From the Diaries of Minerva McGonagall: June 9, 1956

Dear Diary,

My first year as a Hogwarts teacher is over! All of my second-term Transfiguration passed their exams, some better than others, but all of them well enough that I can feel confident in both my abilities and theirs.

Charles, the student for whom I bought a new wand, did wonderfully. He’s grown so much now that he has a wand that understands him. I’ve been setting aside part of my salary every month to help students like him in the future.

I asked Professor Dumbledore if there were a way for Hogwarts to provide some kind of scholarship to help students who can’t afford robes or books or wands. He smiled and said “it looks like you’ve already started one,” but that isn’t quite the same thing. Hogwarts should provide help as an institution, if it wants its students to become the best witches and wizards they can be.

I don’t think Professor Dumbledore shares that sentiment, though. I don’t know much about his childhood—he never talks about his family, although we all know about Aberforth, every first-year student hears those rumors whispered up and down the dormitories like jokes—but I am sure he didn’t grow up in a family like Charles’s, or even in a family like mine. (We were never poor, of course, but my father did not join the clergy for the money.)

But I will have all of next term to talk with Professor Dumbledore about ways to help our incoming students. I am delighted at how well my first year has gone. Gryffindor won the House Cup, all of my students passed, and we are about to begin a glorious summer—the first summer I will ever spend on the Hogwarts grounds.

I am so happy. I am already looking forward to years of doing exactly this, and better every time.

Yours faithfully,

Minerva

Previously in The Diaries of Minerva McGonagall