When Mcgonagall asks Harry where he and Dumbledore were before the Dark Mark appeared in the sky should Harry have told her? I think he should have and just made sure she didn't tell the Minister/Ministry. She took Dumbledore's place, after all. She is no Dumbledore and Dumbledore told Harry to tell no one but Ron and Hermione but like Mcgonagall said circumstances change and I think Dumbledore meant not to tell any of his other freinds. Mcgonagall's the one he's got to put faith in now that Dumbledore's dead and I for one think he should have told her, maybe not everything, but at least what he and Dumbledore were up to.


And if Mcgonagall wanted to find out why didn't she just ask Dumbledore's photograph?

No...I think he was right to withhold that piece of information from her. Her job is to the school and it's students. Harry has his own job to do and after losing the "mentors" he has had, he realizes he has to go at it alone. he even breaks up with his girlsfriend because of it. I think he will leave the others out of it until the time is right. It will play a sort of reverse on the Order. The trio will have the secrets and when it is right, they will divulge information as needed. I think this adds to harry's climax as the hero who has to do everything alone. He might want to ask Mcgonagall for DD's pensieve though...that would really help him out.

Yeah .. he was right not to tell her. Although I think he probably will need help finding and destroying the Horcruxes. Dumbledore nearly died twice himself, looking for them, and the tasks are bound to get harder for Harry as things progress. However, McGonagall has a duty to Hogwarts, so I don't think she'd be the right person to confide in.

I don't think he should. The more people who know, the harder it would probably be to look for the Horcruxes and destroy them. McGonagall has taken over DD's post of Headmaster, but not over all his doings. Besides, McGonagall would probably have told the Order, and they'd have been delighted to help, but the way I see it, Harry feels it's a job for him to collect all the Horcruxes, and only wants Hermione and Ron to help him.

Harry was keeping his word telling only two people in this life. the two that will be with him through thick and thin. Altough something tells me Miss Ginny will be right there next to Harry also no matter how much Harry Protests.

I think he was right to keep his word and not tell her. Remember he was watching them from the painting !!!! I think harry showed great character by keeping his word to DD.

Hmm... Toughie this one. I can definitiely see both sides of the argument - if I were in his position then I would tell everyone I could, since the hunt for the horcruxes would be speeded up greatly before Voldy could cause any more damage.

Dumbledore admitted that keeping the prophecy from Harry was a mistake, and one which ultimately killed Sirius. Harry's stoicism is typical and I expected no less - he's Dumbledore's man after all!

Dumbledore made the point again and again to Harry that Valdemort's ultimate weakness is that he is alone, and Harry's ultimate strength is his ability to love. Yet here we have Harry pushing away from those he loves and saying "I have to do this alone". Very dangerous precedent.

And he's wrong. The prophecy does say that Harry alone can "vanquish" the dark lord, but that isn't true of destroying the Horcruxes. How do we know this? Simple. At least one other person, maybe two, have already destroyed Horcruxes. Dumbledore destroyed one. R.A.B. may have. (all we know for certain is that he removed it from where Valdemort left it. He may or may not have succeeded in destroying it, and either way, he seems to believe that there is only one, saying something about how Valdemort would be mortal now that he's lost this one....). So Harry doesn't have to destroy the Horcruxes alone. Others can (and even have) done that.

I think it will be a serious theme of book 7 that Harry has to open up to risking those he loves by involving them in the search. That's probably Ginny's role as a character -- because she is so strong-willed, she will get him to open up to accept love and help, and to risk loving even though that might mean losing. Only when he does that will the Horcruxes be destroyed -- by the Order, by the trio, by Neville and Luna, etc. By people Harry dares to love. Then he can face a mortal Valdemort and fulfill the prophecy.

He's on the wrong path right now, thinking he has to work alone. He's walking Valdemort's path.

Now, that said, I'm not sure there's much to be gained from telling McGonegal. She hasn't proven to be there for him much, doesn't seem to be in the Order (is she? I don't remember that she is...she's certainly never fought alongside them) and has already shown her spine by saying "let's close the school" before Dumbledore was even in the ground. I don't think he should have told her. But I think he needs to tell the Order, and let love in.

^ First off, Mcgonagall is in the Order - Harry mentions seeing her at Grimauld Place once (that was sometime in August before school started) She didn't fight with the Order in OOTP in the Department of Mysteries because she was in St. Mungo's. Hagrid didn't fight there either, remember? But he's in the Order. And Mcgonagall did fight in HBP. When Harry was chasing after Snape he saw Ron, professor Mcgonagall and Lupin each fighting a Death Eater. Now, about you folks saying Mcgonagall's not really there for him, if Dumbledore wasn't with him in the cave there's no way Harry would have ever gotten the fake Horcrux let alone find the cave! Mcgonagall's possibly the wisest member of the Order left and one of the strongest. But like Darth_Oz said Harry should tell not everyone but at least the Order. he doesn't need to take the role of Hero again and destroy them all by himself, it took Dumbledore nearly a year to locate the location of 2 Horcruxes - how the hell is Harry going to figd 3 or 4 in one more book (unless the book takes place in more than a year?). With the order's help he could find them much quicker.

