Minerva Diana McGonagall

[Minerva McGonagall]

McGONAGALL, MINERVA DIANA
Oh history is a friend of mine, she comes over to my place
And we have a good time, but the memories she sometimes brings with her get out of line, they're out of line

Your name/alias: Becks
Age: -mumbles number-
Experience roleplaying: Lots
Other characters: Hermione Granger, Fleur Delacour
How did you find us: Tonks

Character Name: Minerva Diana McGonagall
Nickname(s): Minnie (although no one has called her that for many years)
Sex: Female
Age: 68
Birthdate: October 4, 1925
House: Gryffindor
Blood Type: Half-Blood
Occupation: Deputy Headmistress, Transfiguration professor and Head of Gryffindor House at Hogwarts School for Witchcraft and Wizardry

Appearance: In her youth, Minerva McGonagall had long, wavy black hair and sharp blue eyes. She was recognized by many to be quite beautiful, and is still considered as much now at the age of 69, although her features have ripened with age and her hair has lined with gray. She is a tall, thin woman who many joke to often appear as if she's sucking on a lemon, but she is again regarded as a very handsome woman, despite what is written about her on the stalls of the boys' bathroom. If Sirius Black weren't already in prison, she'd have put him there.

Play-By: Maggie Smith

Likes: Tartan, cats, Earl Grey, Quidditch, scones, Albus Dumbledore, cooking sherry, dancing, ginger biscuits, determination
Dislikes: Pink, bullying, showing off, idiocy, Peeves, Sybil Trelawney,
Strengths: Loyalty, transfiguration, animagic, dueling, nonverbal magic, discipline, respect, diplomacy
Weaknesses: Fondness for her students, stubbornness, her inability to help her son recover from the losses he suffered during the First Wizarding war
Pet Peeves: Passive-aggressive behavior, brown nosing, elaborate excuses,
Mirror of Erised: Her son Malcolm, happy and stable with a family of his own.
Fears: The reign of bigotry and cruelty, the death of Albus Dumbledore
Boggart: Lord Voldemort
Dementor: Revisiting the memories of her loved ones' deaths, including those of her father, husband, and James and Lily Potter
Patronus: Cat - The day her son was born.
Amortentia: Earl Grey tea, pipe tobacco, mint-scented shaving gel

Relationship status: Widowed

Turn ons: Smoking pipes, closely cropped beards, bravery, intelligence
Turn offs: Cocky attitudes, superiority complexes, snorting, cruelty to animals

Personality: Initially, Minerva McGonagall comes across as stern, cold and unforgiving. Despite her strict demeanor as a teacher, however, her students and colleagues soon find that she is a loyal friend, a passionate supporter of Quidditch, and a caring mentor to not only Gryffindors, but all Hogwarts students. It has taken her decades to learn to hold her tongue in certain situations, but when her temper flares she finds herself unable to keep herself from showing it, her usually civil demeanor vanishing into stiff bitterness and resentment.

Mother: Maeve McGonagall, deceased, Apothecary, blood purity.
Father: Rodachan McGonagall, deceased, shopkeeper, half-blood.
Siblings: Ramona McGonagall, deceased, Ministry receptionist, younger sister, half-blood.
Other important figures:
Malcolm Greer McGonagall, 39, currently unemployed, son, half-blood.
Phillip Greer, deceased, musician/barkeep, husband, Muggle-born.
Pets: Copernicus, barn owl

Birth place: Aberdeen, Scotland

Overall history: Minerva McGonagall was born in Aberdeen, Scotland in 1925 to Maeve and Rodachan McGonagall. She grew up in a rather rural area outside of the Scottish city, spending most of her childhood playing outdoors and listening to music on her mother's old Victrola. When she was eleven she received her Hogwarts letter and the September of the next year she was sorted into Gryffindor house. Minerva got into her share of trouble at Hogwarts during her first two years, which would shock many of her students, but by her third year she managed to see the good in rules and even was named prefect her fifth year. What will not come as a shock to her students was that she was extremely talented at both Transfiguration and Charms, earning 'Outstanding' N.E.W.T.s for each and she graduated top of her class in 1945. During her time at Hogwarts, Minerva played for the Gryffindor Quidditch team as a Chaser and was eventually made team captain her sixth year, which was her proudest accomplishment from her schooldays, even more so than her two 'Outstanding' N.E.W.T.s.

