Latest / Revelio: A Wizarding World Podcast / Episode 53: The OG McG

Transcript

Episode 53: The OG McG · Revelio: A Wizarding World Podcast

• 0:02
  Speaker 1: Hello and welcome to episode 53 of Revelio for September 17th, 2026.
• 0:09
  Speaker 2: I'm Aimee.
• 0:31
  Speaker 3: And I'm Nicole.
• 0:33
  Speaker 4: In this episode, we're going to go back and do
• 0:36
  Speaker 4: another character deep dive because it's been a little bit.
• 0:39
  Speaker 4: So this episode, we are going to do a discussion
• 0:42
  Speaker 4: about Minerva McGonagall.
• 0:45
  Speaker 3: But first....
• 0:47
  Speaker 2: You're listening to WWN, the Wizarding Wireless Network. Now for
• 0:56
  Speaker 2: the latest headlines.
• 0:59
  Speaker 3: So a little bit of news.
• 1:01
  Speaker 4: This week, obviously, I thought it would be a slow
• 1:03
  Speaker 4: news cycle after Back to Hogwarts. But the first thing is,
• 1:08
  Speaker 4: as we predicted, that right after our last recording, they
• 1:12
  Speaker 4: would announce the three lands coming to Warner Brothers World
• 1:15
  Speaker 4: Abu Dhabi, and they.
• 1:16
  Speaker 3: Did announce it.
• 1:18
  Speaker 4: And so it will be Diagon Alley, Hogwarts, and the
• 1:22
  Speaker 4: Forbidden Forest, which is really cool. Ooh.
• 1:26
  Speaker 3: I feel like I think we, I like assumed.
• 1:28
  Speaker 4: We'd probably get Diagon Alley and Hogwarts. And I was
• 1:32
  Speaker 4: like really curious what that third one would be. So yeah,
• 1:35
  Speaker 4: Forbidden Forest is really cool. I would love for them
• 1:37
  Speaker 4: to bring that to Universal Studios.
• 1:39
  Speaker 2: That'd be so cool. Like if they themed the area
• 1:43
  Speaker 2: around Hagrid's, they should make that like Forbidden Forest. Like,
• 1:49
  Speaker 2: I don't know how they would position that, but like
• 1:51
  Speaker 2: maybe like behind the ride. That'd be really cool.
• 1:56
  Speaker 4: Like if there's a way, I don't know what's like
• 1:58
  Speaker 4: back there already, but if there's a way for them
• 2:00
  Speaker 4: to do like a pathway or something back in.
• 2:03
  Speaker 3: And that would work really well with like.
• 2:05
  Speaker 4: Trees and like into the forest and they should do
• 2:09
  Speaker 4: a really cool ride. But anyways, Abu Dhabi is getting
• 2:13
  Speaker 4: the Forbidden Forest. So maybe this will be a good
• 2:16
  Speaker 4: like blueprint for them to be like, oh, maybe.
• 2:18
  Speaker 3: We should do this.
• 2:20
  Speaker 4: And apparently all the rides that are built for these
• 2:22
  Speaker 4: lands are going to be exclusive to this park.
• 2:25
  Speaker 3: So not going to just.
• 2:26
  Speaker 4: Get Hogwarts ride and escape from Gringotts.
• 2:32
  Speaker 3: And I don't know, I completely blanked on the name
• 2:35
  Speaker 3: of the Hogwarts ride.
• 2:37
  Speaker 2: Forbidden journey.
• 2:38
  Speaker 3: Oh yeah. Forbidden journey.
• 2:39
  Speaker 4: Maybe it's because I like don't do it anymore because
• 2:41
  Speaker 4: I'm so scared. I'm like, it's forbidden to me.
• 2:44
  Speaker 2: Yeah.
• 2:45
  Speaker 3: Like don't remember the name of anywhere. So yeah.
• 2:47
  Speaker 4: So I'm really curious to see, I guess what, They
• 2:50
  Speaker 4: do for the rides because they're going to be all new.
• 2:55
  Speaker 4: So apparently construction is targeted to be completed in 2029.
• 3:02
  Speaker 4: Universal actually does a really good job at actually meeting
• 3:04
  Speaker 4: their timeline. So I actually suspect that this probably will be.
• 3:07
  Speaker 4: Although I don't think this is Universal, right? It's Warner
• 3:11
  Speaker 4: Brothers World, but I don't know if they're partnered with
• 3:14
  Speaker 4: Universal or what that looks like, but a couple of
• 3:18
  Speaker 4: years later, I will probably never make it here.
• 3:21
  Speaker 3: Although Disney's also opening in Abu Dhabi.
• 3:23
  Speaker 4: So maybe eventually this needs to be a trip and
• 3:26
  Speaker 4: I can hit both of them up.
• 3:27
  Speaker 3: But yeah, exciting. And you can go to their website
• 3:31
  Speaker 3: and sign up for like updates.
• 3:34
  Speaker 4: But right now, all we know is like these three lands,
• 3:36
  Speaker 4: they haven't really released too much else.
• 3:39
  Speaker 3: Mm hmm.
• 3:41
  Speaker 4: And then also Scholastic announced that they're officially updating the
• 3:46
  Speaker 4: title of the first book from Sorcerer's Stone to Philosopher's
• 3:49
  Speaker 4: Stone for the first time in the U.S. for a
• 3:54
  Speaker 4: new TV show tie-in paperback. Which makes sense since they're
• 4:00
  Speaker 4: calling the first season Philosopher's Stone. It makes sense that
• 4:03
  Speaker 4: if they were going to do a tie-in. And I'm
• 4:06
  Speaker 4: not the biggest fan of movie and TV show tie-in editions.
• 4:10
  Speaker 2: Me neither.
• 4:11
  Speaker 4: But I might have to get this one just because
• 4:15
  Speaker 4: of it being Philosopher's Stone. But I do have a
• 4:17
  Speaker 4: version of Philosopher's Stone that I bought in the UK.
• 4:20
  Speaker 3: So I guess I don't need it.
• 4:21
  Speaker 4: But this edition will be available on shelves on November 3rd.
• 4:27
  Speaker 4: And it looks like the cover is the photograph that
• 4:30
  Speaker 4: we previously saw of Harry from behind, like walking into
• 4:34
  Speaker 4: the Quidditch pitch, you know.
• 4:36
  Speaker 3: Where he's wearing his little nice Potter Quidditch robes.
• 4:41
  Speaker 1: Yeah.
• 4:42
  Speaker 2: Yeah, I'm not a big fan of when they put
• 4:45
  Speaker 2: the movie stills on covers. I'm like, book covers is
• 4:49
  Speaker 2: like such an art. And like, especially the Harry Potter books. Like,
• 4:55
  Speaker 2: you can't replace that. No.
• 4:58
  Speaker 3: But this isn't replacing.
• 5:00
  Speaker 4: It's just adding to the millions of editions that we have,
• 5:04
  Speaker 4: which I've been very good at not getting. I think
• 5:08
  Speaker 4: the actual books, I only still have my original books.
• 5:12
  Speaker 4: I never got any of the other box sets or
• 5:15
  Speaker 4: anything like that. I'm kind of sad about that.
• 5:18
  Speaker 3: Because I do really like a lot of the other ones,
• 5:20
  Speaker 3: but I....
• 5:22
  Speaker 4: Was just setting up like my bookshelves and stuff the
• 5:25
  Speaker 4: other day from moving. And I just don't have room
• 5:29
  Speaker 4: for books.
• 5:29
  Speaker 2: So. Sad about it, but probably grateful that there wasn't
• 5:34
  Speaker 2: another box of books to move.
• 5:37
  Speaker 3: Yes. Very grateful.
• 5:39
  Speaker 4: But yeah, but if you like collecting every version of
• 5:43
  Speaker 4: the books, there's a new one that'll be available and
• 5:45
  Speaker 4: presumably we'll continue to get them for every season of
• 5:48
  Speaker 4: the show. Yeah.
• 5:49
  Speaker 3: Which not surprised.
• 5:52
  Speaker 4: And, um, something that we didn't include the last episode
• 5:56
  Speaker 4: since there was just so much else to cover is
• 5:58
  Speaker 4: that the official sorting ceremony quiz has gotten a little
• 6:02
  Speaker 4: bit of a revamp and you, it looks like you
• 6:06
  Speaker 4: can take this quiz like one time if you've already
• 6:09
  Speaker 4: taken it.
• 6:10
  Speaker 3: I haven't taken it yet.
• 6:13
  Speaker 4: Um, I don't know if I just like have some
• 6:17
  Speaker 4: fear around taking it and what it's going to give me,
• 6:19
  Speaker 4: especially because like, remember, I'm somebody who has changed my
• 6:23
  Speaker 4: Hogwarts house.
• 6:24
  Speaker 3: Yeah. From what I was originally sorted in.
• 6:26
  Speaker 2: We don't need another identity crisis.
• 6:28
  Speaker 4: Yeah, I don't know if I need another identity crisis,
• 6:30
  Speaker 4: but I'm also really curious for this new quiz.
• 6:33
  Speaker 3: The good thing that I.
• 6:34
  Speaker 4: Really like about it is that at the end, you
• 6:37
  Speaker 4: do get a choice if you want to switch to
• 6:39
  Speaker 4: your new house or if you want to stay in
• 6:41
  Speaker 4: your previously sorted house because the sorting hat does take.
• 6:44
  Speaker 3: Your choice into consideration. So I'm really glad they put
• 6:48
  Speaker 3: that little bit in because.
• 6:53
  Speaker 3: I would be really upset if I.
• 6:54
  Speaker 4: Took this quiz and I got sorted into something else
• 6:57
  Speaker 4: and then it changed my official profile to be this
• 7:00
  Speaker 4: new house.
• 7:00
  Speaker 3: And I'm like, great, should have never taken it.
• 7:03
  Speaker 4: But this is nice, too, because you don't have to
• 7:04
  Speaker 4: worry about, like, creating a new account to just take
• 7:08
  Speaker 4: the quiz again but still keep your old one.
• 7:11
  Speaker 3: Right, right.
• 7:12
  Speaker 2: Which, I mean, I used so many emails and created
• 7:16
  Speaker 2: so many emails just to retake this quiz over the years.
• 7:20
  Speaker 3: Me too. And I also did that with the Patronus
• 7:25
  Speaker 3: quiz when that came out.
• 7:26
  Speaker 4: And I actually really like both of my Patronuses, but
• 7:29
  Speaker 4: I also don't even remember my login for the other account.
• 7:33
  Speaker 4: I think one account is still my Ravenclaw house and
• 7:37
  Speaker 4: my Patronus is Hippogriff.
• 7:38
  Speaker 2: No, no.
• 7:41
  Speaker 3: That's a lie. I don't know why I said hippogriff. Hyena.
• 7:44
  Speaker 2: Oh, that's cool.
• 7:46
  Speaker 4: I actually love loved getting that Patronus, but it was
• 7:51
  Speaker 4: my like Ravenclaw account.
• 7:53
  Speaker 3: So then when I got sorted in Slytherin.
• 7:56
  Speaker 4: And made that my like official account, that was when
• 7:59
  Speaker 4: I got Festral, which I'm also okay with.
• 8:01
  Speaker 3: Yeah. Which is even cooler.
• 8:04
  Speaker 2: Yeah.
