Why on earth is Prof McGonagall announcing in public that a bunch of children’s parents are dead and were evil? That seems a really, really terrible way to break the news to them.
I’d expect at the very least she’d tell them privately in advance, and probably wouldn’t say it in public at all, except in very general terms.
From her perspective, there are advantages to announcing it in public—for example, there will no be no witch hunt of “which Slytherins turned out to have active Death Eater parents?”, and McGonagall also firmly tied the listing of the orphaned children’s names to pronouncements of sympathy and solidarity in her listeners’ minds.
I still don’t think there was any good reason not to break it to them in private first.
I still don’t think there was any good reason not to break it to them in private first.
In a perfect world, I completely agree.
In a real world, I can see that McGonagall did not have time before breakfast to talk to all of the orphaned children. I can also see that she might strongly prefer to quench the early rumors and avoid starting new rumors by calling a number of students into her office. (Delegating it to Snape, the Head of Slytherin House, was not an option; and delegating it to any other teacher would have sent a signal of McGonagall not caring enough to do it herself, making this a non-option, too.)
Given all this, I still think she should have delayed the announcement to talk to the children beforehand; but I don’t think it’s a simple choice for her.
I don’t think “were evil” is actually a secret, most Death Eaters are known—they plead being under the Imperius or otherwise forced to join, but I don’t think there is much doubt for who was on which side of the war.
As for telling them publically, it’s true it’s not the best way to break the news, but I fear attempts to tell them in private could have been ever worse—with rumors propagating in the school, the fact you can’t tell them all at once and have to take turns and everyone will see something is going on.
In the current situation, it seems an acceptable way of doing it.
Edit : forgot to refer to the “Voldemort—tried to revive—he summoned Death Eaters and he killed them, stole their blood and life” line of Harry, which is why rumors and doubts were likely already in full motion, justifying a clear public announcement as soon as possible.
Maybe it was a nod to the canon, the listing of the fallen defenders of Hogwarts. (I do agree that it was an awful thing to do, but I think allocating time to tell the children instead of to check the wards, …, would be inexcusable in the context of a possible new Wizarding War.)
The names would have come out over the next few days, anyway. McGonagall’s choice was to either break the news to all the students on her terms, or to have wild rumors appear within hours.
Breaking the news herself gives her the chance to declare her solidarity with the affected students in the clearest possible terms and to quench any schadenfreude immediately. She is proactive, rather than reactive. In fact, compared to the Minerva McGonagall of the very early chapters, she feels a little more grown-up now, in a way. She has developed into a more sophisticated character over the course of the story, and I like this a lot.
In a search for kindness, not using cloistered information for personal advantage, and low tendency for factionalism, “child of a Death Eater” is a pretty hard constraint.
Someone in /r/HPMOR mentioned that similar things happened in Muggle schools after 9/11 (That is, a list of names for children whose parents may have died). Generally speaking, educational institutions are completely unprepared for tragedies.
That’s fair for Muggle schools. But Hogwarts went through a huge wave of orphanings a mere ten years ago during the Wizarding War, at which time McGonagall was already a Hogwarts teacher (likely in the same position). She should have as much experience dealing with such things as any educator can.
Why on earth is Prof McGonagall announcing in public that a bunch of children’s parents are dead and were evil? That seems a really, really terrible way to break the news to them.
I’d expect at the very least she’d tell them privately in advance, and probably wouldn’t say it in public at all, except in very general terms.
From her perspective, there are advantages to announcing it in public—for example, there will no be no witch hunt of “which Slytherins turned out to have active Death Eater parents?”, and McGonagall also firmly tied the listing of the orphaned children’s names to pronouncements of sympathy and solidarity in her listeners’ minds.
I still don’t think there was any good reason not to break it to them in private first.
In a perfect world, I completely agree.
In a real world, I can see that McGonagall did not have time before breakfast to talk to all of the orphaned children. I can also see that she might strongly prefer to quench the early rumors and avoid starting new rumors by calling a number of students into her office. (Delegating it to Snape, the Head of Slytherin House, was not an option; and delegating it to any other teacher would have sent a signal of McGonagall not caring enough to do it herself, making this a non-option, too.)
Given all this, I still think she should have delayed the announcement to talk to the children beforehand; but I don’t think it’s a simple choice for her.
I don’t think “were evil” is actually a secret, most Death Eaters are known—they plead being under the Imperius or otherwise forced to join, but I don’t think there is much doubt for who was on which side of the war.
As for telling them publically, it’s true it’s not the best way to break the news, but I fear attempts to tell them in private could have been ever worse—with rumors propagating in the school, the fact you can’t tell them all at once and have to take turns and everyone will see something is going on.
In the current situation, it seems an acceptable way of doing it.
Edit : forgot to refer to the “Voldemort—tried to revive—he summoned Death Eaters and he killed them, stole their blood and life” line of Harry, which is why rumors and doubts were likely already in full motion, justifying a clear public announcement as soon as possible.
Maybe it was a nod to the canon, the listing of the fallen defenders of Hogwarts. (I do agree that it was an awful thing to do, but I think allocating time to tell the children instead of to check the wards, …, would be inexcusable in the context of a possible new Wizarding War.)
Yeah, the general comments were fine, but the list of names? A Muggle would have known better.
The names would have come out over the next few days, anyway. McGonagall’s choice was to either break the news to all the students on her terms, or to have wild rumors appear within hours.
Breaking the news herself gives her the chance to declare her solidarity with the affected students in the clearest possible terms and to quench any schadenfreude immediately. She is proactive, rather than reactive. In fact, compared to the Minerva McGonagall of the very early chapters, she feels a little more grown-up now, in a way. She has developed into a more sophisticated character over the course of the story, and I like this a lot.
You’re right, she should have listed them as she did. But she still needed to have told them privately beforehand.
I mostly agree. (see my reply to Velorien, though)
In a search for kindness, not using cloistered information for personal advantage, and low tendency for factionalism, “child of a Death Eater” is a pretty hard constraint.
Someone in /r/HPMOR mentioned that similar things happened in Muggle schools after 9/11 (That is, a list of names for children whose parents may have died). Generally speaking, educational institutions are completely unprepared for tragedies.
Except that in the Muggle schools after 9/11 the parents who died were not terrorists, so the pupils didn’t have to fear persecution.
That’s fair for Muggle schools. But Hogwarts went through a huge wave of orphanings a mere ten years ago during the Wizarding War, at which time McGonagall was already a Hogwarts teacher (likely in the same position). She should have as much experience dealing with such things as any educator can.