Minerva McGonagall plays a big role in the Harry Potter series, both in the books and movies. She serves as a professor at Hogwarts and is also the Head of Gryffindor House. Later, she even becomes the Headmistress of the school. Throughout the series, she serves as a mentor to Harry Potter, Ron Weasley, and Hermione Granger. She also proves to be a strict but fair teacher. We have put together a Minerva McGonagall quiz for you to test your knowledge. We have included some difficult questions and only her biggest fans will be able to get a perfect score. As a result, only the biggest Potter nerds will be able to get a perfect score. This will be your ultimate information guide for arguably the most popular Professor at Hogwarts.
Minerva McGonagall Trivia
Instructions: All you have to do is answer the trivia questions below and at the very end of the quiz, it will let you know what you scored. Make sure to hit ‘Continue’ at the bottom if you are confused to get to the next question.
Which animal can Professor McGonagall transfigure into?
What is Professor McGonagall's blood status?
In the first movie, which student did Professor McGonagall first place the sorting hat on?
In Philosopher's Stone, how many (total) points does Professor McGonagall take from Gryffindor house after finding Harry Potter, Hermione Granger, and Neville Longbottom wandering around the corridors at night?
True Or False: Professor McGonagall played Quidditch during her time at Hogwarts
What does the core of Professor McGonagall's wand consist of?
True Or False: McGonagall taught Charms at Hogwarts before becoming the Transfiguration professor
In the movie, who does McGonagall say this to? "And his name is Voldemort. _______, you might as well use it. He's going to try to kill you either way"
What was the name of the spell that Professor McGonagall used to unleash the statues to get them to defend Hogwarts? (in the movie)
What was the name of Professor McGonagall's husband, who passed away 3 years into their marriage?
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Minerva McGonagall Quiz: Questions And Answers
Here are some more details on the answers (only read AFTER you have taken the quiz). This provides you with some extra context on the Minerva McGonagall quiz questions that you got wrong.
1) Which animal can Professor McGonagall transfigure into?
Professor McGonagall often transfigures into a cat, which also happens to be the shape of her Patronus. If you are looking for specifics, she transforms into a tabby cat. We see her demonstrate this a few times throughout the series and she is the first Animagous that we are introduced to.
2) What is Professor McGonagall’s blood status?
McGonagall is a half-blood as her father, Robert McGonagall, was a muggle and her mother, Isobel Ross, was a witch. Robert was a Scottish Presbyterian minister and Isobel was educated at Hogwarts. In a piece done for Pottermore, JK Rowling reveals that Isobel graduated at the top of her class in Charms and was also the captain of her Quidditch team. Isobel didn’t end up revealing that she was a Witch until Minerva was born.
3) In the first movie, which student did Professor McGonagall first place the sorting hat on?
McGonagall first placed the sorting hat on Hermione’s head during the scene. It appears as if she was in charge of sorting at Hogwarts, which would make sense. There is also a bit of a connection between Hermione and Minerva as both were considered for Ravenclaw but ultimately sorted into Gryffindor.
4) In Philosopher’s Stone, how many (total) points does Professor McGonagall take from Gryffindor house after finding Harry Potter, Hermione Granger, and Neville Longbottom wandering around the corridors at night?
She takes 50 points each from Harry, Hermione, and Neville for a grand total of 150 points. This was a demonstration of Minerva as a teacher. Even though she may have grown to like Harry, Hermione, and Neville, she still punished them when they did something wrong. She demonstrated that she was a kind teacher but also someone who demanded respect from her students.
5) True Or False: Professor McGonagall played Quidditch during her time at Hogwarts
This is true as McGonagall did play on the Gryffindor Quidditch team during her time at Hogwarts. She suffered a nasty fall off her broomstick in her final school year which left her with a concussion and other injuries.
6) What does the core of Professor McGonagall’s wand consist of?
Professor McGonagall’s wand has a core of dragon heartstring. Other people who use this core are Hermione Granger, Bellatrix Lestrange, Viktor Krum, and also Lucious Malfoy. Dragon heartstring wands tend to produce the strongest and most flamboyant spells. They are also the easiest to turn to the dark arts and can be accident-prone.
7) True Or False: McGonagall taught Charms at Hogwarts before becoming the Transfiguration professor
This is false as McGonagall only taught Transfiguration while at Hogwarts. She later became the head of the Transfiguration department and became both Deputy Headmistress and Headmistress of the school. Filius Flitwick is the Charms teacher for many years at Hogwarts.
8) In the Movie, who does McGonagall say this to? “And his name is Voldemort. _______, you might as well use it. He’s going to try to kill you either way”
The answer is Professor Flitwick, who was the charms professor and the Head Of Ravenclaw house. This was in reference to Flitwick calling Voldemort “he-who-must-not-be-named”. This is a great moment where she stops being afraid of a name and starts to prepare everybody for what is to come.
9) What was the name of the spell that Professor McGonagall used to unleash the statues to get them to defend Hogwarts?
The spell was called ‘Piertotum Locomotor’ and McGonagall adds that she has always wanted to use that spell. This comes as a result of Voldemort and the Death Eaters coming to attack Hogwarts. She uses this on the Hogwarts statues and uses them to fight against the Death Eaters.
10) What was the name of Professor McGonagall’s husband, who passed away 3 years into their marriage?