• 8:04
  Speaker 4: I've gotten really, I did take it once and got
• 8:06
  Speaker 4: Hippogriff too. So like I've gotten really cool Patronuses, which
• 8:09
  Speaker 4: I'm grateful for. Um, but yeah, so I probably will
• 8:13
  Speaker 4: eventually take this cause I'm just like curious. Um, If
• 8:17
  Speaker 4: it sorts me like back into Ravenclaw, I might have
• 8:20
  Speaker 4: like an identity crisis since that's like where I started.
• 8:22
  Speaker 4: But I've been seeing a lot of like TikToks online
• 8:25
  Speaker 4: of people like having identity crisis because they're taking this
• 8:28
  Speaker 4: new quiz and it is putting them in different houses.
• 8:31
  Speaker 2: And I feel like I need to take it because historically,
• 8:36
  Speaker 2: every single time I've ever taken the quiz, it's put
• 8:38
  Speaker 2: me in Hufflepuff. And I'm really curious.
• 8:42
  Speaker 3: For science, you do need to take it again.
• 8:43
  Speaker 2: Yeah, I need to know. Because I'm also really curious.
• 8:45
  Speaker 3: Yes.
• 8:47
  Speaker 4: But I will say as somebody who has had a
• 8:50
  Speaker 4: house identity crisis, it's not the end of the world.
• 8:53
  Speaker 4: And sometimes you realize that the house that you're put
• 8:58
  Speaker 4: in the second time is actually the better fit and
• 9:01
  Speaker 4: was the better fit from the beginning because you just
• 9:05
  Speaker 4: kind of grew into yourself. And that's what happened to
• 9:07
  Speaker 4: me and my transition from Ravenclaw to Slytherin. Yeah.
• 9:10
  Speaker 2: And also....
• 9:12
  Speaker 4: We've talked about this before, but I'm a firm believer
• 9:15
  Speaker 4: in secondary houses and not one house being a perfect fit.
• 9:19
  Speaker 3: So maybe what you get.
• 9:20
  Speaker 4: Sorted in this time is like your secondary house.
• 9:23
  Speaker 1: Yeah.
• 9:24
  Speaker 3: Or whatever.
• 9:25
  Speaker 4: So, yeah, but let us know if you've taken it
• 9:29
  Speaker 4: again and if you got the same house or if
• 9:31
  Speaker 4: you got something different and had an identity crisis. And
• 9:34
  Speaker 4: maybe in a future episode, we'll let you know if
• 9:37
  Speaker 4: we retook it and what we got. And then also
• 9:42
  Speaker 4: there's just like a lot of new merchandise like popping
• 9:45
  Speaker 4: up still everywhere and like not going to cover everything.
• 9:48
  Speaker 3: But it looks like we have some like new Crocs,
• 9:53
  Speaker 3: new Funkos.
• 9:54
  Speaker 4: I did want to highlight really cool, but we're getting
• 9:57
  Speaker 4: a James Potter Funko for the first time.
• 10:00
  Speaker 2: Oh, that's cool. Yeah.
• 10:02
  Speaker 4: And it looks like they're just doing a Marauders kind
• 10:04
  Speaker 4: of thing because there's a new Lupin, a new Sirius Black.
• 10:07
  Speaker 4: Although the new Sirius Black is like really similar to
• 10:11
  Speaker 4: like the Sirius Black that I already have. And I
• 10:13
  Speaker 4: already have a Lupin too that's very similar to the Lupin.
• 10:16
  Speaker 4: But it looks like there's going to be a Peter
• 10:18
  Speaker 4: Pettigrew and a James Potter. So if you want the
• 10:21
  Speaker 4: whole Marauders collection.
• 10:22
  Speaker 3: I'm really tempted.
• 10:25
  Speaker 2: After I've started getting rid of my Funkos.
• 10:27
  Speaker 3: Well, that's what I was just going to say.
• 10:29
  Speaker 4: As Amy knows, in my move, I got rid of...
• 10:33
  Speaker 4: like 90% of my Funko collection. And she really struggled
• 10:37
  Speaker 4: with that. Amy can attest.
• 10:38
  Speaker 3: I really struggled. I'm still struggling. Um, but I'm like, cool.
• 10:42
  Speaker 3: Now let's introduce new ones that I'm like, this is
• 10:44
  Speaker 3: kind of cool, but I'm, I will not be getting any.
• 10:47
  Speaker 4: I already, I did keep my Lupin and Sirius Funkos
• 10:50
  Speaker 4: cause they're my two, they're my two guys, my two favorites.
• 10:52
  Speaker 3: So, um, but really cool.
• 10:55
  Speaker 4: If you want to have a little display of the marauders,
• 10:57
  Speaker 4: I really hope this means eventually we'll get like a
• 10:59
  Speaker 4: Lily Potter because that would be really cute to have
• 11:02
  Speaker 4: James and Lily together. Um, um but yeah and then
• 11:06
  Speaker 4: also it looks like we're getting like one of you
• 11:08
  Speaker 4: know I didn't think they still made these but they
• 11:11
  Speaker 4: have like the giant Funkos like a bigger.
• 11:13
  Speaker 3: One yeah yeah yeah so there's a Quidditch.
• 11:16
  Speaker 4: Harry one and a bigger Funko um I really love
• 11:20
  Speaker 4: the Quidditch Harry Funkos I do have a couple floating
• 11:23
  Speaker 4: around my apartment but um yeah And then it looks
• 11:27
  Speaker 4: like we might be getting Fenrir Grey back for the
• 11:29
  Speaker 4: first time, which is really cool.
• 11:30
  Speaker 3: And some other.
• 11:31
  Speaker 4: A new Lucius Malfoy Death Eater one. I think just
• 11:36
  Speaker 4: a regular Death Eater one. I don't know if this
• 11:37
  Speaker 4: is like a Halloween... Those are like a Halloween collection,
• 11:40
  Speaker 4: but there's kind of like a dark arty collection.
• 11:42
  Speaker 3: But I don't know. Funkos are maybe getting a little
• 11:44
  Speaker 3: bit of a revive.
• 11:45
  Speaker 2: Yeah, that's cool.
• 11:48
  Speaker 4: And then... It looks like Target and Harry Potter teamed
• 11:53
  Speaker 4: up and came out with a really big collab. And
• 11:58
  Speaker 4: there's basically a ton of different sweets inspired by the
• 12:01
  Speaker 4: Wizarding World and a huge display in Target stores as
• 12:05
  Speaker 4: part of kind of like the Halloween collection that came out.
• 12:09
  Speaker 4: And yeah, it's like new packaging of like there's chocolate frogs,
• 12:15
  Speaker 4: there's fizzing Whizbees, kind of all the stuff that you normally.
• 12:20
  Speaker 3: I think there's, like, cockroach clusters.
• 12:21
  Speaker 4: Like, they're all of our favorites and with a new packaging.
• 12:26
  Speaker 4: And it looks like the chocolate frogs do have their
• 12:28
  Speaker 4: own version of chocolate frog cards in them. And there's
• 12:32
  Speaker 4: also some, like, pastry sweets, too. Like, there's pumpkin pasties
• 12:36
  Speaker 4: I've seen and, like, treacle tarts. So, yeah. I haven't
• 12:41
  Speaker 4: made my way over to Target yet to see if
• 12:44
  Speaker 4: my local store... has this display, but it looks really cool.
• 12:48
  Speaker 4: It's like a, basically a honey Dukes display. And yeah,
• 12:53
  Speaker 4: I've just been seeing it pop up on the interwebs
• 12:57
  Speaker 4: a lot.
• 12:58
  Speaker 2: Yeah. I don't think my store has a lot of stuff.
• 13:03
  Speaker 4: I haven't, I did see some stores do have like a,
• 13:06
  Speaker 4: just a smaller display as like part of their Halloween.
• 13:09
  Speaker 3: Um, it really just depends on like the layout of
• 13:13
  Speaker 3: the store. And if the store has the ability to
• 13:14
  Speaker 3: put a, the cart in the middle.
• 13:19
  Speaker 4: And also some stores might still be setting Halloween as well.
• 13:24
  Speaker 2: Okay. Maybe I'll check.
• 13:27
  Speaker 3: Yes. I will at some point because I do need
• 13:30
  Speaker 3: to go to Target. So I will check.
• 13:32
  Speaker 4: Not that I need anything or any candies or anything
• 13:35
  Speaker 4: like that. But one thing won't hurt. But yeah, that's
• 13:42
  Speaker 4: really like the bulk.
• 13:43
  Speaker 3: Of the news.
• 13:47
  Speaker 2: The magic continues over on the Revelio Patreon. As a
• 13:51
  Speaker 2: Patreon supporter, you gain access to exclusive content like digital
• 13:55
  Speaker 2: downloads and extended conversations. Plus, you're helping to support the
• 13:59
  Speaker 2: show and keep us online for as little as $ 2
• 14:03
  Speaker 2: a month. Find out more at patreon.com slash reveliopodcast. All right.
• 14:12
  Speaker 2: So for our main discussion, we are going to talk
• 14:16
  Speaker 2: about our girl McGonagall because she's awesome. We love McG. Oh, McG.
• 14:26
  Speaker 2: I feel like we need t-shirts like number one McG fan.
• 14:30
  Speaker 3: Yeah.
• 14:34
  Speaker 4: I know.
• 14:34
  Speaker 3: And speaking of Funkos, one of the Funkos I got
• 14:37
  Speaker 3: rid of was my McG Funko.
• 14:39
  Speaker 1: Oh.
• 14:41
  Speaker 2: I love her.
• 14:42
  Speaker 4: Yeah. Maybe I should have kept that one, but too late.
• 14:46
  Speaker 4: It's either in the box at yours in New York
• 14:48
  Speaker 4: or it's taken to the donation in New York.
• 14:52
  Speaker 2: I don't think it's in the box that I have.
• 14:53
  Speaker 2: So I think it's long gone.
• 14:56
  Speaker 3: I think it's one I donated. So yeah, if you're
• 14:59
  Speaker 3: in the.
• 15:00
  Speaker 4: Syracuse, New York area and you go to a rescue mission,
• 15:03
  Speaker 4: you might find my McGonagall Funko.
• 15:06
  Speaker 3: Yeah.
• 15:11
  Speaker 2: All right, so we actually have a ton of information
• 15:14
  Speaker 2: about McGonagall, thanks to the Pottermore writings. And also there
• 15:19
  Speaker 2: was another collection of essays that J.K. Rowling wrote about
• 15:23
  Speaker 2: different characters. So between those two, we have a lot here.
• 15:30
  Speaker 2: So starting with her early life, Minerva McGonagall was born
• 15:36
  Speaker 2: to a witch mother and a muggle father. So her mother,
• 15:41
  Speaker 2: Isabel Ross, went to Hogwarts, and her father, Robert McGonagall,
• 15:47
  Speaker 2: was a Scottish Presbyterian minister. So Isabel and Robert lived
• 15:54
  Speaker 2: in the same small village, and they fell in love
• 15:56
  Speaker 2: as teenagers. Robert didn't know that Isabel was a witch
• 16:01
  Speaker 2: and thought that she was off at an all-girls boarding
• 16:04
  Speaker 2: school during the months that she was attending Hogwarts. So
• 16:09
  Speaker 2: long story short, the two of them eloped. Both of
• 16:13
  Speaker 2: their parents were horrified by this. Isabel became estranged from
• 16:20
  Speaker 2: her parents. And the newlyweds moved to, I'm going to
• 16:25
  Speaker 2: say this wrong, Caithness, Scotland. That's correct. C-A-I-T-H-M-E-S-S. Probably not.
