Minerva McGonagall was known as the strict yet ive Transfiguration teacher in Harry Potter, but her backstory reveals a far more woeful life than expected. As befitted her character, she kept this private and never shared her past with even her closest students. Ultimately, Albus Dumbledore was likely one of the few individuals who knew her full story, from the traumatic experience of her upbringing to her doomed romances that would leave her heart forever broken.
Though Professor McGonagall was a woman that no Hogwarts student ever desired to cross, Harry felt great affection for her by the end of Harry Potter. She wasn't one to let pupils off the hook regarding homework or tolerate anything but the best behavior and respect. Still, she could also be comionate, motherly, and fiercely protective of any student. McGonagall proved her bravery and ability when standing up to the Defense Against the Dark Arts teachers of Harry Potter like Dolores Umbridge and was willing to give her life at the Battle of Hogwarts. Still, behind all this was a woman with a tragically romantic heart.
Minerva McGonagall Was Born To A Witch Mother & Muggle Father
Minerva McGonagall was born in Scotland in the 1930s to Reverend Robert and Isobel McGonagall. Her father was a Muggle and her mother a witch—but until young Minerva was born and began to demonstrate magical ability (such as sending the family cat to do her bidding), Isobel didn't tell her minister husband what she really was. The truth did nothing to impair Robert's love for his wife, but being forced to keep his family's true selves a secret was uncomfortable for the deeply honest man, and he was filled with fear thinking about what his congregation would do if they found out Isobel and Minerva were witches. Moreover, the trust between husband and wife had been broken, and the marriage became strained.
Minerva, therefore, was stuck between two worlds. Her parents remained married for the rest of their lives, but Isobel's guilt led her to shun her magical ability, and she became anxious that her children's magical ability (she had two sons after Minerva) would bother her husband. Minerva was very close to her father but also felt that she couldn't be her true self around him since magic and the wizarding world would always be something he didn't fully understand or trust. It was a difficult way to be raised and profoundly impacted who Minerva McGonagall would grow to be.
McGonagall Fell In Love With A Muggle, But Broke Off The Engagement
Since McGonagall's home life left her confused about her identity, Hogwarts was a place where she could freely be herself. Sorted into Gryffindor house, her professors, especially Albus Dumbledore, quickly recognized her immense magical ability. By the time she graduated, Minerva had a job lined up at the Ministry of Magic at the Department of Magical Law Enforcement. She was eager to move to London and fully assimilate into the wizarding world, but she returned home to the Highlands to spend one last summer with her family. Naturally, this was when she fell desperately and ionately in love.
Dougal McGregor was the Muggle son of a farmer and knew nothing of Minerva's magical ability or the mysterious job she had secured in London. Still, he deeply respected the young woman who shared in his witty sense of humor and wasn't afraid to speak her mind (they reportedly shared in frequent and fierce arguments). Before either of them knew it, Dougal was proposing on the farm he was eager to inherit and run with her by his side, and Minerva ionately accepted. Of course, she later stopped to realize that this would mean giving up a life free to use magic and a career at the Ministry.
It broke McGonagall's heart to do so, but she later broke off the engagement (unable to provide a reason because of the International Statute of Secrecy) and left for Longdon with a heartbroken Dougal in her wake. Ultimately, she couldn't bring herself to live the life her mother had, putting her husband and children through the lies and secrecy that came with living between two worlds. Minerva was sure she had made the right choice (and she wouldn't have become Harry Potter's most powerful professor if she hadn't), but Dougal was never far from her heart.
McGonagall Met Her Future Husband While Working At The Ministry
After such a heartbreak at home, Minerva found herself extremely unhappy in London working at the Ministry of Magic. She despised the anti-Muggle perspective held by most of those who worked for one of Harry Potter's past Ministers for Magic and found working in government far less fulfilling than she had hoped. She did not regret choosing a life in the wizarding world but missed life in Scotland. She wrote to Hogwarts to inquire about a vacant teaching position and quickly received a reply from Albus Dumbledore, offering her the Transfiguration post.
Of course, this job was perfect for McGonagall, who was a no-nonsense but very personable and trustworthy teacher. The only thing she missed at the Ministry of Magic was her old boss, Elphinstone Urquart, who had become her dear friend. The man, who was considerably older than McGonagall, would visit her at Hogwarts whenever he could. One day, much to McGonagall's surprise, he even proposed to her. However, she was still deeply in love with Dougal McGregor (whose letters she kept locked in a trunk under her bed) and turned him down.
Dumbledore & McGonagall Built A Friendship On Their Shared Romantic Woes
McGonagall was content with her life at Hogwarts, though she often thought of her ex-fiance. One day, one of her mother's letters ively mentioned that Dougal had wed a farmer's daughter (Isobel never knew of Minerva and Dougal's engagement). McGonagall was heartbroken all over again. Dumbledore found her crying in her office, and the weeping Minerva told her boss the whole story.
This moment between Dumbledore and McGonagall wound up pivotal in their friendship. The heaster offered the wisdom of his own life experience and explained (via Wizarding World) his own family story—including the pain of Ariana's assault at the hand of Muggles and his father's imprisonment. Though it has never been entirely clear, it's possible—and would have been entirely relevant—that Dumbledore confided the story of his own heartbreak. After all, just like McGonagall, Dumbledore had fallen in love the summer after leaving Hogwarts, but his relationship with Gellert Grindelwald was one that could never be. Regardless of what was shared, the pair of professors were bonded in an unbreakable friendship.
McGonagall Fell In Love & Married, But He Died Three Years Later
Over the years that McGonagall taught at Hogwarts School, she maintained her friendship with Elphinstone Urquart, who continued to propose every year or so. Again and again, Minerva declined. However, after she received word that Dougal McGregor had ed away, she found herself strangely freed. This was after Lord Voldemort had fallen to the infant Harry Potter, and the wizarding world was in a period of great peace. The next time that Elphinstone proposed, she accepted.
Delighted, Elphinstone purchased a cottage in Hogsmeade village, and he and Professor McGonagall (who decided to keep her Muggle father's name) lived a beautifully happy life together. Both advanced in age, they never had children, but they enjoyed having their nieces and nephews stay with them on the weekends. Unfortunately, Elphinstone died after only three years due to a Venomous Tentacula bite. Devastated, Minerva returned to her room at Hogwarts and buried herself in her work.
It would be within the next decade that Harry Potter would start at Hogwarts school, though he never knew the immense suffering his teacher had experienced so recently. From the outside looking in, Minerva McGonagall's students could only see a strict woman with a talent and ion for teaching, and that is precisely what audiences of the Harry Potter movies saw as well. Only Dumbledore knew the whole truth of who McGonagall was—a woman whose life had been full of romance, adventure, and, unfortunately, far too much heartbreak.
Source: Wizarding World
