31:14.680