{"id":1392017,"date":"2016-08-04T10:00:05","date_gmt":"2016-08-04T14:00:05","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/community.sparknotes.com\/?p=1392017"},"modified":"2016-08-03T11:44:13","modified_gmt":"2016-08-03T15:44:13","slug":"from-the-diaries-of-minerva-mcgonagall-june-9-1956","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"\/blog\/from-the-diaries-of-minerva-mcgonagall-june-9-1956\/","title":{"rendered":"From the Diaries of Minerva McGonagall: June 9, 1956"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img loading=\"lazy\" class=\"alignnone\" src=\"https:\/\/img.sparknotes.com\/content\/sparklife\/sparktalk\/minervablue_LargeWide.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"701\" height=\"394\" \/>Dear Diary,<\/p>\n<p>My first year as a Hogwarts teacher is over! \u00a0All 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.<\/p>\n<p>Charles, the student for whom <a href=\"http:\/\/community.sparknotes.com\/2016\/07\/19\/from-the-diaries-of-minerva-mcgonagall-april-5-1956\" target=\"_blank\">I bought a new wand<\/a>, did wonderfully. He&#8217;s grown so much now that he has a wand that understands him. I&#8217;ve been setting aside part of my salary every month to help students like him in the future.<\/p>\n<p>I asked Professor Dumbledore if there were a way for Hogwarts to provide some kind of scholarship to help students who can&#8217;t afford robes or books or wands. He smiled and said &#8220;it looks like you&#8217;ve already started one,&#8221; but that isn&#8217;t quite the same thing. Hogwarts should provide help as an institution, if it wants its students to \u00a0become the best witches and wizards they can be.<\/p>\n<p>I don&#8217;t think Professor Dumbledore shares that sentiment, though. I don&#8217;t know much about his childhood\u2014he 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\u2014but \u00a0I am sure he didn&#8217;t grow up in a family like Charles&#8217;s, or even in a family like mine. (We were never poor, of course, but my father did not join the \u00a0clergy for the money.)<\/p>\n<p>But I will have all of next term to \u00a0talk 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 \u00a0summer\u2014the first summer I will ever spend on the Hogwarts grounds.<\/p>\n<p>I am so happy. I am already looking forward to years of doing exactly this, and better every time.<\/p>\n<p>Yours faithfully,<\/p>\n<p>Minerva<\/p>\n<p><em>Previously in <a href=\"http:\/\/community.sparknotes.com\/2016\/04\/12\/from-the-diaries-of-minerva-mcgonagall-august-20-1954\" target=\"_blank\">The Diaries of Minerva McGonagall<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Dear Diary, My first year as a Hogwarts teacher is over! \u00a0All of my second-term Transfiguration passed their exams, some better than others, but all of them well enough that I can feel confident in   <a class=\"continue-reading\" href=\"#\"><span class=\"continue-text\">continue reading<\/span><svg class=\"continue-icon\" xmlns=\"http:\/\/www.w3.org\/2000\/svg\" width=\"24\" height=\"24\" alt=\"\">\n    <path fill=\"#007acd\" fill-rule=\"nonzero\" d=\"M13.442 5.558L19.885 12l-6.443 6.442-.884-.884 4.934-4.934L4 12.625v-1.25l13.492-.001-4.934-4.932.884-.884z\"><\/path>\n  <\/svg><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":333,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[7],"tags":[2704,32,2318,19845,21332],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1392017"}],"collection":[{"href":"\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/333"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1392017"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1392017\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1392017"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1392017"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1392017"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}