#but since i've referenced her relationship with severus a lot but never actually gone into a lot of detail in one place about it

[braverytaught]

please meta about minerva's thoughts when severus became headmaster !

@lamentedhope || send me meta topics || always accepting

okay so to answer this one i want to go back to when severus was initially appointed his position at hogwarts.

because i know i’ve mentioned this before, but minerva, initially, fiercely protested severus’s appointment. she knew that severus was a death eater, and, while this is, i think, mere conjecture on my part, i also believe that she knew that severus had been the one to deliver news of the prophecy to voldemort. this was more than enough for her to severely dislike and distrust him.

she had no idea why dumbledore vouched so firmly for severus, why dumbledore helped severus avoid prosecution, why dumbledore trusted him enough to place him in charge of students. she knew that dumbledore knew or believed something that led him to protect and trust severus, but her usual trust in dumbledore didn’t extend so far as to prevent her from questioning his decision to hire severus. in fact, she protested it vehemently, more than once, until dumbledore asked her if she seriously believed that he would bring danger to his students.

that quieted her, but she was still against severus’s appointment, and made no real effort to hide this fact. in fact, i’m just going to quote from a thread i wrote a long while back on this very subject:

    Her new tactic for coping with the unfortunate presence of Severus Snape in the castle was to ignore his existence completely as often as she was able, and make any necessary interactions brief and chilly; she saw no reason to give him any illusions about her opinion of him. This had, at least, prevented any incidents, though it had also made her snappier and more mulish than she usually was before the start of a new term.

as we are all aware, minerva almost never hides her dislike for people. she will maintain a veneer of politeness, but she makes little effort to hide her disdain, and i’m afraid that severus endured some pretty overt unfriendliness from her during the first few years of his teaching career. all this to stay that they started from a bad place: minerva neither liked severus nor trusted him. she tolerated his presence only because of her trust in dumbledore.

what matters, of course, is that their relationship improved over the years by quite a bit. they were never best friends, and minerva didn’t necessarily agree with many of severus’s attitudes or methods, but she had to admit that severus was, if irascible, also capable and, in some ways, good at his job in much the same way she was good at hers (in fact, harry compares the two of them at his very first potions lesson: “Like Professor McGonagall, Snape had the gift of keeping a class silent without effort.”). over time, their rivalry became a far friendlier one than before. severus never gave any reason to believe that he had not really repented, and gradually minerva began to trust him as a colleague directly rather than merely trusting dumbledore’s convictions.

they argued over quidditch. they argued over houses. they argued over which students were the worst troublemakers. they argued over what teaching methods were most affective. they argued over trivial things, and minerva enjoyed it. she and severus ended up becoming something like dumbledore’s right and left hands: when there was trouble, she and severus usually flanked dumbledore on the way to it, and i do think the three of them shared many confidences and concerns. no matter what odds she and severus may have been at on a casual basis, whenever there was real trouble, they were on the same side, and minerva grew to rely on and be grateful for that assistance.

all this to say that, over the course of some fifteen years of working together, minerva’s initial bitter dislike for severus gradually became real respect, real trust. they were, on some level, friends. they were certainly colleagues who respected each other, took pleasure from their banter, and had each other’s backs when it mattered. minerva really believed that severus was on their side. she vouched for him to others. she defended him against those who doubted his motives. she felt concern for him when he spied for the order after voldemort’s rise to power. 

and then he murdered albus dumbledore, minerva’s greatest colleague and mentor.

and i don’t think i have to say how devastated she was. actually, i have said so, in this meta – which, actually, i’m going to draw from just now, for a couple of different points.

here is minerva’s initial reaction to being told the news:

“Snape killed Dumbledore,” said Harry.

She stared at him for a moment, then swayed alarmingly; Madam Pomfrey, who seemed to have pulled herself together, ran forward, conjuring a chair from thin air, which she pushed under McGonagall.

“Snape,” repeated McGonagall faintly, falling into the chair. “We all wondered … but he trusted … always … Snape … I can’t believe it… .”

she already knew dumbledore was dead. the alarming swaying comes from her shock at the realization that it was severus who did it. 

“He always hinted that he had an ironclad reason for trusting Snape,” muttered Professor McGonagall, now dabbing at the corners of her leaking eyes with a tartan-edged handkerchief. “I mean … with Snape’s history … of course people were bound to wonder … but Dumbledore told me explicitly that Snape’s repentance was absolutely genuine… . Wouldn’t hear a word against him!”

and here we have an acknowledgment of dumbledore’s defense of severus. she clearly never knew the reason that dumbledore “hinted” at, but we can see that minerva had had explicit conversations with dumbledore on the topic, had tried to say words against him, and had ultimately chosen to accept dumbledore’s trust in him. 

but what really gets me is this:

“This is all my fault,” said Professor McGonagall suddenly. She looked disoriented, twisting her wet handkerchief in her hands. “My fault. I sent Filius to fetch Snape tonight, I actually sent for him to come and help us! If I hadn’t alerted Snape to what was going on, he might never have joined forces with the Death Eaters. I don’t think he knew they were there before Filius told him, I don’t think he knew they were coming.”

