an excellent fic.

A very credible explanation - in fairness, there is a lot of anti-Slytherin bias in the books, too ("Sometimes we sort too soon"), but that comment was especially egregious. I really loved the hapless kidnappers, and Minerva's understanding with Severus - imagining someone knew his true allegiance makes canon a bit more bearable. As always you write wonderfully - thank you!

Well that did not go the way I thought it would. I was all ready and waiting for Minerva to kick some butt. I'm slightly let down, but it isn't a horrible story. Thanks for posting.

Min

One hopes she remembers this the next time she's tempted to lump all Slytherins together as Eeeevil (because that reflex is really hard to let go of, considering how long Dumbledore spent drumming it into people). Or the next time a Slytherin and a Gryffindor gets into a fight, and she automatically believes the Gryffindor. Because the time will come when she's tired of feeling guilty over Severus, and become annoyed at the rotten little snakes, and say or do something that does show the school how she really feels.

Because people like Ron are still going to think all Slytherins are bad 19 years later. It doesn't sound like anything has been done about that.

This is an interesting piece - I love the 'what if' sort of snippets and the insight into MM and SS and their relationship.
Thanks for sharing

could have happened.

Quite funny

Cold have made quite a story with some investigating and interaction with active slithering students. pity You didn't go on.

Only snag I can see is Boathouse witch should read Shrieking shack

/as she watches, the spell wavers, and she can see the makeshift reality beneath - - just a board laid across two barrels./ Such a great detail this is. It contains both the sincere desire of her captors that justice be done, and the irregularity of abducting and forcing someone. The impossibility of such a trial really working, as they will soon find for themselves, is already there.

/"It was their own common room, somewhere familiar to them. Only they knew the way in, and once they were in, they had the House wards for protection."/ So eminently reasonable. It was the safest place. The one place where they wouldn't get caught in the cross fire and where they might feel safe, or at least familiar, too.

/Whether she's telling truth or lies, it won't bring your son back. It won't change the way people treat Slytherins or the way Gryffindors" - - he gestures towards Minerva - - "run things./ And that, alas, is true, too.

/She can't imagine that her word means anything to them/ Such a beautifully ambiguous remark. Would Minerva realise that in the eyes of these bereft parents she'll never be worthy of trust - or is there also a touch of the 'what do Slytherins know about words of honour' idea?

Such a great job you did in giving Minerva a fair trial. We see some eminently convincing notions - and some old prejudices resurfacing. A story with a great many delicate shades of grey.

*tear* that was brilliant.

You beat me to it, Kelly. I am writing a story based on those words of Minerva too.

Actually, my reaction was that this was much better than the book version, in which she sends the Slytherins out of the castle with the result that they run to join Voldemort, out of childish spite mostly, I would guess. In the dungeon they will be safe, including from themselves. Of course, what is in question is the tone she used, but she used the same in the book. My explanation is that Minerva lost control for a few minutes. She is only human. (And Libras have problems losing control with words, trust me, I know that.) She was very distraught, had been all year and even beyond that, and Pansy (who was very distraught too) said exactly what she shouldn't have said, which caused the proverbial camel's back to... give signs of weakness. Minerva was full of fire and adrenaline after her duel with Snape. And she needed to make quick decisons. She had no time to "count five and twenty".

I understand (but don't condone) the parents' reaction too. They looked for a scapegoat, which is a very human thing to do, if not entirely justifiable. Having captured the scapegoat par excellence, they realised that nothing they could do to her would make their pain less. I liked that part. It makes these people so human, so real.

I can see Minerva guessing Severus' real role. In fact, I am very surprised that canon didn't show that. She had known him since he was a child and she is an intelligent woman. Come to that, I am surprised at Flitwick and Slughorn too.

Where did you get the idea that the Slytherins' wands were confiscated, or did you just invent that? And who was the father who lost his son? Goyle's father was a Death Eater. Is he still around or is this just the father of an anonymous Slytherin?

Anyway, thank you, thank you for this. It was very thought provoking and it satisfied my thirst for Minerva angst.

Well thought out. Provoking and full.

And I love the bag of onions as I needed a little smile in there.

I neither understood that comment on the movie, it was not something McGonagall would say and I couldn't remember her saying such a think on the book. I really liked this story, specially the writing stile, it was very easy to empathize with Minerva, her feelings now and during the battle. Very nice.

Having trouble getting onto the site the usual way - something's amiss with my password BUT could not let this pass without comment. I have always found your most profound talent (for me) lies in your ability to find the core of humanity in your characters. Can Slytherins mourn, long for justice, feel the sting of prejudice? Of course. There are no one-dimensional perceptions. In a reasonable, thinking adult's understanding, no one House, no one individual, can - or should - be summed up with a simple laundry list of traits and characteristics. You've brought that point home with your usual skill. Applause !

/No. Before she'll let that happen, she'll fight these Slytherins to her death and to theirs, with whatever means she can./

Ah, yes. In the end, when it comes down to instinct, they aren't parents or kidnappers or (probable) former students or idiots or even people. They're Slytherins, which, to Minerva, obviously means "potentially deadly enemies I might have to kill".

I love the implications of that line. Minerva really is brave, and fair, and heroic. She probably even believes that she did the best thing she could do for the Slytherin students. But the poison of prejudice really has wrapped itself around her spine and grown integral to her nervous system. She knows this. And she knows there's nothing she can do about it. It's some peculiarly modern psychological territory she's inhabiting.

Thank you for the lovely words.

I thought the same exact thing! Sending all of Slytherin to the dungeons WTF McGonagall? So yea nice story. Outside if the box thinking with the post-war story.

Brilliant use of the scenes from the movie-in both a literary and a visual sense. The taut dialogue had the tension of real moral dialogue (for accusation and answer is a form of dialogue). Furious, elegant, terrifying.

I think it was on your blog I saw mention of the challenge about movie canon & fanfic; do you happen to have the reference?