Sex! Love! Writing!

[Carol]

 Julie:
> This would be very suspicious, very suspicious indeed! Men do not
usually outlive women, and for a man to outlive *two* wives...this
would seem to imply that Dumbledore might well be a wife-killer! <snip>
>
Carol responds:

FWIW, we have a seven-time *widow* in Blaise Zabini's mother (don't
know whether they share a last name) and that's exactly what I
thought--very suspicious indeed! I immeidiately thought of a black
widow spider (no racial allusion intended) murdering her mates, erm,
husbands, for their money. She's a Slytherin (I assume) and a
pureblood and beautiful and she's had seven husbands, all of whom died
mysteriously and left her mounds of gold. Maybe she used one of those
undetectable poisons that Snape mentioned on all seven husbands. (No
eight. Is that because she shares Voldemort's view of the magical
properties of the number seven?)

Prejudice against Slytherins on my part? I don't think so. I'm a Snape
fan after all. But Slytherins are cunning, and seven husbands who died
mysteriously just seems, well, unnatural and sinister. (Innocent until
proven guilty, I realize. Appearances are deceiving, especially in the
WW. But I'll bet she's guilty, nonetheless.)

Carol, wondering why Blaise's mother's reputation would cause Slughorn
to want to "collect" her son