• 16:34
  Speaker 4: And as someone who lived in Scotland for a bit
• 16:36
  Speaker 4: of time, I should be able to correct you, but
• 16:38
  Speaker 4: I can't.
• 16:38
  Speaker 2: It's probably like, I don't even know. It's not going
• 16:43
  Speaker 2: to be Caithness. It's going to be like gobbledygook Scotland.
• 16:49
  Speaker 2: I don't know. But Caithness is how we're going to
• 16:54
  Speaker 2: say it because that's how it's spelled. That's where Minerva
• 16:58
  Speaker 2: was born. She's actually named after her mother's grandmother. So
• 17:06
  Speaker 2: her mother, you know, feeling very cut off from her
• 17:11
  Speaker 2: side of the family and her roots, it was important
• 17:15
  Speaker 2: to her to name her daughter after her grandmother and
• 17:20
  Speaker 2: try and keep those ties there. Minerva showed signs of
• 17:24
  Speaker 2: magical abilities from a very early age. Especially of note
• 17:30
  Speaker 2: that the family cat seemed to do the infant's bidding.
• 17:35
  Speaker 1: Very fitting.
• 17:35
  Speaker 3: She was a cat lady right from the beginning. Yeah.
• 17:41
  Speaker 2: Isabel was both proud and alarmed because she still hadn't
• 17:46
  Speaker 2: told Robert what she was. In this situation with their
• 17:51
  Speaker 2: baby now showing signs of magic, kind of forced her
• 17:55
  Speaker 2: to finally tell him that secret.
• 17:57
  Speaker 4: Wow what a secret to keep like I don't if
• 18:01
  Speaker 4: I was it looks like we're gonna talk about it
• 18:03
  Speaker 4: next but if I was Robert I don't know how
• 18:05
  Speaker 4: I'd feel about that like.
• 18:08
  Speaker 3: Okay and like.
• 18:10
  Speaker 4: I don't know then it's like the whole time did
• 18:12
  Speaker 4: she like just stop like doing magic so that he
• 18:15
  Speaker 4: didn't accidentally catch her or was she like in secret like.
• 18:21
  Speaker 2: Well and then it's like he's a minister. So like
• 18:26
  Speaker 2: a lot of this would go against a lot of
• 18:28
  Speaker 2: what like what his beliefs are, but like he took
• 18:32
  Speaker 2: it very, very well. So kudos to Robert.
• 18:36
  Speaker 3: True love.
• 18:37
  Speaker 2: Cause he, he still loved his wife and you know, they,
• 18:42
  Speaker 2: they made it work, but keeping that secret was very
• 18:46
  Speaker 2: difficult for him because he valued honesty, um, very highly.
• 18:52
  Speaker 2: So it was hard for him to try and keep
• 18:55
  Speaker 2: that a secret and live this sort of double life,
• 19:01
  Speaker 2: knowing that both worlds exist. Um, and then for Isabella,
• 19:05
  Speaker 2: it was also difficult because she missed being with her
• 19:10
  Speaker 2: own kind. She, um, had that burden of trying to
• 19:14
  Speaker 2: uphold the statute of secrecy and live in an all
• 19:17
  Speaker 2: muggle community. Um, so, um, It was also kind of
• 19:23
  Speaker 2: added to because she had children who were then going
• 19:27
  Speaker 2: to go on and show magical abilities and trying to
• 19:30
  Speaker 2: keep that secret and keep them shielded. So she not
• 19:35
  Speaker 2: only had Minerva, but she had two other sons as well.
• 19:39
  Speaker 2: So Minerva had two younger brothers, Malcolm and Robert Jr.
• 19:44
  Speaker 2: And both of them were also magical.
• 19:47
  Speaker 4: I feel like I have almost easier for, like when
• 19:53
  Speaker 4: you have these situations where half the family is magical
• 19:57
  Speaker 4: and maybe half of it isn't, I feel like it's
• 19:59
  Speaker 4: probably easier for everybody to live in the magical community
• 20:04
  Speaker 4: than for them to live in the muggle community. Yeah.
• 20:08
  Speaker 2: Yeah. It makes me wonder what, I guess like what
• 20:14
  Speaker 2: the environment was like at this point in time that
• 20:19
  Speaker 2: they couldn't just do that. Like, was that like forbidden
• 20:24
  Speaker 2: to bring Robert into the wizarding world?
• 20:29
  Speaker 3: Oh, maybe because of the time period.
• 20:31
  Speaker 4: I was originally thinking maybe it just had to do
• 20:33
  Speaker 4: with like Isabel becoming estranged from her family.
• 20:36
  Speaker 3: And so that's why she kind of left. Right.
• 20:40
  Speaker 4: Or they left, especially if it was this, did you
• 20:43
  Speaker 4: say it was like, they like lived in the same
• 20:45
  Speaker 4: small village. So like if she became estranged from her family,
• 20:47
  Speaker 4: she'd probably want to like move out of that village.
• 20:51
  Speaker 3: And maybe they just happened to settle in a muggle.
• 20:54
  Speaker 2: Yeah. Village.
• 20:55
  Speaker 4: But then also if they met in the small village,
• 21:00
  Speaker 4: then obviously this village was already mixed to begin with.
• 21:05
  Speaker 3: Assuming that Isabel's family was all magical. Right. Right. I
• 21:09
  Speaker 3: guess we don't know that, but.
• 21:12
  Speaker 4: Hmm.
• 21:13
  Speaker 2: Yeah. I don't know. Quite the dilemma. Probably not telling
• 21:25
  Speaker 2: him about it sooner also probably didn't help.
• 21:29
  Speaker 4: Oh, right.
• 21:29
  Speaker 3: Cause like she was keeping it from him.
• 21:31
  Speaker 4: So I don't think she would have been like, yeah,
• 21:33
  Speaker 4: let's live in this village that like predominantly has like
• 21:36
  Speaker 4: witches and wizards like walking around it.
• 21:37
  Speaker 2: Right.
• 21:38
  Speaker 1: Right.
• 21:39
  Speaker 2: And they would have gone wherever his church was.
• 21:42
  Speaker 3: Right.
• 21:46
  Speaker 2: Yeah. So, obviously, kind of stressful home life. But Minerva
• 21:57
  Speaker 2: did get her Hogwarts letter, of course, and she went
• 22:01
  Speaker 2: to Hogwarts. She was, as we know, one of very
• 22:04
  Speaker 2: few what they call hat stalls. So, a hat stall
• 22:09
  Speaker 2: is when it takes the sorting hat more than five
• 22:12
  Speaker 2: minutes to place the student. And in Minerva's case, the
• 22:15
  Speaker 2: hat was trying to decide between Gryffindor and Ravenclaw. Obviously,
• 22:21
  Speaker 2: it decided on Gryffindor.
• 22:26
  Speaker 3: I was just thinking about that. Like, if I think that, like,
• 22:28
  Speaker 3: she would have been better in Ravenclaw, like... Yeah, I
• 22:32
  Speaker 3: don't know. I'm not sure. I can see why she
• 22:35
  Speaker 3: was a hat stall. Mm-hmm.
• 22:38
  Speaker 2: Yeah, because she's obviously very, very clever. I don't know.
• 22:44
  Speaker 3: But I can also see her being, like, very....
• 22:48
  Speaker 4: Well, she is, like, very Gryffindor-y. It's not that I
• 22:52
  Speaker 4: don't think it was a bad sorting. Well, and also,
• 22:57
  Speaker 4: for the plot, we needed her to be in Gryffindor.
• 23:00
  Speaker 2: Yes.
• 23:01
  Speaker 3: For Harry's story.
• 23:02
  Speaker 2: Do it for the plot. Yeah. Um... But very early on,
• 23:08
  Speaker 2: she showed a talent for transfiguration. And her teacher, Albus Dumbledore,
• 23:15
  Speaker 2: helped her use that talent to become a registered animagus.
• 23:21
  Speaker 2: Which we know she turns into a cat form and
• 23:24
  Speaker 2: has the very distinct spectacle markings around her eyes and
• 23:28
  Speaker 2: all of.
• 23:28
  Speaker 3: That as well.
• 23:31
  Speaker 2: While at school, she won the Transfiguration Today Most Promising
• 23:35
  Speaker 2: Newcomer Award. And according to the Harry Potter lexicon, I
• 23:40
  Speaker 2: couldn't really find this in like the actual source material
• 23:46
  Speaker 2: when I was searching through it. But according to the lexicon,
• 23:50
  Speaker 2: one of her hobbies is correcting and proofreading articles from
• 23:55
  Speaker 2: Transfiguration Today. I just thought that was so funny. Like, yes,
• 24:01
  Speaker 2: I can picture that. Sitting there with her pen, marking.
• 24:04
  Speaker 1: It all up.
• 24:06
  Speaker 3: See, that's the Ravenclaw in her.
• 24:10
  Speaker 2: Not surprisingly, Minerva got top marks in her OWLs and NEWTs,
• 24:15
  Speaker 2: and she was also prefect and head girl. She also
• 24:21
  Speaker 2: inherited her mother's talent on the Quidditch pitch. Unfortunately, though,
• 24:26
  Speaker 2: she was badly injured during her final year in a
• 24:29
  Speaker 2: match against Slytherin, and it was that match and the foul...
• 24:35
  Speaker 2: that caused her injury, that kind of built up this
• 24:41
  Speaker 2: need for her to see Gryffindor really beat Slytherin and
• 24:45
  Speaker 2: get the House Cup, which we see during Harry's years.
• 24:50
  Speaker 2: She went on to foster young Quidditch talent and was
• 24:54
  Speaker 2: a very staunch supporter of her House team.
• 24:58
  Speaker 3: Do we know what position she played?
• 25:03
  Speaker 2: I don't know.
• 25:04
  Speaker 3: What position do we think she played? Oh.
• 25:10
  Speaker 2: I could see her being a chaser.
• 25:12
  Speaker 3: I was going to say. I think she was a chaser.
• 25:13
  Speaker 2: I think she was a chaser.
• 25:16
  Speaker 3: Yeah. I could also see her though like being like
• 25:21
  Speaker 3: a beater and just like loving to like.
• 25:27
  Speaker 2: Just I get to get out my violence streak.
• 25:30
  Speaker 3: Yeah. I could really see her playing any position, like,
• 25:35
  Speaker 3: except keeper. Like, honestly.
• 25:38
  Speaker 2: Like.
• 25:38
  Speaker 3: But yeah, I could see her really being a chaser. Yeah.
• 25:42
  Speaker 2: But I don't know.
• 25:42
  Speaker 4: If it was a foul, maybe she was, like, a beater. And, like,
• 25:47
  Speaker 4: did some... Like, she was injured.
• 25:50
  Speaker 2: Yeah, she was injured. I mean, a beater could be injured, but...
• 25:56
  Speaker 2: feel like chaser because you're like in the action i
• 25:59
  Speaker 2: feel like you're more likely to get injured.
• 26:02
  Speaker 4: The beaters are trying to get you essentially yeah i
• 26:05
  Speaker 4: think i bet she was a chaser.
• 26:09
  Speaker 2: So after hogwarts um minerva suffered a uh her first
• 26:17
  Speaker 2: love and loss which really kind of i think probably
• 26:22
  Speaker 2: shaped her quite a bit as a person after this Um,
• 26:26
  Speaker 2: so after graduating Hogwarts, she moved home for the summer
• 26:30
  Speaker 2: and it was there that she kind of fell into
• 26:34
  Speaker 2: the same trap that her mother did. And she fell
• 26:37
  Speaker 2: in love with a muggle, Dougal McGregor. I love that name.
