Hotter Potter January Meme

I am now joining the Hotter Potter Reading Event to re-read Harry Potter series. Besides reading, there is also monthly meme (for seven consecutively months) that encourages us to post about certain theme related to Harry Potter’s world. Here is the first one, January meme’s prompt:

Jika kamu menjadi salah satu guru di Hogwarts, kamu ingin menjadi siapa? Alasannya? (If you would become one of Hogwarts’ teachers, who would you like to be? Why?)

From the moment I read the question, I know instantly who’d I become, because she was my favorite teacher and one of my favorite characters from this series ever:

Professor McGonagall – Transfiguration teacher

Minerva McGonagall is a remarkable woman, as well as a remarkable witch. Her very first appearance in this book is when she was sitting silently on the wall at Privet Drive number 4 as a cat! Yes, that’s what impressed me from the very first time I read Harry Potter. Imagine how surprised I was when Dumbledore arrived and all of a sudden the cat—of course I didn’t know at first that it’s not a real cat—leaped and *hop* transformed to a woman!

Isn’t it just amazing that you can transform something into something else only in a wave of wand? Or in the case of Animagus (the skill of a witch or wizard to transform oneself into an animal at will), isn’t it cool that you can be an animal when you want to avoid someone or are in a danger? Transfiguration is indeed an interesting thing to learn if I was a witch, and mastering this skill to be a professor is..wow! Not that it is easy to do, Prof. McGonagall herself has warned her pupils at their first class about this branch of magic:

"Transfiguration is some of the most complex and dangerous magic you will learn at Hogwarts. Anyone messing around in my class will leave and not come back. You have been warned."

But not only because of the class she was teaching, that I’d like to be Professor McGonagall, I also admire her whole personality. McGonagall was a strong woman. She was very strict, but sometimes she could also be flexible when needed. McGonagall wasn’t reluctant to deduct points from her own house (Griffindor) when her pupils made mistakes. However, sometimes McGonagall could also bend the rules (not punishing Harry when she saw him flying on his broom and catching Neville’s remembral on his first flying class, because she wanted to make him seeker).

McGonagall showed her bravery after Dumbledore died and she became the Headmistress. Like Dumbledore, McGonagall always loved Hogwarts and her pupils. She stood erectly to defend her students from the twin wicked teachers who were Death Eaters (I forget the names), she also fought bravely when Voldemort’s armies invaded Hogwarts. I think McGonagall must be Harry’s most favorite teacher in Hogwarts—and the second person he respected the most after Dumbledore and later on Snape, of course. I remember how Harry stood for her when one of the Death Eaters (again, I forget who :D) insulted her, which made McGonagall was deeply touched.

McGonagall's fighting for Hogwarts

In short, you would never find any scene in this series where any of the students insult or said nasty things or laugh at McGonagall. Her name was always mentioned with respect—not fears as of Snape’s, but respect. And Minerva McGonagall indeed deserved that respect! McGonagall’s class was also one of only few classes where the students always studied in silent, this only proved that she had an air of authority in her. Harry was right, Minerva McGonagall was “not someone you wanted to cross”.

I love Professor McGonagall, and if I was to be a teacher in Hogwarts—or even in Muggle world, I would be very proud to be a teacher like Professor McGonagall!