TM: What is your greatest strength?
Muse: Minerva McGonagall
Fandom: Harry Potter
TM Topic: What is your greatest strength?
Word Count: 2224 words
I used to think my greatest strength was my intellect. Back in my gloriously self-involved youth, I fancied myself a great intellectual. Armed with my immense rational powers, I would unravel the mysteries of the universe, advance the course of magic and civilization itself through logic and reason.
It took me very little time after achieving my N.E.W.T.s (six of them, with flying colors, I might add), to discover that, while I was very smart, there were smarter ones out there. And that all the smarts in the world didn't really matter once Grindelwald took power.
And then I discovered courage. It was a shock to me, if I may be candid, to learn I had courage. I had always avoided conflict in my life, in my family, with my class mates, with my teachers. I saw myself as a facilitator, one who strove to diffuse conflicts, not participate in them. But when Grindelwald came to power, and the Muggle war spread its bloody influence over Europe, Northern Africa and the South Pacific, I knew I could no longer hide behind my pacifist nature. I had to get involved.
I got involved, and found I had courage to risk my life for a cause I believed in. That never changed, not even now. I know I can and will fight, if necessary, to protect those I love. I still believe in peace, and I still struggle to avoid conflict when possible. But I will fight, die, or kill, to protect what I know is right.
Courage is not my greatest strength. I've seen many courageous folk in my long life, and mine is hardly even comparable to the Longbottoms, the Potters, the Grangers, the Weasleys and Dumbledores I've known.
Perhaps my compassion, my abilities as a teacher? Perhaps my uncanny ability to organize, always a good trait for a headmistress?
What, I ask the candle burning at his desk, which is now my desk, is my greatest strength? What will I bring to this job, what can I contribute that he could not have done better? How will I make my mark?
And then I realize, as I hear his portrait on the wall, snoring behind me, what my greatest strength is. I realize, as I review the candidates for deputy, all good people, strong teachers, long-time friends, why I must now be headmistress, not in name only, but in heart and soul as well.
My greatest strength is not my intellect, or courage, or compassion or abilities.
My greatest strength is that I have remained. When others fall, I remain. When even the greatest of us fell, I remained. One day, too, I shall fall. It is inevitable. But remain I shall, until I finally, with the last gasping breath of life I can muster, finally fall. Until death--not politics, not fear, not exhaustion, but only death itself--pulls me away from my sworn duty.
And not a moment before.
Fandom: Harry Potter
TM Topic: What is your greatest strength?
Word Count: 2224 words
I used to think my greatest strength was my intellect. Back in my gloriously self-involved youth, I fancied myself a great intellectual. Armed with my immense rational powers, I would unravel the mysteries of the universe, advance the course of magic and civilization itself through logic and reason.
It took me very little time after achieving my N.E.W.T.s (six of them, with flying colors, I might add), to discover that, while I was very smart, there were smarter ones out there. And that all the smarts in the world didn't really matter once Grindelwald took power.
And then I discovered courage. It was a shock to me, if I may be candid, to learn I had courage. I had always avoided conflict in my life, in my family, with my class mates, with my teachers. I saw myself as a facilitator, one who strove to diffuse conflicts, not participate in them. But when Grindelwald came to power, and the Muggle war spread its bloody influence over Europe, Northern Africa and the South Pacific, I knew I could no longer hide behind my pacifist nature. I had to get involved.
I got involved, and found I had courage to risk my life for a cause I believed in. That never changed, not even now. I know I can and will fight, if necessary, to protect those I love. I still believe in peace, and I still struggle to avoid conflict when possible. But I will fight, die, or kill, to protect what I know is right.
Courage is not my greatest strength. I've seen many courageous folk in my long life, and mine is hardly even comparable to the Longbottoms, the Potters, the Grangers, the Weasleys and Dumbledores I've known.
Perhaps my compassion, my abilities as a teacher? Perhaps my uncanny ability to organize, always a good trait for a headmistress?
What, I ask the candle burning at his desk, which is now my desk, is my greatest strength? What will I bring to this job, what can I contribute that he could not have done better? How will I make my mark?
And then I realize, as I hear his portrait on the wall, snoring behind me, what my greatest strength is. I realize, as I review the candidates for deputy, all good people, strong teachers, long-time friends, why I must now be headmistress, not in name only, but in heart and soul as well.
My greatest strength is not my intellect, or courage, or compassion or abilities.
My greatest strength is that I have remained. When others fall, I remain. When even the greatest of us fell, I remained. One day, too, I shall fall. It is inevitable. But remain I shall, until I finally, with the last gasping breath of life I can muster, finally fall. Until death--not politics, not fear, not exhaustion, but only death itself--pulls me away from my sworn duty.
And not a moment before.