• 26:43
  Speaker 3: Very Scottish. Everything about it.
• 26:45
  Speaker 2: Love it. So good old Dougal. He was the son
• 26:49
  Speaker 2: of a local farmer. And according to the writings by JKR, quote,
• 26:56
  Speaker 2: it was the first and only time in Minerva McGonagall's
• 26:59
  Speaker 2: life that she might have been said to lose her head.
• 27:03
  Speaker 2: So basically after a whirlwind couple months, Dougal proposed and
• 27:07
  Speaker 2: she accepted. And then she thought about it. And marrying
• 27:15
  Speaker 2: Dougal would have meant leaving behind magic, just like her
• 27:18
  Speaker 2: mother had to. and teaching children to keep their magic
• 27:23
  Speaker 2: secret as well. She'd also been offered a job at
• 27:27
  Speaker 2: the Ministry of Magic, which would take her to London. Well,
• 27:31
  Speaker 2: Dougal was set to take over his father's farm, and
• 27:35
  Speaker 2: he was very passionate about that and intended to run
• 27:39
  Speaker 2: that farm for the rest of his life. So taking
• 27:41
  Speaker 2: all of this into consideration, the very next day, Minerva
• 27:45
  Speaker 2: told Dougal she couldn't marry him after all, She obviously
• 27:49
  Speaker 2: couldn't tell him why because of the statute of secrecy.
• 27:54
  Speaker 2: And he was left devastated. She was devastated. Yeah. So
• 28:01
  Speaker 2: not a happy ending for them.
• 28:04
  Speaker 3: Well, and then she just never found anybody else after.
• 28:09
  Speaker 2: Well, she did, interestingly enough, but that was also tragic,
• 28:13
  Speaker 2: which we'll get to. Poor Minerva. Not meant to be. Um,
• 28:21
  Speaker 2: so she started her job at the ministry three days
• 28:25
  Speaker 2: after leaving Dougal. And despite having a good relationship with
• 28:31
  Speaker 2: her boss, Elphinstone Urquhart, she disliked her job. Um, she
• 28:38
  Speaker 2: found that many of her ministry colleagues had biases against muggles,
• 28:42
  Speaker 2: which was very difficult for her. Um, you know, due
• 28:46
  Speaker 2: to her close relationship with her father and, of course,
• 28:49
  Speaker 2: her love for Dougal. She was very good at her job, though, which, like,
• 28:54
  Speaker 2: you would expect McGonagall to be. And she was offered
• 28:59
  Speaker 2: a promotion. But instead of taking it, she sent a
• 29:04
  Speaker 2: letter to Dumbledore asking for a job at Hogwarts. Instead,
• 29:09
  Speaker 2: he answered and offered her a job in the Transfiguration
• 29:13
  Speaker 2: Department under himself. the head of the department. So there
• 29:17
  Speaker 2: was a whole department at one point in time, apparently.
• 29:20
  Speaker 4: Or maybe he just called it that because he was like, well,
• 29:23
  Speaker 4: if I bring you on and do transfiguration and I'm
• 29:25
  Speaker 4: already here doing transfiguration, then I guess we're a department.
• 29:29
  Speaker 2: I guess we've got to create a position. But it's like,
• 29:33
  Speaker 2: were there budget cuts along the way?
• 29:35
  Speaker 3: I think it was just an unofficial department.
• 29:38
  Speaker 2: Was there a charms department? No, it's just Dumbledore being Dumbledore.
• 29:46
  Speaker 2: So Minerva obviously went to Hogwarts and took this job.
• 29:52
  Speaker 2: In her early years of teaching, she received a letter
• 29:56
  Speaker 2: from home telling her that Dougal was had married another
• 30:00
  Speaker 2: local farmer's daughter. And it was Dumbledore who found her
• 30:06
  Speaker 2: in tears over this news and comforted her. And apparently
• 30:10
  Speaker 2: during this exchange, Dumbledore actually shared a lot of his
• 30:14
  Speaker 2: own family history with Minerva. And that kind of, obviously
• 30:21
  Speaker 2: there was a mutual respect there before, but this kind
• 30:23
  Speaker 2: of solidified their friendship, not just their mentor and mentee relationship.
• 30:31
  Speaker 2: They were very close. They were confidants. Minerva was one
• 30:35
  Speaker 2: of the very few people who ever knew or suspected
• 30:39
  Speaker 2: how difficult it was for Albus to face Grindelwald in
• 30:43
  Speaker 2: that final duel. So she knew a lot about his
• 30:49
  Speaker 2: situation which.
• 30:50
  Speaker 4: Makes sense because if she like opened up to him
• 30:53
  Speaker 4: about how she loved Dougal and it was like the
• 30:58
  Speaker 4: love of her life but just felt like she couldn't
• 31:01
  Speaker 4: be with him I mean we could easily see how
• 31:06
  Speaker 4: Elvis reciprocated the same sentiment.
• 31:10
  Speaker 2: Yeah and you think about like we see Dumbledore when
• 31:17
  Speaker 2: he's older And he's kind of mastered this skill of
• 31:23
  Speaker 2: kind of shuttering off that personal part of himself. When
• 31:29
  Speaker 2: you're younger, I think you're a little bit more open
• 31:33
  Speaker 2: to maybe sharing things. something and maybe trusting someone a
• 31:38
  Speaker 2: little bit to share that.
• 31:41
  Speaker 3: It was fresher than two at that point.
• 31:43
  Speaker 4: And I'm sure that it was probably really cathartic for
• 31:47
  Speaker 4: Elvis to also talk about it with somebody because he
• 31:51
  Speaker 4: probably hadn't really talked about it with anybody before this
• 31:54
  Speaker 4: point or really ever again after this point, maybe.
• 31:58
  Speaker 3: Yeah.
• 32:00
  Speaker 2: And I could see like Elvis and Minerva, I feel
• 32:04
  Speaker 2: like they are very similar in And that they're very
• 32:08
  Speaker 2: stoic people, but obviously feel things very deeply. And I
• 32:14
  Speaker 2: feel like that is a lot of times the case.
• 32:17
  Speaker 2: Like the people who seem very like all together and stuff,
• 32:26
  Speaker 2: they're usually the ones who have a lot more going on.
• 32:33
  Speaker 3: It's all about your ability to.
• 32:37
  Speaker 3: Master hiding it or burying it.
• 32:40
  Speaker 4: Um, and I think both of them are that type
• 32:43
  Speaker 4: of people where you think, Oh, you're just so put
• 32:47
  Speaker 4: together and you have everything going on in your life. And,
• 32:52
  Speaker 4: but in actuality, like they had some really bad things
• 32:58
  Speaker 4: that also happened in their life, but they just don't.
• 33:01
  Speaker 3: Wear their emotions on their sleeves.
• 33:03
  Speaker 2: Right.
• 33:05
  Speaker 4: Right.
• 33:07
  Speaker 2: So then we kind of get to Voldemort's first rise
• 33:12
  Speaker 2: to power. Minerva did not personally teach Tom Riddle, but
• 33:20
  Speaker 2: she knew of Dumbledore's feelings about him and his activities
• 33:27
  Speaker 2: in kind of gathering these followers, which makes sense because
• 33:31
  Speaker 2: as we've established, Dumbledore confides a lot in McGonagall. He
• 33:36
  Speaker 2: Doesn't confide a lot in her towards the end of
• 33:39
  Speaker 2: Harry's story, which would have been very useful, but he
• 33:43
  Speaker 2: does throughout the years actually tell her some things. So
• 33:49
  Speaker 2: she knew what was going on with Voldemort. She was
• 33:55
  Speaker 2: not a member of the Order of the Phoenix during
• 33:57
  Speaker 2: the First War, but still having a decent relationship with
• 34:02
  Speaker 2: the Ministry because she left her job on good terms.
• 34:05
  Speaker 2: She used her animagus abilities to act as a spy
• 34:09
  Speaker 2: for the ministry, um, reporting back information to the Orr department.
• 34:15
  Speaker 2: So in that way, she helped in the fight against
• 34:18
  Speaker 2: Voldemort the first time around. Um, she did suffer some
• 34:25
  Speaker 2: personal losses during this period. Um, obviously the loss of
• 34:30
  Speaker 2: James and Lily, who were some of her favorite students, um,
• 34:34
  Speaker 2: That was a hard hit. Her brother Robert was also
• 34:38
  Speaker 2: killed during the First Wizarding War. And Dougal was murdered
• 34:45
  Speaker 2: along with his wife and children in an anti-muggle attack.
• 34:52
  Speaker 2: This really kind of haunted Minerva in that she blamed
• 34:56
  Speaker 2: herself for Dougal's death because in her mind she thought,
• 35:00
  Speaker 2: you know, Maybe if she had married him and gone
• 35:03
  Speaker 2: through with it and she had been there during the attack,
• 35:06
  Speaker 2: she could have defended him or stopped it in some way. Obviously,
• 35:11
  Speaker 2: we know probably not. But yeah. So then we get
• 35:19
  Speaker 2: to kind of her second chance at love here. Uh,
• 35:26
  Speaker 2: I mentioned her ministry boss, Elphinstone Urquhart. Uh, the two
• 35:33
  Speaker 2: of them kept in contact. He was much older than her,
• 35:37
  Speaker 2: by the way, which is scandalous. Um, but they kept
• 35:43
  Speaker 2: in contact, um, and he would come visit her when
• 35:47
  Speaker 2: on holiday. And he obviously developed feelings for her pretty quickly. Um,
• 35:53
  Speaker 2: He proposed to Minerva McGonagall at Madam Puttyfoots of all places.
• 36:00
  Speaker 2: Minerva was embarrassed and turned him down, which I can
• 36:04
  Speaker 2: picture her not even wanting to go into this tea
• 36:07
  Speaker 2: shop to begin with.
• 36:08
  Speaker 1: Right.
• 36:09
  Speaker 4: And I'm like, okay, was she embarrassed because of like
• 36:11
  Speaker 4: where he was proposing?
• 36:14
  Speaker 3: Was she embarrassed because she was like.
• 36:18
  Speaker 4: Canoodling around in secret with this older man well obviously
• 36:22
  Speaker 4: not in secret they were in the tea shop like
• 36:25
  Speaker 4: right I want to know more about what fueled her embarrassment.
• 36:28
  Speaker 2: I mean I can imagine a public proposal inside a
• 36:32
  Speaker 2: very pink tea shop with confetti being thrown around um yeah.
• 36:39
  Speaker 4: Just being like yeah that's not me I'd be like
• 36:42
  Speaker 4: really do not know me I'm out of here this
• 36:46
  Speaker 4: isn't right Dougal would never.
• 36:51
  Speaker 2: Yeah, Dougal had, like, a nice wheat field, like, a beautiful, like,
• 36:55
  Speaker 2: Pride and Prejudice kind of backdrop. You're over here in
• 37:00
  Speaker 2: Madame Puffyfoots.
• 37:02
  Speaker 4: I know, I picture Dougal, like, proposing to her in, like,
• 37:05
  Speaker 4: the Scottish Highlands.
• 37:08
  Speaker 2: The sunrise coming up. Elphinstone, however, was not deterred in
• 37:16
  Speaker 2: the least. This guy kept proposing. He did not take
• 37:21
  Speaker 2: the hint. Minerva kept turning him down. Until Dougal died
• 37:27
  Speaker 2: in that attack. After Dougal's death, Minerva felt free to
• 37:34
  Speaker 2: accept another. And she did. Eventually. Except Elphinstone.
