The Staff Room

[McGonagallsGirl]

Secret Santa gift for PiEr ;D Happy Holidays.

If those walls had ears...

~*~

First Year:

Madame Hooch: I thought he’d be taller.

Madame Pomfrey: Xiomara!

Madame Hooch: I did! He’s the Boy-Who-Lived, Savior of our World, I thought he’d be taller.

Professor McGonagall: He’s the eleven year old Boy-Who-Lived, Miracle of our World, and he’s on the young side of eleven at that. He’ll be taller than you by his fourth year, mark my words Xiomara Hooch.

Madame Hooch: Maybe. I still half expected him to be ten feet tall. And the Longbottem boy! Is he not a bit…

Professor McGonagall: He’s no more or less anything than any other first year.

Madame Hooch: Sure, but with his parents, I dunno, I sort of expected—

Professor McGonagall: Well, he wasn’t exactly raised by his parents, was he?

Madame Hooch: …Right you are.

Madame Pomfrey: Weasley though, isn’t he exactly what you expected?

Professor McGonagall: To be honest, I didn’t know what to expect. After Percy Weasley, I thought I knew what I was in for with the Weasley Twins. None of us could possibly have anticipated those two, however.

Madame Hooch: Not as natural with the broom as his elder brothers. Still, he had steady control. I wouldn’t be at all surprised if he makes the team at some point.

Professor McGonagall: Weasley is a very nervous sort. He doesn’t like standing up in front of the class. He would have to conquer his anxiety before he could render much use on the Quidditch pitch.

Madame Hooch: Oh, I don’t know, Minerva. Flying is usually an escape from those sorts of pressures.

Professor McGonagall: Not flying in front of the entire school, Xiomara.

Madame Pomfrey: But then there is the Malfoy boy…

Madame Hooch: Doomed. Utterly doomed. I tell you, it’s a good thing You-Know-Who is gone, or I wouldn’t be at all surprised—

Professor McGonagall: Mara, he’s an eleven year old boy! He could become any number of things, but it’s rather presumptuous already to be carving the Dark Mark on his arm. Now, if you two are going to continue pestering me indefinitely, then I will just have to take these essays up to my rooms to mark. Good Evening.

Madame Pomfrey: …Good Evening, Minerva.

Madame Hooch: …Poppy, you know I didn’t mean—

Madame Pomfrey: I know.

Madame Hooch: I certainly did upset her, though, didn’t I?

Madame Pomfrey: No more than ever. Probably less than usual.

[harmonydumbledore]

That's certainly interesting.

[McGonagallsGirl]

Second Year:


Professor Snape: I don’t have any down to stay for the holidays in my house.

Professor McGonagall: Really?

Professor Snape: This surprises you? …Ah, because the Heir of Slytherin has returned you assumed Slytherins would feel safe?

Professor McGonagall: Well, Severus, I should feel quite a bit safer if it were the Heir of Gryffindor letting loose—

Professor Snape: A monster who causes his victims to feel suddenly inspired with bravery and chivalrous good will?

Professor McGonagall: Yes, as a matter of fact. I’d find that relieving.

Professor Snape: I’d find that sickening. …Minerva, you weren’t here last time, were you?

Professor McGonagall: I was in my Seventh Year. The Chamber was opened… oh, I’d say right at the time I was studying for my NEWTS.

Professor Snape: How inconvenient.

Professor McGonagall: Entirely inconvenient. Why do you ask?

Professor Snape: It’s… well, it’s difficult for me to imagine you in school with Tom Riddle.

Professor McGonagall: I suppose that’s because, as I was your teacher, it’s difficult to imagine me in school at all.

Professor Snape: What was he like? Tom Riddle?

Professor McGonagall: …Severus, plenty of people have spoken to the issue of what Tom was like in school.

Professor Snape: But how was he to you? Gryffindor, Head Girl, Animagus training… probably the only student in the school who was utterly beyond his thrall.

Professor McGonagall: He was horrible. The teachers never knew, but he and his followers were the most sickening band of lawless ruffians ever to walk these halls. None of the rules applied to Tom Riddle, and I do not just mean the school rules. I mean laws. Of magic and of nature and of human decency.

Professor Snape: …And were you afraid of him?

Professor McGonagall: I did not fear him, but I dreaded him. I dreaded every encounter I had with him. Every chance meeting in the corridors, any time he would approach me in the library, at meal times … Severus, why are you asking me this?

Professor Snape: I simply find it interesting… you knew him before. I wonder if he fancied you.

Professor McGonagall: Tom Riddle? Well, he asked me to be his Evil Queen no less than seven times, so whatever that means.

Professor Snape: Why? I thought he was incapable of loving.

