Like I said in another post, I suspect Quirrel simply wants Dumbledore and Minerva to get in Harry’s way in order to get him to distrust them. Or perhaps I should say, to maintain the distrust that currently exists. Asking them to cheer Harry up will only have them keep treating Harry’s feelings as a problem to be solved, like what he yelled at Fawkes for, and Quirrel knows this.
He’s cut him off from Draco, Hermione, and now he’s working on Minerva.
I don’t think this will drive Minerva from Harry. Despite the unpleasantness, I think this has decreased her loyalty to Dumbledore and increased it to Harry. Dumbledore was complacent about the lapse and didn’t think she was worth blaming. Harry gave her a sense that more is possible (even if he doesn’t think she can pull it off) and I think she’ll surprise him.
Dumbledore and Harry don’t actually do anything very different from each other in that scene. They’re both blaming themselves instead of McGonagall. What’s different is in how they express that. Harry is very clear about who he is blaming, and why; he tells McGonagall exactly what she did wrong when she asks to be blamed, although he still does not in fact blame her. Dumbledore, on the other hand, offers only comfort; he doesn’t even tell McGonagall that he’s going to blame himself, although she can very well guess.
It’s also worth noting that Harry chooses an interesting fault to explain to Professor McGonagall. He doesn’t suggest that, like Quirrell, she should have checked on all the high-value targets before leaving the room. Instead, he told her to trust her students more. This is something that McGonagall could actually do; it’s much better suited to her than the more complicated, strategic options Harry would suggest for himself or Quirrell. So, although it’s definitely not explicitly said this way, it’s pretty easy to read Harry as giving advice here, which Dumbledore notably fails to do.
The only obvious purpose would be to delay Harry, and it seems like a singularly inefficient way of doing that—I think anyone trying to predict his actions would have assigned good odds to him ignoring everyone and everything else and zooming out of there the second he thought Hermione was in trouble.
Furthermore, there are all kinds of ways trying to magically influence a professor could have backfired. The benefit doesn’t seem worth the risk.
Like I said in another post, I suspect Quirrel simply wants Dumbledore and Minerva to get in Harry’s way in order to get him to distrust them. Or perhaps I should say, to maintain the distrust that currently exists. Asking them to cheer Harry up will only have them keep treating Harry’s feelings as a problem to be solved, like what he yelled at Fawkes for, and Quirrel knows this.
He’s cut him off from Draco, Hermione, and now he’s working on Minerva.
I don’t think this will drive Minerva from Harry. Despite the unpleasantness, I think this has decreased her loyalty to Dumbledore and increased it to Harry. Dumbledore was complacent about the lapse and didn’t think she was worth blaming. Harry gave her a sense that more is possible (even if he doesn’t think she can pull it off) and I think she’ll surprise him.
Yeah, that was kind of a dick move on Dumbie’s part, right there. Really disappointing.
Dumbledore and Harry don’t actually do anything very different from each other in that scene. They’re both blaming themselves instead of McGonagall. What’s different is in how they express that. Harry is very clear about who he is blaming, and why; he tells McGonagall exactly what she did wrong when she asks to be blamed, although he still does not in fact blame her. Dumbledore, on the other hand, offers only comfort; he doesn’t even tell McGonagall that he’s going to blame himself, although she can very well guess.
It’s also worth noting that Harry chooses an interesting fault to explain to Professor McGonagall. He doesn’t suggest that, like Quirrell, she should have checked on all the high-value targets before leaving the room. Instead, he told her to trust her students more. This is something that McGonagall could actually do; it’s much better suited to her than the more complicated, strategic options Harry would suggest for himself or Quirrell. So, although it’s definitely not explicitly said this way, it’s pretty easy to read Harry as giving advice here, which Dumbledore notably fails to do.
Flash of insight: Professor McGonagall has (had?) the identity feature “I know better than students what is good for them.”
She’s a teacher. This is a default state for anyone who spends their life around 11-17 year olds, because about 90% of the time it’s true.
It’s a high prior, but she has it as an intrinsic part of her identity.
Well, it always worked before. He doesn’t have a good reason to think it won’t work again.
OR, perhaps he is supporting Harry by “discouraging” a hero-to-be, like he did with Hermione.
Hypothesis: Minerva gave those really bad orders under magical influence.
Some of those really bad orders match the ones she gave in canon, and Dumbledore doesn’t seem to think they’re out of ordinary for her.
Is MinervaMOR supposed to be more rational than cannon Minerva?
The only obvious purpose would be to delay Harry, and it seems like a singularly inefficient way of doing that—I think anyone trying to predict his actions would have assigned good odds to him ignoring everyone and everything else and zooming out of there the second he thought Hermione was in trouble.
Furthermore, there are all kinds of ways trying to magically influence a professor could have backfired. The benefit doesn’t seem worth the risk.