• 37:41
  Speaker 4: I mean I guess I have a lot of questions
• 37:43
  Speaker 4: about that like is it is it that she really
• 37:46
  Speaker 4: felt like as long as Dougal was still alive she
• 37:48
  Speaker 4: like couldn't move on with anybody else or was.
• 37:51
  Speaker 3: It that.
• 37:54
  Speaker 4: She was so distraught by grief of his death that
• 38:00
  Speaker 4: it was just like Elphinstone just became like the ultimate
• 38:04
  Speaker 4: like I don't know if rebound is the right word
• 38:08
  Speaker 4: but like Like another chance.
• 38:12
  Speaker 3: Yeah. To like work through like that grief and that loss.
• 38:15
  Speaker 3: I don't know. It just seems like initially Minerva was
• 38:21
  Speaker 3: just like. Down for a fun time, not a long time.
• 38:27
  Speaker 4: And then, but Elphinstone really was like, yeah, I want
• 38:30
  Speaker 4: to marry you. And she was like, I just was
• 38:32
  Speaker 4: like having fun here. And then eventually was like, well, yeah.
• 38:38
  Speaker 4: My true love is gone now.
• 38:39
  Speaker 3: So.
• 38:42
  Speaker 2: Might as well.
• 38:44
  Speaker 4: Yeah.
• 38:45
  Speaker 2: Which, I mean, obviously, they were friends because she wouldn't
• 38:50
  Speaker 2: otherwise keep, like, hanging out with him.
• 38:54
  Speaker 3: Right, but there's a.
• 38:56
  Speaker 2: But it's like, okay.
• 38:58
  Speaker 4: I mean, I don't know how young the viewers of,
• 39:00
  Speaker 4: or the listeners of our show are, but, like, I mean,
• 39:03
  Speaker 4: it could have been, like, a little friends with benefits
• 39:05
  Speaker 4: situation and he just developed feelings and.
• 39:09
  Speaker 3: She panicked a little.
• 39:10
  Speaker 2: Yeah.
• 39:11
  Speaker 3: Yeah.
• 39:12
  Speaker 2: Could be.
• 39:14
  Speaker 4: And at the end of the day, it's like, I
• 39:15
  Speaker 4: still think that, I mean, it was very clear that
• 39:19
  Speaker 4: she just never like lost her love for Dougal and
• 39:23
  Speaker 4: maybe just couldn't see herself like being in that type
• 39:28
  Speaker 4: of marriage situation with anybody else. else because she just
• 39:31
  Speaker 4: still wanted it with Dougal or maybe like yeah I
• 39:35
  Speaker 4: can understand that feeling of like once he had passed
• 39:40
  Speaker 4: away like like what you said feeling like now she
• 39:43
  Speaker 4: felt free to like kind of like move on even
• 39:47
  Speaker 4: though obviously he had moved on right like he got
• 39:49
  Speaker 4: another wife he had kids um like.
• 39:51
  Speaker 2: The chance of anything happening or changing is gone once
• 39:56
  Speaker 2: he's gone right so at the point that the two
• 40:03
  Speaker 2: do finally get engaged Elphinstone is actually retired from his
• 40:09
  Speaker 2: ministry position He purchases a cottage in Hogsmeade for the
• 40:13
  Speaker 2: two of them so that Minerva can commute very easily
• 40:17
  Speaker 2: to her job at Hogwarts. Minerva kept her own name
• 40:22
  Speaker 2: upon marriage, and so she remained Professor McGonagall despite being married. Traditionalists, however,
• 40:30
  Speaker 2: disapproved and wondered why she would keep her muggle father's
• 40:34
  Speaker 2: name and not take her pureblood husband's name instead. So.
• 40:41
  Speaker 2: Kind of a statement a little bit on Minerva's part
• 40:44
  Speaker 2: in a few ways. The feminist in her coming out,
• 40:49
  Speaker 2: but also a maybe a statement about blood status as well.
• 40:55
  Speaker 3: Yeah, I could also see her like.
• 40:58
  Speaker 4: Being the type of person where like, it's funny because
• 41:02
  Speaker 4: when I was kind of going down my like academic
• 41:06
  Speaker 4: path and like had published like research and like the
• 41:10
  Speaker 4: psychological journal and like was originally planning to get my
• 41:12
  Speaker 4: PhD and become this like psychology researcher, I used to
• 41:16
  Speaker 4: always say like, if and when I get married, like
• 41:20
  Speaker 4: I'm keeping my last name because all these degrees and
• 41:23
  Speaker 4: all these accomplishments are in my last name.
• 41:25
  Speaker 3: Like I'm not just giving up my last name.
• 41:28
  Speaker 4: And I could see her also being that type of
• 41:33
  Speaker 4: person because she had all of the, like she had
• 41:35
  Speaker 4: all these accolades and was really intelligent and really smart.
• 41:39
  Speaker 3: And I think too, like if she had a really good.
• 41:42
  Speaker 4: Relationship with, her father and her family and, like, wanting
• 41:46
  Speaker 4: to keep that name. And as we said at the
• 41:50
  Speaker 4: beginning of the show, she's the OG McG. Like, why
• 41:54
  Speaker 4: would she change that name?
• 41:57
  Speaker 3: And what was his last name again? Urquhart?
• 42:00
  Speaker 4: Urquhart? Yeah.
• 42:02
  Speaker 3: Like.
• 42:03
  Speaker 2: Minerva Urquhart.
• 42:04
  Speaker 3: No. No. No. She had the right thing. And, like, yeah,
• 42:08
  Speaker 3: I look at her just taking.
• 42:11
  Speaker 4: That stance back then and saying, no, I'm Minerva McGonagall
• 42:15
  Speaker 4: and I can stay Minerva McGonagall no matter who I'm
• 42:18
  Speaker 4: married to.
• 42:19
  Speaker 2: Right. I am my own person.
• 42:22
  Speaker 3: Yes.
• 42:22
  Speaker 2: I have done all this work to get to where
• 42:24
  Speaker 2: I am. I am Professor McGonagall.
• 42:29
  Speaker 4: I do wonder if she had married Dougal, I bet
• 42:32
  Speaker 4: she would have taken Dougal's last name just because of like.
• 42:35
  Speaker 2: Yes.
• 42:35
  Speaker 3: How much their love was.
• 42:37
  Speaker 2: And his last name was very similar to hers. Yes,
• 42:40
  Speaker 2: it would have sounded much better. Minerva McGregor.
• 42:42
  Speaker 3: Yeah, I could totally see her being like, who? I
• 42:46
  Speaker 3: do not want to be Professor Urquhart.
• 42:49
  Speaker 4: Like, I could just see her being like.
• 42:53
  Speaker 3: I, no.
• 42:53
  Speaker 2: What do you mean, no?
• 42:56
  Speaker 3: Heavens, no.
• 43:00
  Speaker 2: Well, good for her. So, despite, you know, Gossip Mill
• 43:06
  Speaker 2: and all that, it was a very happy marriage. They
• 43:10
  Speaker 2: had no children, but they did enjoy their roles of
• 43:14
  Speaker 2: aunt and uncle to Minerva's brother's children, who frequently came
• 43:19
  Speaker 2: to visit and stayed at their home in Hogsmeade. Tragically,
• 43:24
  Speaker 2: the marriage ended abruptly after three years when Elphinstone received
• 43:29
  Speaker 2: a fatal bite from a venomous tentacula, of all things.
• 43:34
  Speaker 3: Oh.
• 43:35
  Speaker 4: Well, when I saw that the marriage ended abruptly, I
• 43:39
  Speaker 4: was thinking they had a falling out.
• 43:41
  Speaker 3: Something happened.
• 43:42
  Speaker 4: Nope.
• 43:43
  Speaker 2: Got bitten by a plant.
• 43:49
  Speaker 3: Wow.
• 43:50
  Speaker 2: Yeah. So don't know what's up with that. Don't know
• 43:53
  Speaker 2: if he was like gardening and it went wrong or.
• 43:56
  Speaker 3: And there's like no antidote for that or like.
• 44:00
  Speaker 1: Nope.
• 44:02
  Speaker 2: Just. Elphinstone got bit one day and bye-bye.
• 44:05
  Speaker 1: Okay.
• 44:10
  Speaker 2: Yeah. So Minerva, you know, suffering yet another loss. She
• 44:21
  Speaker 2: didn't want to stay alone in that cottage that they
• 44:23
  Speaker 2: shared together. So after the funeral, she packed up her
• 44:27
  Speaker 2: things and she moved back into her rooms inside Hogwarts.
• 44:30
  Speaker 1: Yes.
• 44:32
  Speaker 3: That makes sense. Yep.
• 44:35
  Speaker 2: And as far as we know, that's her last little
• 44:38
  Speaker 2: foray into love. But she may have had some things
• 44:42
  Speaker 2: on the side. Who's to say? Good for her.
• 44:46
  Speaker 3: And I mean, I hope she did.
• 44:50
  Speaker 4: But I can understand too, after kind of like having
• 44:54
  Speaker 4: love twice and having both end kind of tragically, I
• 44:58
  Speaker 4: can totally understand getting to the point of just, I'm
• 45:02
  Speaker 4: not going to try again.
• 45:03
  Speaker 2: Yeah, I'm good. Also, we get a second Wizarding War
• 45:10
  Speaker 2: thrown in here. So I'm sure that kind of, you know,
• 45:14
  Speaker 2: stopped any potential future romance.
• 45:19
  Speaker 3: For that time.
• 45:23
  Speaker 2: So during the second Wizarding War, Minerva did not take
• 45:28
  Speaker 2: up her former role spying for the Aurors. Because she believed,
• 45:32
  Speaker 2: and rightly so, that the ministry was corrupt at this point. So, nope.
• 45:38
  Speaker 2: She was a member of the Order of the Phoenix
• 45:41
  Speaker 2: this time around. And when Snape took over as headmaster
• 45:48
  Speaker 2: of Hogwarts, instead of leaving the school, Minerva remained in
• 45:52
  Speaker 2: her post as teacher to try and protect the students
• 45:56
  Speaker 2: as best she could from the caros.
• 46:01
  Speaker 1: Which.
• 46:01
  Speaker 2: it's very in character for her. Like she was very
• 46:05
  Speaker 2: much about the students. And I mean, you can kind
• 46:12
  Speaker 2: of see why knowing her backstory, you can understand why
• 46:15
  Speaker 2: they kind of became her life's purpose. And.
• 46:19
  Speaker 4: She was very like motherly, I think to the kids,
• 46:23
  Speaker 4: having not been a mother herself.
• 46:25
  Speaker 2: Yeah.
• 46:27
  Speaker 3: But I think that she kind of like really stepped
• 46:29
  Speaker 3: into that role.
• 46:29
  Speaker 4: I mean, but like, maybe a little harsh around the
• 46:32
  Speaker 4: edges every once in a while, but it was all
• 46:34
  Speaker 4: out of care. And I think every bit of sass
• 46:37
  Speaker 4: or harshness she threw, especially at Harry, was 100% out
• 46:41
  Speaker 4: of care for him.
• 46:44
  Speaker 3: For sure.
