why I love minerva mcgonagall

There are lots of things to love about the Harry Potter book series. Obviously, I love these books considering I'm on my fifth read-through. Some things I love:

• The fact that love conquers all!
• Harry's unusual friendships with Dobby, Firenze, Hagrid, Sirius, Hedwig, etc.
• How Ron and Harry make up increasingly ridiculous predictions for Divination
• When Dumbledore apologizes for not making Harry a prefect
• Mr Weasley's fascination with Muggle objects
• How Hermione runs off to check a theory and Ron thinks she's crazy
• How all the professors silently make Umbridge's life miserable
• Everything about Luna Lovegood and Neville Longbottom
• The descriptions of Lupin's clothing/appearance/demeanor
• Dumbledore's style
• Lockhart

And so on. But one of the parts that I'm learning to appreciate way more than ever before is, as you may have guessed by my blog title, the character of Minerva McGonagall, Transfiguration Professor, Deputy Headmistress and general baller. Some prime examples (single quotation marks because I'm reading the British editions lolol):

• She stood up, nostrils wide and mouth very thin, and Harry stood up, too.
  'Have another biscuit,' she said irritably, thrusting the tin at him.
  'No, thanks,' said Harry coldly.
  'Don't be ridiculous,' she snapped.
  He took one.
  'Thanks,' he said grudgingly.
• Harry and Ron got up first from the table and she shrieked loudly.
  'My dears! Which of you left his seat first? Which?'
  'Dunno,' said Ron, looking uneasily at Harry.
  'I doubt it will make much difference,' said Professor McGonagall coldly, 'unless a mad axe-man is waiting outside the doors to slaughter the first into the Entrance Hall.'
• 'JORDAN! ARE YOU BEING PAID TO ADVERTISE FIREBOLTS? GET ON WITH THE COMMENTARY!'
• 'False hope?' repeated Professor McGonagall, still refusing to look round at Professor Umbridge. 'He has achieved high marks in all his Defence Against the Dark Arts tests –'
  'I'm terribly sorry to have to contradict you, Minerva, but as you will see from my not, Harry has been achieving very poor results in his classes with me –'
  'I should have made my meaning plainer,' said Professor McGonagall, turning at last to look at Umbridge directly in the eyes. 'He has achieved high marks in all Defence Against the Dark Arts tests set by a competent teacher.'
• She stopped again, and then said, in a very matter-of-fact tone, 'You look in excellent health to me, Potter, so you will excuse me if I don't let you off homework today. I assure you that if you do die, you need not hand it in.'
• Indeed, a week after Fred and George's departure Harry witnessed Professor McGonagall walking right past Peeves, who was determinedly loosening a crystal chandelier, and could have sworn he heard her tell the poltergeist out of the corner of her mouth, 'It unscrews the other way.'

AND SO ON. (I excluded a lot of good McG moments because these are my absolute favorites, but there are a lot of other great ones.) She is such a baller in basically everything she says and does that I am amazed at how much I overlooked her before this. I mean, I knew she was cool and all but I always thought of her as a strict teacher who made a few exceptions but was nowhere near as awesome as Dumbledore. But although she's slightly less into super amazing advanced magic and evil-wizard-hunting, she stands up for Harry basically all the time and can be so sassy when she does it. A lot of these quotes represent the charm that the books hold but that gets lost in the movies...obviously Peeves, Jordan's silly commentary on Quidditch, some classroom antics, the rest of the staff's disdain for Divination. They're just such a joy to read and there are a lot of really funny parts that get skipped over so that they have room to make Ron sound like an idiot...but that is another topic.

Anyway, she's great at transfiguration, obviously, and is super loyal to Dumbledore and isn't all scared of Voldemort all the time like you would expect. But mostly I love her sass. She has something of a temper but only becomes irritable, not losing her cool (except when she yells at Jordan...or about the Dementors...but even then she's just exerting authority). Whatever, when she has to she keeps her temper in line and then just uses some awesome tone and biting words to dominate an argument. What a role model.