i won’t go on about how un-mcgonagall-like minerva’s acting here, bc i’ve already done that in the meta i linked, but here we can see, in the midst of her shock and grief, a disoriented minerva realizing that her own explicit trust in severus had led, in part, to dumbledore’s murder. i sent filius to fetch snape tonight. i don’t think he knew they were there before filius told him, i don’t think he knew they were coming. she’s trying to blame herself, but what she’s really blaming is the trust she had built up in severus, the trust she had spent years building – all of it, apparently, a lie.

that’s the thing. she’s shocked and devastated by dumbledore’s murder, is heavily grieving the loss of him, but she’s also harboring a personal sense of betrayal from severus. it isn’t just that he’s betrayed dumbledore, who vouched for him so adamantly, who had protected severus and believed in him for so many long years. it isn’t just that he’s turned his back on all decent wizardkind and slunk back, apparently, to his old ways, his old master. it isn’t just that he’s become an enemy of her cause.

he’s hurt her, personally. she does not trust easily, she does not forgive easily, but she gave him both, and he spat in the face of it. not only does she feel betrayed, feel blindsided, she feels stupid. stupid, for sitting next to him at the staff table for years, for teasing him about quidditch, for relying on him in a pinch, stupid for calling for him and for being grateful when he arrived. 

she had been fooled. and minerva hates playing the fool.

so yeah. it’s fair to say that, in the midst of her grief for dumbledore, is a terrible, bitter anger with severus. the trust is broken. the friendship is broken. those long years of camaraderie are soured. and it’s worse, now, the hatred she feels for him, worse than it ever was fifteen years ago, because this time it’s so much more personal. to have thought they were friends, and to have been so utterly wrong, is something she cannot forgive.

and then. yeah. she’s acting headmistress after dumbledore’s death. she should have been appointed headmistress. as horrible a situation it is, to have to succeed him because of his murder, she prepared herself for it, for the burden of it. she expected it. it was the natural order of things: as deputy headmistress, she was in the direct line to receive dumbledore’s position, and to do her best to use it to protect her students.

and then severus snape returns, with death eater cronies and the full backing of the ministry, and is announced headmaster. the position that should have been hers. the position that was only open because he had murdered its last occupant. he should have returned to hogwarts in chains; instead he could stroll through the door and own the place. yes, i think it’s fair to say that she didn’t take it well.

although i should probably be clear that – she didn’t protest, not forcefully. when a staff meeting was called with the ministry and board of governors to announce the staff changes at hogwarts, minerva did not stand and demand her position. she did not even complain about being stripped of her title of deputy headmistress. no, because as soon as she saw severus snape appear in the same room as ministry officials, with no moves made to arrest him, she understood the situation. she understood that there was no point, now, in protest. she understood that the ministry was wholly under the dark lord’s power, and that to make more than a token fuss was to risk being removed from hogwarts herself.

and just as in umbridge’s time as headmistress, minerva knew that she could not allow that to happen. now, more than ever, her students needed her, needed someone to stand between them and the death eaters running their school. her resolve there was set, though she felt a deep sadness at the thought that, even at the height of the dark lord’s power during the first war, hogwarts had never been breached. and now a death eater is headmaster, and all she can do is grit her teeth and accept it.

but you can be sure that she treated severus (and the carrows) with as much disdain as she was capable of. gone was any trace of warmth of friendship or respect towards severus. she obeyed his orders and interacted with the politeness due to his station – but only just, and always with an iciness, a haughty, contemptuous dignity that surpassed even her treatment of him when they had first become colleagues. this was the best weapon left to her: to treat severus as she treated her deepest enemies, as she had once treated umbridge – except that with umbridge, she could at least take satisfaction in intimidating umbridge, in testing her, in humiliating her where possible. with severus, there was no satisfaction, there were no games of power played. they were far beyond that. they understood each other too well for that. there was only the cold hatred, the betrayal, and the singular understanding that minerva would do everything in her power to protect her students from him.

(and, may i add, i do believe that precisely this reaction from minerva was pretty much essential to severus maintaining his cover at hogwarts. i’ll draw one last quote from the meta i linked: “if there was one person who absolutely had to believe that snape’s treachery was genuine, it was minerva mcgonagall. because she was the person at hogwarts who would oppose him most openly. because righteous anger like hers can’t be faked. if minerva seemed in any way like she trusted snape, or doubted his motives, his cover would come under suspicion. she had to oppose him, and she had to do it genuinely, and she had to protect her students with everything she had. and for that, dumbledore’s death had to come as a shock and a betrayal.” and so it did.)

#lamentedhope #; owl post ( answered. ) #; that explains a great deal ( headcanons. ) #long post // #THIS GOT SO LONGGGG #but since i've referenced her relationship with severus a lot but never actually gone into a lot of detail in one place about it #i figured now was the time !! #anyway #do u ever think about how harry's first impression of minerva as somebody u wouldn't want to cross #is really one of the most accurate fucking statements in the entire series #if u are friends with minerva mcgonagall and u fuck her over #i pity you #bc she is COLD and she is RUTHLESS in her disdain #and it must have been all the worse for severus having been on her good side for quite a while #only to endure that switch #i cannot overstate how much she loathes misplaced trust