McGonagall’s husband was a man named Elphinstone Urquart and they met while working for the Department of Magical Law Enforcement. After three years of marriage, Urquart passed away due to a Venomous Tentacula bite. The couple did not have any children together. Before this marriage, she was also engaged to a muggle man that you can read more about in our extra trivia section below.
Some Additional Professor McGonagall Facts
This section includes some tidbits that we couldn’t find any space for on our Minerva McGonagall quiz. This includes some context on the naming of the character and the casting of the role.
More Details About The Name, ‘Minerva McGonagall’
Here is a bit more context on how the character got her name and the meaning behind it.
1) ‘Minerva’ shares her name with the Roman goddess of wisdom, which JK Rowling admits is the inspiration behind it. Based on what we know about Minerva from the series, I think that we can say wisdom is a quality that she possesses.
2) Rowling says that her last name comes from the poet, William McGonagall. William was a famously bad poet and his work is regarded as some of the worst in English literature. Rowling thought that it would be funny to use his last name for a brilliant witch like Minerva. As a result, Minerva McGonagall is a combination of the Roman goddess of wisdom and a terrible poet. That is a pretty funny combination.
3) In an early draft of the first book, the character was referred to as “Madam McGonagle” by JK Rowling. This name was eventually changed when the real version of the book was released, so this appears to have been a late decision to change it. Professor McGonagall sounds better anyways.
More On Maggie Smith & Her Landing The Role
Maggie Smith has been praised for her portrayal of the role of Professor McGonagall. Below are some additional tidbits about Maggie and her casting.
4) McGonagall is played by Maggie Smith, who JK Rowling revealed in an interview was her number one choice to play the role. It is unclear if any other actresses were considered for the part but it doesn’t seem like it.
5) A fun fact is that Maggie Smith worked with several Harry Potter actors in the 1999 TV movie, David Copperfield. That includes Daniel Radcliffe (Harry Potter), Zoë Wanamaker (Professor Hooch aka the Flying class teacher), and also Imelda Staunton (Dolores Umbridge).
6) During an interview, Smith revealed that the worst part of playing the role was having to wear the large Witch’s hats. These hats were apparently really heavy, which wore on her after a long day of filming.
7) Maggie filmed Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince while receiving radiotherapy. This was during her battle with breast cancer. During the filming of the final movie, she says that she also battled through Shingles. As you can see, she is one tough lady!
8) Maggie is not one of the 14 actors who appeared in every Harry Potter movie. She didn’t appear in Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 1. This comes as a bit of a surprise as I assumed that she appeared in every film because she plays such a large role in the series.
9) During an interview, Maggie said that she appreciated her time working on the series but the role didn’t creatively challenge her as an actress.
10) According to a report, director Chris Columbus was afraid of Maggie and he would often get Daniel Radcliffe to get her from her trailer.
Some Additional Tidbits About The Character
Below are some additional facts about the character, including her jobs and the inspiration behind her name.
11) According to JK Rowling, it took the sorting hat over 5 minutes to decide where to sort McGonagall when she attended Hogwarts. The hat was deciding between Gryffindor and Ravenclaw but eventually went with Gryffindor.
12) After her time attending Hogwarts, McGonagall worked for the Ministry of Magic, in the Department of Magical Law Enforcement. She eventually turned down a promotion within the Ministry to take the job in the Transfiguration department at Hogwarts.
13) Professor McGonagall was born on October 4th, which means that she shares a birthday with Dakota Johnson (actress) and Derrick Rose (NBA player).
14) Minerva had two brothers who were Wizards, Robert McGonagall Jr, and Malcolm McGonagall. Robert was killed by Death Eaters during the First Wizarding War.
15) JK Rowling revealed on Pottermore that Minerva and Professor Sprout attended Hogwarts at the same time (but they weren’t in the same year). Rowling says that McGonagall and Sprout had an excellent friendship both as students and as teachers at Hogwarts.
16) After graduating from Hogwarts, she won the Most Promising Newcomer award from Transfiguration Today.
17) As noted in our quiz, McGonagall’s Animagus form is a tabby cat. It has distinctive markings with square spectacles markings around the eyes.
18) After attending Hogwarts, Minerva was engaged to a muggle farmer named Dougal McGregor. She had to break off the engagement because it would have meant the end of her ambitions as a Witch. Due to the International Statute of Secrecy, she couldn’t give a good reason to Dougal for not marrying him and left him heartbroken.
The Impact Of The Character
Here is a little bit extra about the impact of the character:
19) Professor McGonagall plays the traditional role of a “stern but fair” instructor. She puts aside her biases and tries to be as fair as possible with her students. She also doesn’t show any bias towards her own house. Also, she seems to be a teacher that a lot of readers and viewers would have loved to have in their own academic careers.
20) Minerva lands at #1 on Buzzfeed’s ranking of the Best Professors at Hogwarts. She also lands at #1 on a similar list ranked by Screen Rant.
21) Minerva is not just popular as a Professor, she also lands on many lists about the best characters from the entire Harry Potter franchise. She lands at #18 on both lists from IGN and Empire Online.
How did you score on our Minerva McGonagall quiz? Let us know in the comment section below and share it with your friends to compare your knowledge of the character! Also, make sure to let us know your favorite moment or quote of hers from the entire series! Personally, my favorite scene is when McGonagall duels Professor Snape in the Great Hall. If you watch the scene closely, you can see Snape redirect McGonagall’s spells to hit the other two Death Eaters with him. This was a little bit of foreshadowing about Snape’s true nature and something that really sticks out.
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