Professor McGonagall: Does an ‘Evil Queen’ sound like the kind of position for which love is a prerequisite? No, I suspect his motives lay in keeping me from Albus Dumbledore.

Professor Snape: The two of you together have made things rather a bit more difficult for him than they might have been.

Professor McGonagall: I’ll be taking that as a compliment. Oh, two o’clock already. Time for our next classes, Severus.

Professor Snape: I can hardly contain my joy. Best not leave together, we shouldn’t appear so amicable this close to the second Gryffindor/Slytherin Quidditch match.

Professor McGonagall: Doubtlessly we’d have a mutiny on our hands.

[Rosemary Dumbledore McGonagall]

I agree harmonydumbledore! Very interesting, I'm hooked!

[PiER]

Thank you ever so much! It's intriguing and I look forward to seeing where you take this. The style is unique and the dialogue crisp, fresh, if that makes any sense at all?

And I wish you all a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

PiER

[McGonagallsGirl]

Sorry for the delay! I'm a bit under the weather, and my medicine is wreaking havoc with my relationship to the English Language. Let's just say the words have all gone wonky and leave it at that.

Happy Reading,

--MG

~*~

Third Year:

Professor Lupin: Professor McGonagall, I was hoping to find you here.

Professor McGonagall: I’m just on my way to the Headmaster’s office.

Professor Lupin: Oh. I suppose it can wait then.

Professor McGonagall: ... Can you make it quick?

Professor Lupin: Yes! Thank you. I was wondering about the students. They all seem so distracted lately--

Professor McGonagall: The dementors, no doubt, are wearing them down considerably.

Professor Lupin: Right. Well, Harry came to me--

Professor McGonagall: Potter?

Professor Lupin: Yes, Harry Potter, who else? ... Professor. ... er, at any rate, he was asking about a way to counteract the effects of the dementors.

Professor McGonagall: A patronus.

Professor Lupin: I agreed to begin instructing him in how to cast the patronus charm. And I was wondering if you think... well, do you think it might be useful to the other students? If I started teaching all of them?

Professor McGonagall: ...The patronus charm is a very difficult piece of magic, Remus... perhaps your NEWT level students would benefit with some basic instruction... but I wouldn’t want to risk the strain on the rest of the students’ magic.

Professor Lupin: What... You mean it could be harmful?

Professor McGonagall: Well, all of the students’ individual magic is under added strain because of the presence of the dementors. Add to that the rigor of the course work, and I myself do not know how our OWL level students are going to survive the year.

Professor Lupin: I see.

Professor McGonagall: It’s only my opinion, but I would hold off until the capture of Sirius Black and the removal of the dementors.

Professor Lupin: ...Yes, of course. The capture of Sirius Black...

Professor McGonagall: ...And Black will be captured, Mr. Lupin.

Professor Lupin: Good.

Professor McGonagall: This isn’t like one of his escapades from his youth, he has more than me to deal with when he finally gets caught this time.

Professor Lupin: I am fully aware of that.

Professor McGonagall: I can’t protect, shield, or save him this time.

Professor Lupin: I should suspect not, nor would I want you to.

Professor McGonagall: But when he finally is captured... which he most certainly will be--

Professor Lupin: Professor, please.

Professor McGonagall: Yes, well then the dementors will leave the grounds. That heavy burden lingering in the air for all of Hogwarts to bear will be lifted. You will be amazed, I promise you... you’ll have forgotten how brightly and warmly the sun can shine. What a relief it will be, to finally be reminded.

Professor Lupin: Like the transfiguration of Winter to Spring?

Professor McGonagall: Why, yes, Mr. Lupin. I’m quite pleased you remembered. Like the transfiguration of Winter to Spring.

[Rosemary Dumbledore McGonagall]

Ok.............. I didn't understand that one but very god all the same!

[McGonagallsGirl]

Jan 3, 2010 16:27:42 GMT -5 Rosemary Dumbledore McGonagall said:

Ok.............. I didn't understand that one but very god all the same!

Oh, Good! That's useful information. What didn't you understand specifically? Or was the whole thing just sort of a blur?

--MG

[Sparrabether]

Ooh, very good! I like the script-form style and the interactions between Minerva and her colleagues.

[Rosemary Dumbledore McGonagall]

Jan 4, 2010 1:22:33 GMT -5 McGonagallsGirl said:

Jan 3, 2010 16:27:42 GMT -5 Rosemary Dumbledore McGonagall said:

Ok.............. I didn't understand that one but very god all the same!

Oh, Good! That's useful information. What didn't you understand specifically? Or was the whole thing just sort of a blur?

--MG

I didn't understand the conversation the first bit about the patronus classes yes yes but after that you lost me!