I definetly think Harry was right not to tell her because first of all, if DD had wanted her to know he would've told her himself. And secondly this is Harrys job. Plus if he tells McGonagall its only a matter of time before more in the order know and it will be very hard to keep Voldemort from knowing that they know about the Horcruxes. Also, McGonagall is not DD and will never be. JKR made that clear when they were talking and Harry wouldn't tell her she called him Potter. Something DD never did even when he was frustrated with Harry.

I think it was smart for Harry not to tell because then the order would have known and then they might try to stop Harry.Harry seems like he wants to do it on his own and it would make him mad if everyone was trying to help.

I agree to disagree

The less people that know about the horcruxes, the better. Could you imagine if Harry told the Order, and then they all got captured by DE's, and Voldemort performs Legilimency on them?

Shocking *shakes head*

Although there wouldn't be much he could do about it anyway, if they were all destroyed, but why take the risk?

no, he was right in not telling her. dumbledore told him to tell no one else besides hermonie and ron. "and dumbledore is never really gone until everyone here is disloyal to him" so in a sense of way dumbledore is not gone!!!

He shouldn't have told her, the more people who know, the harder it is to keep it from people who don't need to know. besides, if DD wanted McGonnagoll to know he would have told her himself.

I agree with most of you. Harry was right in not telling Prof. Mcgonagall. If DD wanted her to know, he would of told her himself. Mcgonagall was close to DD and if he didnt tell her, it means something. I think Harry should tell the Order if he really needs help. But even now it will be hard to keep it a secret. Because the Minister knows that DD and Harry were out when the Death Eaters entered the Castle and I think he'll tell some of his people to try to figure out where they were. Eventually the news of ministry officials trying to get secrets out of harry might get to Voldy. Just my thought.

I think that Harry was right in not telling Professor McGonagoll about the Horcruxes. My reason is that if Dumbledore wanted her to know about it, he would have said, "Oh Minerva; there's something I wanted to tell you about. Harry and I are looking for some Horcruxes." At this, McGonagoll would have been very frightened for Harry and she would have wanted him to stay with her when DD died. THis would have been bad for Harry...

i think harry did the right thing by not telling he followed his orders given by DD. Now i think honestly DD knew all this was coming he's been so smart in the past that everything plays out how he wants. And i highly doubt the rest of the order knows about the horcruxs. No it is my belife that the only ones who know about this are DD and harry and slughorn(he has to see what there after even though he was drunk when harry got the memory he would remember harry asking him before) knows somewhat, not really what objects but that LV has them. Ok so back to DD like i said i think he knew that harry has to do this on his own, so he let harry in on this and showed him how to get well...a fake one but at least showed him what hes up against, and no one else was told because one of them could get captured and LV read their mind then he would gather up all his horcruxs so harry couldnt get to them.

Wow, I must say that reading this posts has really affected my opinion! I had always been of the opinion that Harry SHOULD have told McGonagall because I couldn't understand why Harry had to hunt for the Horcruxes alone, but now that I read eveyone's posts it makes more sense.

On the other hand, I still feel a bit uncomfortable with the fact that it's okay for Ron and Hermione to know and help out and not the order. Perhaps it will be okay for Harry to tell SOME of the members? I guess that DD's portrait will let him know what to do...

I believe that Harry is right in not letting McGonagall the details. My guess is that Dumbledore intentionally told Harry to only tell Ron and Hermione about this, because in the end, he wouldn't want McGonagall to be involved with the Final Battle. He is concerned for everybody's protection and wouldn't want anyone who isn't necessary to be a part of the fight...

I also believe Harry was right in not telling McGonagall about the horcruxes. Dumbledore wouldve let her know if he thought that she needed to know. There must be a reason that he told only Harry. But I also think that Harry might eventually need to accept help from somebody; it will take awhile to hunt down and destroy the horcruxes by himself.

I belive that Harry did the rigth thing.
Mcgonagall would had said that it was dangerous and would´t aloud him to continue.

What to do... What to do...

Ok, so from our point of view (the reader), I am going "You idiot! Tell McGonghall! She can help you!"... but he can't. He is simply too loyal to DD. Would DD have broadened his vision on who Harry can/can't tell, if he knew he was going to die? Perhaps... But he didn't know. And he didn't tell Harry that he could divulge that information to anyone else. So he won't. I believe that Minerva will make an excellent headmistress to Hogwarts, but, Dumbledore, she is not. Maybe DD is concerned for her safety. She may be a capable witch, but she is no DD, so maybe DD was afraid that if LV found out she knew about the horcruxes, that he would use her to find out order secrets.

In short, no, I don't think he should tell Minerva. Not yet, anyhow.

I dont think that harry should tell anyone. He needs to do this journy by himself until he really needs help, which he will. I think that Mcgonagall will eventually find out but not until absoulty nescessary. The less people that know about the Horcruxes the better. If LV did figure out that Harry or anyone was in a search for the abandoned pieces of his soul then he would prolly make it really impossible to make him mortal. But thats just what i think, me and J.K.R. are pretty good friends, i'll call her up and see what really happens.

i think he should have because she could have helped alot

I think Harry was right in not telling McGonagall. If more people knew, it would have more chance of word getting to Voldy that someone knows his huge secret. I think it's going to be Harry, Ron, and Hermione (I'm not sure about Ginny) who know about the Horcruxes and will be finding them together.