Hey Lexicon Steve! was: Protection for EVERYONE at Hogwarts

[Erin]

No: HPFGUIDX 89933

Carol wrote:
See the Timelines at the Lexicon:
 
 http://www.hp-lexicon.org/timelines/timeline_main2.html#1900-2000

 Minerva McGonagall, as far as we can determine from information JKR 
has provided on their respective ages, would have entered Hogwarts in 
September 1931 and left it in June 1938; she did not return as a 
teacher until 1956. Tom Riddle entered the school in September 1938, 
three months after McGonagall left it, murdered Myrtle in 1943 and 
his father and grandparents in the summer of 1944, and left Hogwarts 
in 1945. He did not reappear until the 1970s, when he began gathering 
supporters, few of whom connected Lord Voldemort with
Tom Riddle, model Head Boy at Hogwarts.
 
There is no place in this time frame for a romantic relationship with 
McGonagall.


Erin:
 I think that's a little harsh.  This is the interview the Lexicon 
gives as the source for McGonagall's timeline.

http://www.the-leaky-cauldron.org/quickquotes/articles/2000/1000-
scholastic-chat.htm

and here is the exact quote from that interview:

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Q:  How old is old in the wizarding world, and how old are Professors 
Dumbledore and McGonagall?

A:  Dumbledore is a hundred and fifty, and Professor McGonagall is a 
sprightly seventy. Wizards have a much longer life expectancy than 
Muggles. (Harry hasn't found out about that yet.)
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

This interview takes place in October 2000, after GoF was published.  
Going by the Lexicon timeline, where GoF ends in June 1995, that 
would make McGonagall born in 1925, not starting Hogwarts until 
around 1936.  However, the Lexicon seems to have interpreted JKR's 
words as meaning McGonagall was 70 at the start of Harry's first 
year.  Unless I'm missing an interview, I don't really know why 
they've decided to do that. 

The Lexicon even acknowledges the uncertainty of their McGonagall 
birthdate by putting a little c., standing for circa, or "about" 
before both the 1920 birthdate and the 1931 entering Hogwarts date.

In other words, the Lexicon timeline is not set in stone, and there's 
no reason that McGonagall couldn't have been as little as two years 
ahead of Tom Riddle.  Maybe liking slightly older girls is one of 
the "strange likenesses" Tom and Harry have in common. :-)

As you pointed out, as yet there's no canon basis for Tom showing an 
interest in girls at all.  Of course, there are quite a lot of facts 
missing from Tom's background as it stands, so I don't think there's 
room to rule it out, either.

But let's go with it anyway.  What says Tom would have to love 
McGonagall to get involved with her?  Maybe he needed something from 
her and believed that the best way to get it from her was to become 
romantically involved?  Suppose, for instance, McGonagall was a 
prefect or Head girl, and Tom needed access to a certain part of the 
castle at certain times of the night, on an ongoing basis.  Or maybe 
he needed some saliva from a virgin's first kiss for one of his Dark 
Arts experiments.  

Sure, he could have dumped her afterwards, but maybe at one point he 
thought she'd make a good cover for his secret experiments, whereas 
dumping her would have exposed him as a jerk, so he married her for 
those reasons.  Or maybe a Dark Arts spell required something from 
the spellcaster's wife. Who knows?  

What we do have as far as canon is concerned is Tom's assertation 
that he had always been able to charm those he needed.  Now maybe I'm 
just sexist, but I don't often think of guys talkng about "charming" 
other guys.  So when I hear Riddle say that line, it seems to me to 
refer for the most part to women.

Carol wrote:
 In fact, JKR seems to have arranged the time frame so that
> McGonagall would have no contact with Tom Riddle either as a fellow
> student or a teacher. 

Erin:
That is a matter of opinion.  When I saw the interview, my first 
thought was that JKR had purposely arranged it so that McGonagall, 
Hagrid, and Dumbledore all knew Riddle from his school days.

And, to quote Betta smaragdina from message 89932:

"Well, that would be one scenario for JKR's saying in an interview
that she can't talk about which Hogwarts professors had spouses
because it becomes important to the plot later." 


--Erin