I love Minerva McGonagall. She is literally one of the coolest characters from Harry Potter.
She’s like this perfect blend of a fearless yet compassionate woman, someone you definitely
don’t take advantage of. She’s probably up there with Dumbledore in terms of the most
recognised characters from the series. In the wizarding world, she’s highly respected
by her peers and comes with a wealth of experience and power and honestly, the Gryffindors are
so lucky to have her. She even duelled voldemort to a stalemate which shows just how in tune
with magic she was. Minerva adored magic and everything it represented. She actually gave
up a lot for magic, even the only person she ever truly loved. Let’s take
a look why.
Professor McGonagall has never really balanced love and magic all the well. She’s always
believed that one distracted her from the other and has been on the end of great disappointment
when it comes to both love and magic, I’m talking really bad experiences. Now the thing
is, many of us know Mcgonagals story, we know what she’s achieved and how Important and
influential she was to Harry as he grew into a man. She always put the best interests of
any situation before her own but that doesn’t mean her feelings and past experiences don’t
matter because trust me, they do. This woman sacrificed the life of her life in order to
pursue a career in the magical sector and we’re going to look at this in detail, everything
that happened and why it happened. Minerva was born in Caithness in the Scottish highlands.
Her town was muggle based so magic didn’t really have much of an impact there. Her mother,
isobel, was the only witch in the village. Isobel never told minerva’s father Robert
about her being a witch out of fear he’d end the relationship and not marry her. After
the wedding, Isobel locked her wand away, never practiced magic again, which meant her
repressed magic turned her into an obscurus causing her to destroy the entirety of the
Scottish highlands. Thats not really what happened, she just stopped using magic. It
made isobel so unhappy but it was something she wanted to do for the sake if her marriage.
As Minerva was growing up, she began to show signs of magic, little things here and there
that her mother knew was only going to become more and more obvious. When she came of age
to be eligible to join hogwarts, Isobel finally confessed everything to husband, the years
of holding in such a lie finally came to an end, both she and their daughter were witches,
magic born. Despite the initial shock, Robert came to terms with his daughters situation
and was supportive of her new magical journey.
However he never looked at her isobel with the same level of trust again, something that
deeply saddened minerva and actually had a lasting effect on her, well the whole situation
did. Anyway Minerva went off to hogwarts and excelled immediately. She became top of her
class in transfiguration, something she loved and also was an incredibly talented quidditch
player. She even became a fully registered animagus after graduating. Minerva always
returned home for the holidays and the summer breaks. After completing her 7th and final
year at hogwarts, she returned to Caithness for what she thought would be her last summer
there. During this time she met a local muggle boy named Dougal McGregor and fell head over
heels in love with him. Dougal was the son of a local farmer and was well liked in the
town. He was handsome, kind and quite funny. The 2 spent every single day together. The
two shared a sense of humour, argued fiercely, and felt like they knew the depths of each
others souls. Minerva’s love for McGregor was so strong that she believed it the first
and only time in her life that she might have lost her head. Eventually, McGregor proposed
to Minerva on a ploughed field and she happily accepted his offer. However, after giving
the engagement a lot of thought, Minerva realised that although her heart would be full, her
life would not be should she stay in the highlands. She was unable to tell her parents of her
engagement. She realised that wedding a Muggle who didn't know that she was a witch would
mean Minerva would follow her mother's footsteps and live unhappily with her wand locked away,
shredding all of her ambitions. Even if she told him about being a witch, she risked exposing
the international Statute Of Secret should Dougal have reacted negatively to her news,
which would also mean she’d never get a job in the ministry.
Early next morning, Minerva went to tell McGregor she had changed her mind and could not marry
him. What frustrated both parties is that she could give him a good enough reason, a
deserved explanation for her change of heart, leaving McGregor devastated. She left for
London three days later and never spoke to her once fiancé again. These months were
to prove some of the most difficult of Minerva’s life. After the heartbreak of Dougal, Minerva
would not allow any man to come between her and the career goals she set for herself.
She went from strength to strength in terms of magical skill, knowledge and overall experience.
Despite all of her success, she still lived with the regret of her decision to walk away
from true love. She checked in on Dougal from time to time, unnoticed ofcorse and watched
as his life changed over the years. It was particularly difficult for her to see him
moved on and happily married with children although at the same time, knowing he found
happiness after the hurt she caused him, did bring her some happiness. When the First Wizarding
War broke out, it was a brutal affair. Nobody was safe. Sadly, Dougal, his wife and their
children were on the end of an aggressive death eater attack on muggles. The whole family
was killed in their home for simple being muggle. When news of this reached Minerva,
she was beyond devastated, the only man she’d eve loved was dead as a result of the dark
lord and his campaign. She keeps a photo of Dougal in her office and has only ever described
him as a man she once knew, unwilling to talk about the pain of his loss. It would be close
to 40 years before she’d allow herself love again when she finally married Elphinstone
Urquart after many years or friendship. I say finally because she refused his proposal
several times before saying yes.
Although it was not the passionate love she once felt before, Elphinstone was a good,
kind hearted man, who treated Minerva with the utmost respect. The 2 settled in a small
cottage in hogsmeade, close enough for her to get to work with relative ease. Prof mcgonagall’s
happiness would be short-lived however when just three years into their marriage, Elphinstone
died from an accidental venomous tentacula bite. Unable to bare the cottage alone, she
moved back to her old quarters in Hogwarts Castle. Minerva McGonagall struggled to trust
the path of love because it was so unpredictable. A successful career could be achieved through
hard work and staying on the correct path, there was no unpredictability that she couldn’t
overcome. She looked at life as being more than just finding love, love was just a part
of the puzzle, there was so many more important aspects to life, which is why she chose to
walk away from Dougal all those years ago. Even when she did accept it, she was on the
end of hurt once again with her husband dying. I think that reconfirmed that she made the
right choice in the beginning. Thats’s all for today everyone, thank you so much for
watching, its great to be doing potter videos once again