- Minerva McGonagall –

Do people ever judge? Of course they do. They wouldn't be human if they didn't.

Does it bother her? Yes. More than she ever cares to show; especially to Hermione.

It's ironic, she thinks, how prejudiced one can be without ever realising. On further reflection, she realises that that is pretty much how the whole oppression thing works. Ignorance is the gift of the repressors and she, with the help of an astonishing lack of self-awareness, has thoroughly embraced it.

How many times did she comfort students in need of guidance over their new-found sexuality? There's nothing wrong with you…it's perfectly natural…totally accepted these days…just be yourself. And she had believed it. She still does belive it. How, after all, can one be prejudiced against oneself?

Of course others judge her, but not as much as Minerva judges herself.

Sometimes, she lies awake at night, twirling a strand of long black hair round her finger and nursing a mug of tepid tea, and wishes that things had been different. If Hermione had been forty years older, if she wasn't a woman, if she hadn't been a student at Hogwarts…?

She answers her own question: Then she wouldn't be Hermione.