Maggie Smith: Professor McGonagall
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Quotes
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Hermione : Professor, I was wondering if you could tell us about the Chamber of Secrets.
Professor Minerva McGonagall : [seeing everyone's faces] Very well. Well, you all know, of course, that Hogwarts was founded over a thousand years ago, by the four greatest witches and wizards of the age. Godric Gryffindor, Helga Hufflepuff, Rowena Ravenclaw, and Salazar Slytherin. Now three of the founders co-existed quite harmoniously. One did not.
Ron : Three guesses who.
Professor Minerva McGonagall : Salazar Slytherin wished to be more selective about the students admitted to Hogwarts. He believed magical learning should be kept within all magic families. In other words, pure bloods. Unable to sway the others, he decided to leave the school. Now according to legend, Slytherin had built a hidden chamber in this castle, known as the Chamber of Secrets. Though shortly before departing, he sealed it until that time when his own true heir returned to the school. The heir alone would be able to open the chamber and unleash the horror within, and by so doing, purge the school of all those who, in Slytherin's view, were unworthy to study magic.
Hermione : Muggle-borns.
Professor Minerva McGonagall : Well naturally the school has been searched many times. No such chamber has been found.
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Professor Minerva McGonagall : [to Ron; after seeing Ron unsuccessfully transform his pet rat into a water goblet] That wand needs replacing, Mr. Weasley.
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Professor Minerva McGonagall : Well, the chamber is said to be the home... of a monster.
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Professor Minerva McGonagall : Could I have your attention, please? Because of recent events, these new rules will be put into affect immediately. All students will return to their house common rooms by 6 o'clock every evening. All students will be escorted to each lesson by a teacher. No exceptions. I should tell you this: unless the culprit behind these attacks is caught, it is likely the school will be closed.
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Madam Pomfrey : Who is it that the monster's taken, Minerva?
Professor Minerva McGonagall : Ginny Weasley.
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Professor Minerva McGonagall : [while seeing another message on the wall] Students must be sent home. I'm afraid this is the end of Hogwarts.
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Professor Minerva McGonagall : [Dumbledore opens film camera and suddenly *poof*] What can this mean, Albus?
Dumbledore : It means there are students who are in great danger.
Professor Minerva McGonagall : What should I tell the staff?
Dumbledore : The truth? Tell them Hogwarts is no longer safe. It is as we feared, the chamber of secrets has indeed been opened again.
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[repeated line]
Professor McGonagall : Could I have your attention, please?
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[Harry and Ron are in Snape's office; Snape shows them an article in the Daily Prophet about the Ford Anglia flying over London]
Professor Snape : [furiously] You were seen by no less than seven Muggles!
[throws the paper aside]
Professor Snape : Do you have any idea how serious this is? You have risked the exposure of our world! Not to mention the damage you inflicted on a Whomping Willow that's been on these grounds since before you were born!
Ron : Honestly, Professor Snape, I think it did more damage to us.
Professor Snape : Silence!
[Harry and Ron stare in horror as Snape stands up and looks them in the eye]
Professor Snape : I assure you that were you in Slytherin and your fate rested with me, the both of you would be on the train home tonight! As it is...
Dumbledore : They are not.
[Snape, Harry, Ron and Filch turn to see Dumbledore and McGonagall standing in the doorway]
Harry : Professor Dumbledore. Professor McGonagall.
Professor Snape : Headmaster.
[points to Harry and Ron]
Professor Snape : These boys have flouted the Decree for the Restriction of Under Age Wizardry. As such...
Dumbledore : I am well aware of our bylaws, Severus, having written quite a few of them myself. However, as head of Gryffindor House, it is for Professor McGonagall to determine the appropriate action.
Ron : [sadly] We'll go and get our stuff, then.
Professor Minerva McGonagall : What are you talking about, Mr. Weasley?
Ron : You're going to expell us, aren't you?
Professor Minerva McGonagall : Not today, Mr. Weasley.
[Harry and Ron look at each other happily]
Professor Minerva McGonagall : But I must impress on both of you the seriousness of what you have done. I will be writing to your families tonight, and you will both receive detention.
[Harry and Ron are downcast; they turn to Snape, who glares at them]
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[Harry and Ron walk along a corridor while Harry reads a crumpled book page Hermione was holding]
Harry Potter : Many fearsome beasts roam our land, yet none more deadly than the basilisk. Capable of living for hundreds of years, instant death awaits any who meet this giant serpent's eye. Spiders flee before it. Ron, this is it! The monster in the Chamber of Secrets is a basilisk! That's why *I* can hear it speak! It's a snake!
Ron Weasley : But if it kills by looking people in the eye, why is it no one's dead?
Harry Potter : [pauses and thinks; he and Ron catch their reflections in a window pane] Because no one *did* look it in the eye. Not directly, at least. Colin saw it through his camera. Justin-- Well, Justin must've seen the basilisk through Nearly Headless Nick and Nick got full blast of it, but he's a ghost. He couldn't die again. And Hermione... had the mirror. I bet you *anything* she was using it to look around corners in case it came along.
Ron Weasley : And Mrs. Norris? I'm pretty sure *she* didn't have a camera or a mirror, Harry.
Harry Potter : The water. There was water on the floor that night. She only saw the basilisk's reflection.
[holds up the page; follows Ron to a nearby torch column]
Harry Potter : Spiders flee before it. It all fits!
Ron Weasley : But how has the basilisk been getting around? A dirty great snake. Someone would've seen it.
Harry Potter : [sees the word pipes written on the bottom right corner of the page] Hermione's answered that too.
Ron Weasley : Pipes? It's using the plumbing!
Harry Potter : Remember what Aragog said about that girl fifty years ago? She died in a bathroom. What if she never left?
Ron Weasley : Moaning Myrtle.
Professor Minerva McGonagall : [over loudspeaker] All students are to return to their house dormitories at once. All teachers to the second floor corridor immediately.
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Madam Pomfrey : Who is it that the monster has taken into the Chamber Minerva?
Professor Minerva McGonagall : Ginny Weasley.
Ron : [gives a shocked and sad look with tears] .
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Oliver Wood : Professor McGonagall.
Professor Minerva McGonagall : This match has been cancelled.
Oliver Wood : You can't cancel Quidditch.
Professor Minerva McGonagall : Silence, Wood. You and your other teammates will go to the Gryffindor tower now.