• 46:46
  Speaker 2: Notably, during this time, Minerva was the one who helped
• 46:50
  Speaker 2: Harry during the Battle of Hogwarts. She gathered up the
• 46:54
  Speaker 2: trusted teachers, kind of let them know what was going on,
• 46:58
  Speaker 2: organized a resistance. Um, she really bought Harry that time
• 47:04
  Speaker 2: to search for the diadem. Um, Minerva was also one
• 47:10
  Speaker 2: of the last people to duel Voldemort and she survived
• 47:13
  Speaker 2: that encounter, which is a pretty impressive feat. Um, um,
• 47:22
  Speaker 2: So later life, after the Battle of Hogwarts, Minerva became
• 47:27
  Speaker 2: headmistress of the school. She was awarded the Order of
• 47:31
  Speaker 2: Merlin first class and later appeared on a chocolate frog card,
• 47:36
  Speaker 2: which we know is like the ultimate accomplishment in the
• 47:38
  Speaker 2: wizarding world.
• 47:40
  Speaker 4: Who cares about that Order of Merlin first class? Once
• 47:42
  Speaker 4: you get that chocolate frog card, you've made it.
• 47:45
  Speaker 2: You're in. Also, after a private conversation with Harry... It
• 47:52
  Speaker 2: was McGonagall who made the controversial decision to hang a
• 47:56
  Speaker 2: portrait of Severus Snape on the wall of the office
• 47:59
  Speaker 2: with the rest of the previous Hogwarts headmasters and headmistresses. Which, again,
• 48:06
  Speaker 2: I think says a lot about her character in being
• 48:10
  Speaker 2: able to understand gray areas and more of the complexity
• 48:17
  Speaker 2: of people. Which I think she always kind of had that.
• 48:23
  Speaker 4: So yeah I'm sure too that like her kind of
• 48:30
  Speaker 4: going back to her relationship with Dumbledore and obviously we
• 48:34
  Speaker 4: know Dumbledore trusted Snape and was very big on that
• 48:40
  Speaker 4: and so I think even if that's maybe something that
• 48:45
  Speaker 4: Dumbledore didn't fully confide in her about I could see
• 48:50
  Speaker 4: her saying like you know, Dumbledore wouldn't just blindly trust
• 48:56
  Speaker 4: this person if there isn't something there.
• 48:59
  Speaker 3: And I.
• 49:01
  Speaker 4: Trust him in some way because Dumbledore does. And I
• 49:06
  Speaker 4: think that she could probably see after the fact that
• 49:09
  Speaker 4: during Snape's little stint as headmaster, that it wasn't like,
• 49:20
  Speaker 4: fully like him and there is like a lot of
• 49:23
  Speaker 4: like obviously the caros and outside control like I could
• 49:27
  Speaker 4: just see her like you said kind of really thinking
• 49:31
  Speaker 4: like in that gray area and not just thinking about
• 49:34
  Speaker 4: everything very black and white where like, I think others
• 49:37
  Speaker 4: would just be like, it doesn't matter.
• 49:38
  Speaker 3: Like look at what he did during that time.
• 49:40
  Speaker 2: Um, I mean, I bet too, at this point, once
• 49:46
  Speaker 2: everything's over and done with Harry probably told her everything. Oh, I,
• 49:51
  Speaker 2: you know, like I'm sure he spilled the beans and
• 49:55
  Speaker 2: told her, all about the horcruxes, all about his lessons
• 49:59
  Speaker 2: with Dumbledore, all about Snape's role, like everything. Um, which
• 50:05
  Speaker 2: also speaks to, again, her relationship with students in that
• 50:12
  Speaker 2: her and Harry had that rapport that he could go
• 50:16
  Speaker 2: to her and tell her everything that happened.
• 50:20
  Speaker 3: And I think like we, I mean, and I agree.
• 50:22
  Speaker 4: And we see that like, I mean, it, I would
• 50:25
  Speaker 4: be remiss if I, like, didn't bring up Cursed Child
• 50:28
  Speaker 4: a little bit. And, like, McGonagall, we see her in
• 50:31
  Speaker 4: Cursed Child and interacting with them.
• 50:34
  Speaker 3: And she's still, you know, sassy McG.
• 50:37
  Speaker 4: And everything about the Marauder's Map and stuff.
• 50:41
  Speaker 3: But just seeing that she still has that relationship with Harry. So, like,
• 50:44
  Speaker 3: I agree. I'm sure that.
• 50:47
  Speaker 4: They probably had a conversation, whether Harry initiated that conversation
• 50:50
  Speaker 4: or McGonagall. I could see McGonagall maybe initiating that conversation.
• 50:54
  Speaker 4: But at that point, Harry's lost.
• 51:00
  Speaker 4: Obviously, he still has Ginny and Ron and Hermione and everything,
• 51:03
  Speaker 4: but has lost that relationship with Dumbledore. And I think
• 51:07
  Speaker 4: just sees that McGonagall can kind of be that person
• 51:10
  Speaker 4: that he can... kind of turn to at that point.
• 51:14
  Speaker 3: So I love that.
• 51:16
  Speaker 4: Like, we still see that they still have such like
• 51:18
  Speaker 4: a relationship going forward.
• 51:22
  Speaker 3: Like in, it's like one of the things.
• 51:23
  Speaker 4: One of the things that I like about Cursed Child
• 51:26
  Speaker 4: is like establishing that, that there's still that connection.
• 51:28
  Speaker 3: Yeah. Yeah.
• 51:32
  Speaker 4: I could also see her saying like, if Dumbledore was here,
• 51:36
  Speaker 4: like he would have wanted that portrait of Snape to
• 51:39
  Speaker 4: be up there.
• 51:40
  Speaker 1: Yeah.
• 51:41
  Speaker 3: And kind of doing it.
• 51:42
  Speaker 4: And, um, I mean, maybe her and Dumbledore had some
• 51:46
  Speaker 4: chats as well.
• 51:48
  Speaker 3: Right.
• 51:49
  Speaker 2: The portrait.
• 51:49
  Speaker 3: Yeah.
• 51:51
  Speaker 1: And I could see him also being the one to
• 51:55
  Speaker 1: kind of maybe even more than Harry turn her into.
• 52:03
  Speaker 3: Not a safe fan, but a, yeah. tolerate it. Yeah. Situation.
• 52:11
  Speaker 2: Yeah. No, yeah. I could see his portrait being like, yeah,
• 52:14
  Speaker 2: Severus needs to be hung right next to me.
• 52:20
  Speaker 3: Yeah. Or maybe in that moment, maybe Dumbledore did tell her.
• 52:24
  Speaker 3: Maybe it was Dumbledore. Yeah. Who told her kind of.
• 52:29
  Speaker 4: Everything had happened or maybe finally confided in her of
• 52:33
  Speaker 4: why he trusted.
• 52:34
  Speaker 3: Snape all that time. And he, and you know, Because
• 52:38
  Speaker 3: at the end of the day, I think it would
• 52:41
  Speaker 3: have been very.
• 52:41
  Speaker 4: Important for Dumbledore and McGonagall to have a conversation about Snape.
• 52:46
  Speaker 3: Because at the end of the day, Snape is the
• 52:48
  Speaker 3: one who killed Dumbledore. And so I think.
• 52:50
  Speaker 4: That that would cause a massive rift in any kind
• 52:59
  Speaker 4: of relationship between McGonagall and Snape.
• 53:03
  Speaker 2: Because Dumbledore was her... Person.
• 53:06
  Speaker 3: Person. At Hogwarts.
• 53:07
  Speaker 4: Yeah.
• 53:08
  Speaker 3: Right.
• 53:09
  Speaker 4: And now you have this other person who was a
• 53:12
  Speaker 4: professor and supposed to be someone that was trusted by
• 53:17
  Speaker 4: that person and killed him.
• 53:19
  Speaker 3: And obviously she didn't know the whole story. And I
• 53:20
  Speaker 3: just I see Dumbledore.
• 53:21
  Speaker 4: Having a conversation with her about that and being like, no,
• 53:25
  Speaker 4: it was all part of the plan.
• 53:28
  Speaker 3: And I told him he didn't want to do it either.
• 53:30
  Speaker 3: And I told him that he had to be the
• 53:32
  Speaker 3: one to do it. And this is why.
• 53:34
  Speaker 4: And this is why I need you to be okay
• 53:37
  Speaker 4: with it. And I need you to be there for Harry.
• 53:39
  Speaker 4: And like, I just, there was probably, I could see
• 53:43
  Speaker 4: that conversation happening.
• 53:45
  Speaker 2: Yeah.
• 53:46
  Speaker 3: Yeah.
• 53:47
  Speaker 2: I guess just knowing all this backstory about McGonagall, like,
• 53:52
  Speaker 2: does it.
• 53:55
  Speaker 2: Make anything that she does that we see in the
• 53:58
  Speaker 2: books make more sense? Like, I'm trying to think what
• 54:03
  Speaker 2: the backstory informs in her case.
• 54:07
  Speaker 3: I mean, I think that I.
• 54:11
  Speaker 4: Think the one thing about her backstory that is maybe
• 54:16
  Speaker 4: different than some of the other character deep dives that
• 54:19
  Speaker 4: we've done is that her backstory really shows, like, I
• 54:27
  Speaker 4: guess her humanity and, like, this just other side to
• 54:31
  Speaker 4: her and her personality because I think she's so known as, like,
• 54:35
  Speaker 4: just the sassy kind of stern, ferocious Scottish woman.
• 54:42
  Speaker 2: Yeah.
• 54:44
  Speaker 4: But her backstory really shows, like, a softer side to
• 54:48
  Speaker 4: her and, like, really the.
• 54:52
  Speaker 3: Duality of her character. Mm-hmm. And she's not just the stern,
• 54:58
  Speaker 3: sassy Scottish woman.
• 55:00
  Speaker 2: Right.
• 55:00
  Speaker 3: That's only part of her. And maybe it's like she's
• 55:05
  Speaker 3: been through some tough things.
• 55:07
  Speaker 4: In her life that has maybe informed why she's like
• 55:11
  Speaker 4: that a little bit or like needing to put up
• 55:14
  Speaker 4: that exterior because when she's let her guard down in
• 55:18
  Speaker 4: the past and allowed herself to feel these more softer emotions,
• 55:23
  Speaker 4: it's ended in tragedy.
• 55:25
  Speaker 2: Yeah. Yeah. And I feel like you can understand too, why,
• 55:33
  Speaker 2: why she does care so much about her students and
• 55:36
  Speaker 2: maybe trying to steer them away from making mistakes and
• 55:41
  Speaker 2: things like that as well, because she did have a
• 55:46
  Speaker 2: few hiccups in her own past that, I don't know, like,
• 55:55
  Speaker 2: Probably looking at them, she's like, ooh, I wasn't much
• 55:57
  Speaker 2: older than you when I, like, made some decisions that
• 56:02
  Speaker 2: really impacted me for the rest of my life. So
• 56:05
  Speaker 2: she probably feels that protectiveness over them because of that
• 56:11
  Speaker 2: and maybe seeing herself in them a little bit.
• 56:17
  Speaker 3: Sometimes I wonder, too, it seems like she was so.
• 56:21
  Speaker 4: Like her time in Hogwarts, like I don't see her
• 56:24
  Speaker 4: necessarily being the person like out getting in trouble or anything.
• 56:29
  Speaker 4: Like she's kind of, I like really wonder how she
• 56:32
  Speaker 4: feels about like Hermione because I feel like her and
• 56:36
  Speaker 4: Hermione can be like really compared in a way in
• 56:39
  Speaker 4: terms of it's almost like McGonagall was like this mini Hermione.
