Professor McGonagall teaches transfiguration, which leads to a lot of funny bits involving tea cups sprouting legs, running off the desks to crash on the floor, only to be fixed with a quick reparo spell.
She is the head of Gryffindor house and quite stern but always fair. She is the one who recognizes Harry’s skill flying on a broom and helps him become the youngest quidditch seeker at Hogwarts in a century. She is a member of the Order of the Phoenix.
She is, apparently, the first magical person we see in “Sorcerer’s Stone,” although she is disguised as a cat at the time. She is not the first magical creature we see, however; that would be an owl.
– John Orr, Mercury News
