I had some pretty great teachers in school — stern, kind, fun and infinitely patient. Like everyone else, I too had my favourite ones. I’d run to them when I scraped my knee as a child, I’d seek them out for advice when I was a teenager. These teachers turned school into my second home and in many ways, they made me who I am.
And yet, in my heart of hearts, they always come second to one teacher. She won me over when she transfigured from a cat to a professor — “Bloody brilliant!” as Ron Weasley put it — and strode towards a completely bewildered Harry and Ron, who had just stumbled in late and asked them if she should transfigure them into pocket watches.
This threat, delivered in all seriousness, is enough to leave you in utter awe of Professor Minerva McGonagall, Deputy Headmistress and Head of Gryffindor House at the Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. Professor McGonagall is a no-nonsense, matter-of-fact, strict disciplinarian, always ready to stand her ground for what she believes is right.
So real is her persona, that as the story progresses, it becomes increasingly difficult to remember that she is, in fact, just a character. Perhaps, more than anything, that comes down to the incredibly talented actress who portrayed McGonagall on screen — Dame Maggie Smith.
The Oscar and Tony winning actress passed away on September 27, 2024, at the age of 89. As her passing is mourned by fans worldwide, this 26-year-old writer looks back on how Smith, at her core, was not all that different from the two iconic characters that she is most remembered for.
(Minor spoilers ahead)
‘Just pull yourself together!’
In the later years of a prolific career spanning decades in British theatre and cinema, Smith earned herself a whole generation of young devoted fans with her role as the beloved Professor McGonagall in the Harry Potter films.
During a 2015 appearance on the Graham Norton Show, when asked about how the role changed her life, Smith noted, “Well, a lot of very small people used to say hello to me, and that was nice.” She recalled one incident in particular when a kid asked her if she was really a cat. Her response, she said, was, “I heard myself say, ‘Just pull yourself together! How could I have been?!’”
If you think about it, that could just as easily pass off as one of McGonagall’s dialogues — delivered sternly, with one eyebrow perfectly arched, as she towers over a rather fearful-looking student (Neville, perhaps?).
These parallels between the actor and the character are exactly the reason why McGonagall went on to become as iconic as she is today.
McGonagall’s magic
While she does come across as intimidating at first glance [and indeed most of the time], it is also undeniable that Professor McGonagall was equally warm and unequivocally fair in her treatment of students.
For instance, in Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone, when she comes across Harry, Ron and Hermione in the girl’s bathroom with an unconscious troll, knocked out cold on the floor, just as she deducts five points from Gryffindor “for serious lack of judgement” on Hermione’s part, she also awards Harry and Ron five points for “for sheer dumb luck.”
Thus, what begins as an admonishment, also ends up being a quiet acknowledgement of what the youngsters had managed to achieve.
Earlier in the same movie, when she gives the trio a detention for visiting Hagrid because “nothing gives the students the right to walk about the school at night,” she also includes Malfoy in the punishment. When the latter begins to protest, expecting to be let off because he was the one who reported the incident, McGonagall very calmly tells him, “You see, honourable as your intentions were, you too were out of bed after hours. You will join your classmates in detention.”
This combination of strictness, fairness and warmth is a hallmark of McGonagall’s character. It was also an intrinsic part of who Smith was. In fact, in an interview from the 2000s, Chris Columbus, director of the first two films in the Harry Potter franchise, admitted how Maggie Smith’s personality lent itself to the role she was cast in, “What we needed from McGonagall was someone that you were intimidated by, but someone who had a real sense of warmth and heart. And that’s exactly who Maggie is.”
Minerva to Violet, the Dowager Countess
Maggie Smith as Violet Crawley, Dowager Countess of Grantham
While Harry Potter delves into life beyond Hogwarts for quite a few of the students, throughout the seven books [and eight movies], we know very little about the life of the professors. It is almost as if they cease to exist beyond the walls of Hogwarts.
I’ve spent long hours pondering over the kind of lives the professors might have led when Hogwarts was not in session or in the Muggle world. For instance, did Snape work at a pharmacy [you know, given his inclination for potions]? Was Dumbledore interested in cricket as much as he was interested in Quidditch? Was McGonagall the headmistress of a muggle school?
The speculation surrounding McGonagall, however, was put to rest when I watched Downton Abbey, for I find it completely believable that when she is not in Hogwarts, she is, in fact, the Dowager Countess of Grantham and the matriarch of the Crawley family.
Violet Crawley being a natural extension of McGonagall may not make much sense in terms of timeline. After all, Downton Abbey is a period drama, whereas Harry Potter unfolds between 1991 and 1998. Yet, at their core, both these characters are very similar.
They are set apart by their acerbic wit, sharp tongue and frosty gaze. At the same time, they are caring and fiercely protective of those around them. In Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, McGonagall stood between Harry and Snape. In Downton Abbey, Violet Crawley helped her granddaughter Sybil convince her mother to let her become a nurse.
In both roles, one sees what could possibly be glimmers of Dame Maggie Smith herself. So similar are these characters that watching Violet Crawley almost feels like watching an older McGonagall — perhaps after retirement in an alternate time-travelling universe. Of course, in Crawley, one finds stronger evidence of Smith’s impeccable sense of humour and comic timing. Perhaps one of the funniest examples of this can be found in season 1, when Matthew Crawley mentions that he can look after the estate on the weekends. At this, an astonished Violet asks, “What… what is a weekend?”
Crawley is consistently left bewildered by the ways of the modern world, almost as much as McGonagall is left baffled by the antiques of Harry, Ron and Hermione.
Raise your wands
On September 27, Harry Potter fans gathered outside the Hogwarts Castle replica in Florida to raise their wands in honour of Dame Maggie Smith, first of her name, veteran actor, Professor at Hogwarts, Dowager Countess of Grantham, but most importantly, a teacher for life. This loss feels deeply personal.
It makes me want to stay home from work and binge watch Harry Potter and Downton Abbey, and yet, in a corner of my mind, I can almost hear Smith’s voice telling me, “Pull yourself together!”
So now, I will.
Rest in magic, Professor.
Hogwarts will never be the same without you.