• 56:43
  Speaker 2: Yeah.
• 56:44
  Speaker 3: She was the Hermione of Hogwarts when she was in school.
• 56:47
  Speaker 4: But like, Instead of, like, befriending people who kind of, like,
• 56:53
  Speaker 4: got her out of her, like, I don't know, her, like,
• 56:57
  Speaker 4: stoic shell and, like, get a little.
• 57:02
  Speaker 3: Rebellious, I guess, a little bit.
• 57:04
  Speaker 4: Like, I think Hermione only got a little rebellious because
• 57:07
  Speaker 4: she became best friends with Harry and Ron, right? And
• 57:10
  Speaker 4: sometimes I wonder if, like, McGonagall, like, looks at them
• 57:14
  Speaker 4: and is, like, a little jealous and kind of wishes that.
• 57:19
  Speaker 4: She had maybe been a little rebellious, you know, from
• 57:23
  Speaker 4: time to time, um, when she was at Hogwarts.
• 57:26
  Speaker 3: And I think that every time, you know, we see
• 57:28
  Speaker 3: her finding them or like, why is it always you three?
• 57:32
  Speaker 4: Like, I feel like part of her is like, you know,
• 57:36
  Speaker 4: it's like saying that, but then she like smiles at that.
• 57:39
  Speaker 2: She's amused. Yeah. I mean, we see her like, kind
• 57:42
  Speaker 2: of like that with the Marauders too.
• 57:44
  Speaker 3: Yeah.
• 57:45
  Speaker 2: Right. She's kind of like, oh, yeah, they were always
• 57:48
  Speaker 2: getting in trouble. But then we know that like James
• 57:51
  Speaker 2: was one of her favorite students.
• 57:53
  Speaker 4: I think she I think she secretly really likes the
• 57:57
  Speaker 4: likes that and maybe just wishes that she had been
• 58:00
  Speaker 4: more like that in her life.
• 58:01
  Speaker 3: Instead of being so. Yeah, I don't know.
• 58:05
  Speaker 4: Uptight's not the right word, but like studious and just like.
• 58:10
  Speaker 4: In this, like, kind of rigid box. But we see
• 58:13
  Speaker 4: her kind of being like that because it's like she,
• 58:16
  Speaker 4: you know, goes off with this, like, muggle. And then she's, like,
• 58:21
  Speaker 4: kind of going off with this other older man. And
• 58:24
  Speaker 4: so she's got, like, little glimpses of, like, I just
• 58:26
  Speaker 4: want to, like, break the rules sometimes.
• 58:29
  Speaker 2: She keeps her own name.
• 58:31
  Speaker 3: Yeah. Right, right.
• 58:33
  Speaker 4: So I think that that's why she really kind of
• 58:37
  Speaker 4: just bonded with these students that were, at the end
• 58:41
  Speaker 4: of the day, really good kids and also, like, did well, like,
• 58:46
  Speaker 4: academically and stuff, but just every once in.
• 58:48
  Speaker 3: A while, like, broke the rules a little.
• 58:51
  Speaker 2: Well, she kind of had that same thing in her, though,
• 58:55
  Speaker 2: that it was like she was very much like Hermione,
• 58:58
  Speaker 2: rule follower, rule follower. But if something was clearly not right,
• 59:07
  Speaker 2: like she knew the difference between right and wrong. and
• 59:10
  Speaker 2: would break the rules if the rules seemed wrong like
• 59:14
  Speaker 2: we see her right join the order of the phoenix
• 59:18
  Speaker 2: instead of be with the ministry you know um yeah
• 59:24
  Speaker 2: i think I think you're onto something. I think she's, yeah,
• 59:28
  Speaker 2: she's very similar to a lot of these students that
• 59:30
  Speaker 2: she clearly has a soft spot for.
• 59:34
  Speaker 4: And I think especially like comparing her further to like
• 59:38
  Speaker 4: Hermione and everything, thinking about like just even Hermione's sorting
• 59:43
  Speaker 4: into Gryffindor, but like very clearly could have been in
• 59:46
  Speaker 4: Ravenclaw as well. And yeah, I just think that there's
• 59:51
  Speaker 4: a lot of, a lot of similarities there.
• 59:55
  Speaker 3: Between their two characters. And yeah, I don't know.
• 1:00:01
  Speaker 4: And I wonder too, like her growing up with like
• 1:00:04
  Speaker 4: brothers and if like that also, you know.
• 1:00:08
  Speaker 3: Informed her a little bit of mischievous nature.
• 1:00:11
  Speaker 2: Yeah.
• 1:00:13
  Speaker 3: Um, kind of think of, I think of like Jenny, right.
• 1:00:15
  Speaker 4: Who grew up in a family of all boys and
• 1:00:18
  Speaker 4: especially having brothers like Fred and George and just how
• 1:00:22
  Speaker 4: that can inform like a little bit.
• 1:00:24
  Speaker 3: Of her mischievous nature as well.
• 1:00:26
  Speaker 4: I don't know.
• 1:00:27
  Speaker 3: I think that if.
• 1:00:29
  Speaker 4: I wish we knew, like, even just a little bit
• 1:00:31
  Speaker 4: more about McGonagall, like, in her, like, school years other
• 1:00:34
  Speaker 4: than just being, like, really good at school because I
• 1:00:36
  Speaker 4: feel like she could have been, like– like, I would
• 1:00:38
  Speaker 4: have liked to be, like, besties with her.
• 1:00:41
  Speaker 3: Yeah. Like, I just think that, you know, she– or if,
• 1:00:44
  Speaker 3: you know, that she could have been, like, a really cool,
• 1:00:47
  Speaker 3: like– a really cool.
• 1:00:48
  Speaker 4: Friend, especially if, you know, she allowed herself to, like,
• 1:00:52
  Speaker 4: let her guard down sometimes. Study really hard, but also–
• 1:00:59
  Speaker 4: Be a little mischievous on the side.
• 1:01:00
  Speaker 2: Yeah.
• 1:01:17
  Speaker 4: So for this episode, for our rotating segment, we figured
• 1:01:21
  Speaker 4: we would do a specialis rebellio on the etymology of
• 1:01:26
  Speaker 4: Minerva McGonagall's name.
• 1:01:28
  Speaker 3: Very fitting.
• 1:01:29
  Speaker 4: So the name Minerva is derived from Roman mythology. So
• 1:01:35
  Speaker 4: Minerva was the Roman goddess of warriors and wisdom, which
• 1:01:42
  Speaker 4: fits pretty well for Minerva. I mean, especially because we literally,
• 1:01:46
  Speaker 4: she was even just going back to her being a
• 1:01:49
  Speaker 4: hat stall between Gryffindor, which, you know, you can liken
• 1:01:53
  Speaker 4: to like a warrior and wisdom and Ravenclaw.
• 1:01:56
  Speaker 3: And you've got her right at this intersection.
• 1:01:58
  Speaker 2: Yeah.
• 1:02:00
  Speaker 4: I think also we've talked a lot about just the
• 1:02:05
  Speaker 4: things that she's done in her life that I really
• 1:02:08
  Speaker 4: think puts her in this warrior category from, I mean,
• 1:02:12
  Speaker 4: you mentioning her like being a total baddie and battling
• 1:02:16
  Speaker 4: Voldemort totally puts her in the warrior.
• 1:02:21
  Speaker 3: Everything that she did to.
• 1:02:23
  Speaker 4: Stand up for like the students with, like we were
• 1:02:25
  Speaker 4: talking about with the caros and everything. But I also
• 1:02:29
  Speaker 4: think even from a not even being a physical warrior,
• 1:02:33
  Speaker 4: but even what you're talking about for like standing up
• 1:02:36
  Speaker 4: for things like keeping her last.
• 1:02:38
  Speaker 3: Name and like those kind of things. And then, of course, wisdom.
• 1:02:42
  Speaker 4: We've talked a lot about this.
• 1:02:45
  Speaker 3: She was incredibly smart and intelligent.
• 1:02:47
  Speaker 4: And so that just kind of speaks for itself right there, too.
• 1:02:54
  Speaker 2: So J.K.
• 1:02:55
  Speaker 4: Rowling actually shared some things about kind of the etymology
• 1:02:59
  Speaker 4: as well, especially regarding the last name McGonagall.
• 1:03:05
  Speaker 3: So J.K.
• 1:03:06
  Speaker 4: Rowling said that this came from William McGonagall, who was
• 1:03:11
  Speaker 4: supposedly considered one of the worst poets in British history.
• 1:03:15
  Speaker 3: Yeah. And J.K.R.
• 1:03:18
  Speaker 4: Stated, quote, there was something irresistible to me about his
• 1:03:21
  Speaker 4: name and the idea that such a brilliant woman might
• 1:03:25
  Speaker 4: be a distant relative of the buffoonish McGonagall. So really
• 1:03:33
  Speaker 4: nothing else of significance for the last name McGonagall other
• 1:03:38
  Speaker 4: than the author thought it would be humorous.
• 1:03:41
  Speaker 2: And that's funny. How do you like win that designation?
• 1:03:47
  Speaker 2: of the worst poet, like how.
• 1:03:49
  Speaker 4: Well, and it's, it's funny because initially I thought that
• 1:03:53
  Speaker 4: maybe just JK Rowling considered him the worst.
• 1:03:59
  Speaker 3: But then when I Googled him a little bit more, um,
• 1:04:02
  Speaker 3: I was.
• 1:04:03
  Speaker 4: Seeing other things also refer to him as one of
• 1:04:06
  Speaker 4: the worst poets. So I don't think it's just like
• 1:04:09
  Speaker 4: a subjective opinion thing on her part.
• 1:04:12
  Speaker 3: I think it's actually collective.
• 1:04:14
  Speaker 2: People agree on this. Interesting.
• 1:04:16
  Speaker 3: Yeah. So I mean, I don't know how you earn
• 1:04:21
  Speaker 3: that title. But apparently you can. And he did.
• 1:04:26
  Speaker 2: Well.
• 1:04:27
  Speaker 3: And yeah.
• 1:04:29
  Speaker 2: Yeah. Somebody's got to be the best and somebody's got
• 1:04:33
  Speaker 2: to be the worst. Right.
• 1:04:35
  Speaker 3: Not everybody can be the first. I mean, I guess
• 1:04:39
  Speaker 3: it could have to do with how.
• 1:04:41
  Speaker 4: Your work is received and just the criticism that you
• 1:04:45
  Speaker 4: maybe get.
• 1:04:48
  Speaker 3: If you go to.
• 1:04:49
  Speaker 4: The Pottermore Writings website, And on the page for McGonagall, J.K.
• 1:04:54
  Speaker 4: Rowling includes like an excerpt of some of William McGonagall's writing,
• 1:04:58
  Speaker 4: I guess to back.
• 1:04:59
  Speaker 3: Up this worst poet thing.
• 1:05:01
  Speaker 4: So if you're curious, you can go to that page
• 1:05:04
  Speaker 4: and read the excerpt that she included. And I guess
• 1:05:07
  Speaker 4: form your own opinion on him.
• 1:05:10
  Speaker 2: All right.
• 1:05:19
  Speaker 4: So in our last episode, we asked, which piece of
• 1:05:23
  Speaker 4: Back to Hogwarts 2026 news are you most excited about?
• 1:05:28
  Speaker 4: And Jerry shared with us that the thing that she's
• 1:05:31
  Speaker 4: most excited about was one of the things that she
• 1:05:34
  Speaker 4: can take advantage of, which was the official sorting ceremony
• 1:05:38
  Speaker 4: that we talked about at the beginning of the episode.
