From the announcement of Pottermore I've been beyond excited at the prospect of learning more about the wizarding world and the beings who inhabit it. Like many people my age, Harry Potter was an essential part of my childhood. To me, the characters were so close to being real people, real friends. I related to many of their struggles probably more than is sane to admit. That world was real to me and I have always wanted to know everything I could about it (suggestion to JK Rowling if she ever decides to make another companion book: Hogwarts, A History).

So learning that I'd be able to learn more about my fictional second home made me ecstatic. I trolled the website over the summer, waiting for the magic quill to appear. When it did, I instantly signed up (I'm MugwumpChaser31 should anyone wish to find me). I waited rather impatiently for my welcome e-mail and in the last week of September I received it. I dove into the world, found myself slightly disappointed to be sorted into Slytherin (I truly wanted to find myself in Hufflepuff) and went about trying to find out all the wonderful new details about this world.

And their were many details to find. Most intriguing was an extremely detailed backstory of Minerva McGonagall. I'll admit that I have always loved McGonagall. In my head she is nothing like Dame Maggie Smith, but I still adore Smith's interpretation of the character. Lately I have been learning more about feminism and have begun to unabashedly define myself as a feminist. Like many things in my life, I immediately started to compare feminism to Harry Potter.

There are many strong female roles in Harry Potter, not the least of them being Rowling herself. Hermione tends to get most of the attention and rightly so. She fights hard to prove that she is as good as the boys but is still a girl. She is smart and brave and loyal. As far as feminist role models go, one could do far worse than Hermione Granger *coughBellaSwanncough*.

But Minerva McGonagall as a feminist intrigued me. In my mind she portrayed a first wave feminist, one of the women who had to fight hard to get where she was, making sacrifices along the way so that future generations of girls wouldn't have to. I don't particularly know where that image comes from, but there is no denying that she is a remarkable woman. Based on her age, we know that when she grew up, girls were not given the same privileges as boys. We know she is smart and talented. I imagine she had to fight to be recognized as a serious contender.

One aspect of McGonagall's story that I found interesting is that she is, for lack of a better term, a spinster. I suppose today we'd call her a career woman, but I'm sure in her days she was called a spinster and an old maid. A woman to be pitied. Long before JK Rowling revealed the truth of Dumbledore's sexuality, fanfics abounded shipping the two of them together. I never liked those. Not just because the image of them getting it on is like walking in on your parents having sex, but because I liked that they had a purely platonic friendship. Minerva was Albus's protege and second in command. In my mind, adding any sexual tension there sullied that relationship. I suppose I liked that McGonagall was single, that she had chosen her career over a family back in an age when not only could women not have both, but their choice should never have even been a question. Women get married and have kids. It's okay if they need a job before marriage, provided they are appropriate jobs like a secretary or a schoolteacher. But not just any schoolteacher. Women should teach elementary school. If they taught high school they taught Home Ec. Women didn't head up a department and they certainly weren't second in command.

So imagine my surprise as I read up on Minerva's history. How did she end up in Hogwarts? Through a broken heart. Her first choice of career had been in the ministry (a position even more interesting for the times), but then she fell for a muggle named Dougal McGregor. She wanted to tell him she was a witch but couldn't. Being a halfblood she had seen how muggle/witch marriages could end up badly. So she ended their engagement and broke both of their hearts.

Following this, she found that she could not tolerate living in London or her work with the ministry. So she quit to return to Scotland. It was in this way that she found herself becoming Dumbledore's replacement as the Hogwarts transfiguration teacher.

Does this change my view of McGonagall? I'm not yet sure. I am slightly disappointed that her entire life's work was defined by a man. But, she clearly loves teaching and is very good at it. She cares for her students deeply and most certainly her presence in Hogwarts was needed during both Order of the Phoenix and Deathly Hallows. Would she have ended up there anyway had it not been for Dougal McGregor? Who knows.

But, on the other hand, I have always been strong on the point that being a feminist does not mean you do not need or want a man. Everyone needs companionship be it familial, platonic or romantic. Feminism is about choice. If one chooses to marry and raise a family in lieu of a career, who are we to tell her that is wrong? Feminists are still human. We have feelings and emotions. We suffer broken hearts just like anyone else. So can I blame this (fictional) woman for that?

Or am I annoyed because she didn't choose it? Yes, I think that is part of it. She fell into it by default. But does that make her contributions to the school any less real? No, it doesn't. Perhaps I am looking at it wrong. Did she let the broken engagement define her? Or did she use that negative energy and put it into something useful? Does it matter how she found her calling, provided that she got there? No, I don't suppose it does.

So, I salute Minerva McGonagall, a feminist who feels.

Yes, I totally did just write a 1000+ word essay on a minor character in a fictional book series. Such is my love.