Maybe the reason McGonagall knew that Dumbledore was behind the Santa Claus portkey is because only the headmaster could create a portkey that would work inside the Hogwarts wards. Quirrell took Harry outside the wards in order to portkey him to Diagon Alley.
Your point still stands though because there are surely other things that they could do.
Britain holds that you need Dumbledore’s permission to emigrate to magical America, but magical America disagrees. So in the final extremity, get outside the wards of Hogwarts and tear in half the King of Hearts from this deck of cards.
Maybe the reason McGonagall knew that Dumbledore was behind the Santa Claus portkey is because only the headmaster could create a portkey that would work inside the Hogwarts wards.
Then again, Snape didn’t realize that just from hearing about the portkey. This theory’s probably inaccurate.
Maybe the reason McGonagall knew that Dumbledore was behind the Santa Claus portkey is because only the headmaster could create a portkey that would work inside the Hogwarts wards. Quirrell took Harry outside the wards in order to portkey him to Diagon Alley.
Your point still stands though because there are surely other things that they could do.
Edit: Wow, did I do that?
Then again, Snape didn’t realize that just from hearing about the portkey. This theory’s probably inaccurate.
Retracting as per pedanterrific’s comment.