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.
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.