McGonagall is a death eater

Someone on Two Peas raised this theory a couple days ago and I've done a fair bit of reading on it since, including re-reading Half Blood Prince (yet again!) with this in mind.

And I'm convinced. There's lots of circumstantial evidence out there, you can google it and get one or two essays on the subject. But the clincher, in my opinion, is this scene in HPB, immediately after Katie Bell has been cursed by a necklace and Harry has wrapped it up in his scarf:

Sure enough, Professor McGonagall was hurrying down the stone steps through swirling sleet to meet them.

"Hagrid says you four saw what happened to Katie Bell - upstairs to my office at once, please! What's that you're holding Potter?"

"It's the thing she touched, " said Harry.

"Good lord," said Professor McGonagall, looking alarmed as she toold the necklace from Harry. "No, no Filch, they're with me!" she added hastily as Filch came shuffling eagerly across the entrance hall holding his Secrecy Sensor aloft. "Take this necklace to Professor Snape at once, but be sure not to touch it, keep it wrapped in the scarf."

So where in that exchange did anyone tell McGonagall that the item wrapped in the scarf, that the "thing" Katie Bell touched was a necklace? And consider two pages later when Harry accuses of Malfoy of trying to sneak the necklace into the school, McGonagall gives him cover. "and what is more," said Professor McGonagall, with an air of awful finality, "Mr. Malfoy was not in Hogsmeade today... Because he was doing detention with me...."

JK Rowling does not write carelessly and she chooses her words very deliberately. She is telling us that McGonagall knows what Draco is up to and is protecting him. There are lots of other subtle hints along the way; consider that Harry often finds himself reluctant to confide in McGonagall but almost always ends up doing so when she presses him. Until the very end of Half Blood Prince when he refuses to divulge what Dumbledore was doing.

I really like this juxtaposition: Snape - who has all the appearance of being evil but is truly on the good side. And McGonagall - who has all the appearance of being good but is Voldemort's most loyal servant.

Wait and see. This is the big surprise. This is the part that many people will loathe. 3 1/2 more days!