• 1:05:41
  Speaker 4: And Jerry said that back in the original Pottermore, she
• 1:05:44
  Speaker 4: was sorted into Hufflepuff. She had never actually considered any
• 1:05:49
  Speaker 4: house but Gryffindor after reading the books from Harry's point
• 1:05:52
  Speaker 4: of view. But Jerry says, on doing some research and
• 1:05:55
  Speaker 4: thinking carefully, I decided that I was certainly a Hufflepuff.
• 1:05:59
  Speaker 4: When the original Pottermore was converted to the next version,
• 1:06:03
  Speaker 4: we users were told that our profile would be transferred.
• 1:06:06
  Speaker 4: But as it turned out, we had to be sorted again,
• 1:06:08
  Speaker 4: and I was sorted into Slytherin. Then, as we kind
• 1:06:12
  Speaker 4: of talked about earlier, too, Jerry said she got a
• 1:06:14
  Speaker 4: new email address, created a new account.
• 1:06:16
  Speaker 3: I think a lot of us did that. A lot
• 1:06:18
  Speaker 3: of us have multiple accounts.
• 1:06:20
  Speaker 4: And then this time, Jerry was sorted and placed in
• 1:06:22
  Speaker 4: a Ravenclaw account. Maybe Jerry, maybe a hat stall here
• 1:06:28
  Speaker 4: a little bit. But Jerry said that she would put
• 1:06:31
  Speaker 4: Hufflepuff clothing and hats on her profile picture, but it
• 1:06:34
  Speaker 4: kept calling me the wrong house. Then on September 1st,
• 1:06:38
  Speaker 4: we had the chance to take the sorting quiz again
• 1:06:41
  Speaker 4: after a magical makeover and it put me back into Hufflepuff.
• 1:06:44
  Speaker 3: So I was excited. Well, good. So Jerry's one.
• 1:06:48
  Speaker 4: Of the people not having an identity crisis about being
• 1:06:50
  Speaker 4: sorted into a house they don't align with. Jerry, it
• 1:06:54
  Speaker 4: looks like you had the opposite and got aligned to
• 1:06:57
  Speaker 4: the house that you are aligned with.
• 1:06:58
  Speaker 2: You came home.
• 1:06:59
  Speaker 3: Congratulations. Yes. Yeah.
• 1:07:03
  Speaker 4: So Jerry also said lots of other interesting news, but
• 1:07:05
  Speaker 4: most of it was about things that I don't think
• 1:07:07
  Speaker 4: I'll ever be able to go.
• 1:07:08
  Speaker 3: To or want to buy. I agree.
• 1:07:12
  Speaker 4: Jerry said that she might go for the new illustrated
• 1:07:14
  Speaker 4: edition at some point. But again, the sorting hat revamp
• 1:07:20
  Speaker 4: was a bit of news was something that she could do.
• 1:07:22
  Speaker 3: And it gave her the answer that she wanted. Yay.
• 1:07:25
  Speaker 2: Go Hufflepuff.
• 1:07:28
  Speaker 4: And I also like kind of like what Jared was
• 1:07:31
  Speaker 4: saying too about initially not really considering any other house
• 1:07:37
  Speaker 4: but Gryffindor because like when you're reading the books. And
• 1:07:39
  Speaker 4: I think that that was such a influence on so
• 1:07:42
  Speaker 4: many of us like growing up and reading the books
• 1:07:44
  Speaker 4: and like or just being there as the books were
• 1:07:46
  Speaker 4: coming out because– I think that's why for me, I
• 1:07:49
  Speaker 4: never realized initially that like Slytherin was the best house
• 1:07:53
  Speaker 4: for me because obviously reading the books, we get a.
• 1:07:56
  Speaker 3: Very negative view of Slytherin.
• 1:07:59
  Speaker 4: And I just think that if you're just looking at
• 1:08:03
  Speaker 4: Harry's point of view and the book's point of view,
• 1:08:05
  Speaker 4: you're like, why would I want to be sorted into
• 1:08:06
  Speaker 4: that house? But then once you start doing like your
• 1:08:09
  Speaker 4: own research and stuff like that and.
• 1:08:11
  Speaker 3: You realize, okay, Slytherin house is not all bad. Mm-hmm.
• 1:08:17
  Speaker 2: And there was no other merch other than Gryffindor merch.
• 1:08:20
  Speaker 2: Like I had Gryffindor robes when I was a kid.
• 1:08:23
  Speaker 2: I mean, even after the sorting thing and like everybody
• 1:08:27
  Speaker 2: got sorted into all their houses, there still wasn't merch
• 1:08:31
  Speaker 2: for Hufflepuff or Ravenclaw. It was a long time.
• 1:08:36
  Speaker 3: Yes. Yep.
• 1:08:39
  Speaker 4: So I do feel like growing up, we all kind
• 1:08:41
  Speaker 4: of were like Gryffindor, Slytherin.
• 1:08:43
  Speaker 3: Yeah. Because that's just like what was kind of presented
• 1:08:47
  Speaker 3: to us.
• 1:08:47
  Speaker 4: So I'm glad that we've come a long way and
• 1:08:49
  Speaker 4: that all the houses now get a lot of love.
• 1:08:55
  Speaker 4: And so I also wanted to include, cause obviously we
• 1:08:57
  Speaker 4: talked a lot about the trailer in the last episode.
• 1:09:00
  Speaker 3: It was our main discussion.
• 1:09:01
  Speaker 4: And Jerry also shared some thoughts with us on the
• 1:09:04
  Speaker 4: trailer and, She said that she enjoyed the new trailer
• 1:09:07
  Speaker 4: quite a bit, loved the child.
• 1:09:09
  Speaker 3: Actors, all of them, us two.
• 1:09:11
  Speaker 2: So cute.
• 1:09:13
  Speaker 4: Jerry said, I certainly plan to watch the series, but
• 1:09:15
  Speaker 4: realize it is difficult to judge too much based on
• 1:09:17
  Speaker 4: these teaser trailers, even long ones like these two that
• 1:09:20
  Speaker 4: have been released so far. The proof will be in
• 1:09:22
  Speaker 4: the show itself. All of the book accurate bits made
• 1:09:25
  Speaker 4: me feel a bit more safe. Jerry said, if I
• 1:09:28
  Speaker 4: had to pick one segment that sticks in my memory now,
• 1:09:31
  Speaker 4: it is the Christmastime ones with Harry and Ron enjoying
• 1:09:33
  Speaker 4: the holiday together and Harry wearing what I feel sure
• 1:09:36
  Speaker 4: is his Weasley sweater. It didn't look exactly as described
• 1:09:40
  Speaker 4: in the book, but it certainly looked like a handmade,
• 1:09:44
  Speaker 4: Jerry says, well, a magically made, but with a personal touch,
• 1:09:47
  Speaker 4: sweater slash jumper and probably the first bit of clothing
• 1:09:50
  Speaker 4: made just for.
• 1:09:50
  Speaker 3: Him since his parents died.
• 1:09:53
  Speaker 4: And she says, not counting the robes made at Madam Melkins,
• 1:09:55
  Speaker 4: because those are uniforms, not personal. And then Jerry said,
• 1:10:00
  Speaker 4: just one more thought triggered by the new trailer with
• 1:10:02
  Speaker 4: Ron's post-game bloody nose. Is this a clue that the
• 1:10:05
  Speaker 4: TV show will actually have more than one Quidditch game
• 1:10:07
  Speaker 4: per year since we have seen bits from the first
• 1:10:10
  Speaker 4: game against Slytherin, but the fight with Malfoy takes place
• 1:10:12
  Speaker 4: at the second game against Hufflepuff? I think we will,
• 1:10:17
  Speaker 4: because I think we have, like, in the show– we
• 1:10:20
  Speaker 4: obviously have extra time for things and I think we'll get,
• 1:10:24
  Speaker 4: I mean, we already have been told we're going to
• 1:10:26
  Speaker 4: get a lot more like classroom moments and I think
• 1:10:28
  Speaker 4: we'll definitely get more Quidditch moments because there's just the
• 1:10:32
  Speaker 4: time to do more Quidditch games.
• 1:10:34
  Speaker 3: I think the Quidditch games add a lot of just like.
• 1:10:39
  Speaker 4: Action into the show before you get to the end
• 1:10:44
  Speaker 4: and there's like really any action.
• 1:10:46
  Speaker 2: Right.
• 1:10:47
  Speaker 4: I think I'm sure for like, the creators of the
• 1:10:51
  Speaker 4: show animating Quidditch matches is probably really fun. And I
• 1:10:56
  Speaker 4: think things like that just do really well visually. So
• 1:10:59
  Speaker 4: why would they not do more of them?
• 1:11:01
  Speaker 2: Well, especially with a show when it seems like from
• 1:11:04
  Speaker 2: the trailers, they are giving all of the characters their
• 1:11:08
  Speaker 2: moments rather than just really focusing on Harry. Having something
• 1:11:14
  Speaker 2: like a sporting match going on, we see this in
• 1:11:17
  Speaker 2: a lot of TV shows, like football games and stuff
• 1:11:20
  Speaker 2: going on and then there's like the subplots happening on
• 1:11:24
  Speaker 2: the sidelines with other characters it's just a really good
• 1:11:28
  Speaker 2: tool to use to kind of get in those like
• 1:11:31
  Speaker 2: subplots in a way that's really interesting because you've got
• 1:11:35
  Speaker 2: the action then you cut back to what's going on
• 1:11:37
  Speaker 2: here then you've got the action again then you cut
• 1:11:39
  Speaker 2: back like I think yeah I could see them definitely
• 1:11:44
  Speaker 2: using this and in a way that's like almost like
• 1:11:48
  Speaker 2: montage-y to get some of that stuff, um, across.
• 1:11:53
  Speaker 3: Yeah.
• 1:11:54
  Speaker 2: For our discussion question for this episode, we would like
• 1:11:58
  Speaker 2: to know, do you think, uh, would McGonagall have been
• 1:12:02
  Speaker 2: better suited for Gryffindor or Ravenclaw? Was she sorted correctly?
• 1:12:07
  Speaker 2: We want to hear your thoughts. So drop us an
• 1:12:10
  Speaker 2: email at revelio podcast staff at gmail.com or reach out
• 1:12:14
  Speaker 2: to us on social media. You can find us on
• 1:12:16
  Speaker 2: Facebook at, at facebook.com backslash reveliocast, on Instagram and TikTok
• 1:12:22
  Speaker 2: at reveliopodcast, on Twitter and YouTube at revelio underscore podcast,
• 1:12:28
  Speaker 2: and you can support the show on Patreon at patreon.com
• 1:12:31
  Speaker 2: backslash reveliopodcast. We've got a lot of extra content on there,
• 1:12:37
  Speaker 2: so if you're looking for more things to listen to
• 1:12:40
  Speaker 2: or things to watch or activity sheets, definitely go check
• 1:12:45
  Speaker 2: out our Patreon page.
• 1:12:49
  Speaker 4: All right.
• 1:12:50
  Speaker 2: Well, another one in the books and we're back on
• 1:12:54
  Speaker 2: our normal schedule now. So that's good. So we will
• 1:13:01
  Speaker 2: see you in two weeks. I'm Amy.
• 1:13:05
  Speaker 3: And I'm Nicole. Mischief Managed.
• 1:13:19
  Speaker 2: Thank you.