After graduation, Minerva submitted several articles to Transfiguration Today that made her name known in academic circles, and it made her Transfiguration teacher, Professor Dumbledore, extremely proud. She went to work for the Ministry's Department of Magical Games and Sports, working for the Quidditch division overseeing league renewals and finding that bureaucracy was not as much fun as the game of Quidditch. Minerva's father died at the age of 45 of heart failure two years after she graduated, which was when she left her post at the Ministry to help her mother cope. She worked in her mother's apothecary shop for five years until she was scooped back up by the ministry to work for the Accidental Magic Reversal squad as their transfiguration specialist. They were impressed by her articles in Transfiguration Today, many of which she had written while working for her mother, and also by the fact that she registered as an animagus by the age of nineteen. It was with the Ministry that Minerva honed her dueling and nonverbal magic skills, and, during a rather interesting case, met her future husband.

Philip Greer had gotten into a bar fight in a Muggle pub and had drawn his wand to transfigure the heads of a few of his opponents into those of an oversized chicken. Minerva remembers being equally amused and terrified by the sight of these men who pecked about aimlessly. Philip tried to charm her right away, not with his wand but with flirting and rather inappropriate comments that earned a slap to his face and a grin from the young witch. He was eventually pardoned for his crime and later sought out the young witch who'd slapped him and offered to buy her dinner. After several refusals he managed to win a yes and their relationship spiraled into a mad love affair, culminating in their marriage in 1952. Three years later Minerva gave birth to a son who would never know his father, for two weeks after the birth of Malcolm Greer, Philip was murdered by dark wizards claiming to be following the ways of Grindelwald, who had been defeated by Albus Dumbledore in a duel ten years prior. Minerva was left to raise her son on her own, but received much help from her mother, which was much needed as Albus Dumbledore offered her his former post at Hogwarts as he was then accepting the position of Headmaster.

Minerva came to Hogwarts with much sorrow, but found joy in returning to her school to teach what was her favorite subject and specialization. She quickly earned a reputation for being strict, dealing with no nonsense but proved that she had a warm affection for those in Gryffindor house. The year before Malcolm started his first year at Hogwarts, Professor McGonagall was named Head of Gryffindor house. Malcolm was sorted into that house and was a right terror from day one. He was constantly breaking the rules, or finding clever ways to bend them, and for the first year bragged often that he could do whatever he wanted because his mum was head of Gryffindor. Minerva was astonished with his behavior which she quickly put an end to by threatening to snap his wand in two and send him back to Aberdeen to live with his grandmother. It was a threat he took to heart, because Maeve McGonagall was stricter than her daughter, and although he loved his grandmother dearly, Malcolm did not wish to leave Hogwarts for Aberdeen.

Her son graduated from Hogwarts in 1973, but her troubles did not follow him. Minerva was then dealing with two troublemakers in her house named James Potter and Sirius Black, who, while clever and talented themselves, did not earn extra credit for transfiguring Mr. Filch's cat into a rabid dog. She grew fond of those boys, as well as Remus Lupin, whose secret she did not learn until he was welcomed into the Order of the Phoenix. Minerva was by this time named Deputy Headmistress and was well known as Dumbledore's right hand man, and with him she sought to eradicate these dark wizards come to be known as Death Eaters. Their leader, now named Lord Voldemort, was a former classmate of Minerva's and she was not shocked to learn that he had fallen prey to the dark arts. She despised his cause not only because it had contributed to the death of her husband, a Muggle-born wizard, but also because it threatened the lives of her students and the world she had been raised in.

Minerva was deeply saddened to learn of James and Lily Potter's deaths, and upon learning that Dumbledore planned to send the their son Harry to live with Lily's sister, watched the family all day in her cat form to see if they were fit to care for the boy. She still thought it was a mistake to leave him with those people, having found them nothing more than selfish, nasty Muggles, her dislike of them growing when she met Harry in 1991 his first year at Hogwarts to find him very poorly cared for and completely ignorant of the sacrifice his parents made for him, or for why he had that oddly-shaped scar on his forehead. She felt an immediate fondness for the boy, and after she discovered his talent for Quidditch, she bought him a Nimbus 2000, the latest model broom, so that he wouldn't have to fly on an old school broom and would have a better chance at catching the snitch. Her fondness for him also extended to his two best friends, Ron Weasley and Hermione Granger, who were often in the thick of whatever trouble had arisen at Hogwarts during the past three years. Professor McGonagall kept a stern but caring eye on those three whenever she wasn't distracted by the identical tempests that were Fred and George Weasley, and she could only hope that Harry lived a full and meaningful life after his parents sacrificed themselves for him.

Roleplay sample: See Hermione Granger

Approved!