The McGonagall/Riddle Ship Explained

[Erin]

No: HPFGUIDX 115684


... one version of it, anyways.

Something posted on another list I'm a member of made me think that 
not enough fans remembered (or knew of in the first place) the 
Minerva McGonagall/Tom Riddle SHIP.  As it's one of my favorite HP 
theories, I'd like to capitalize on all the recent McGonagall 
discussion and repost here what I posted there to explain the SHIP, 
just so you all aren't so surprised when it comes true in HBP, lol. 

So far as I can tell, the theory stems from three answers Rowling 
gives in interviews, and from information about Riddle/Voldemort's 
age in CoS. Questions number one and two, from the Comic Relief chat 
in 2001, are:
*********************
Q: Have any of the Hogwarts professors had spouses?
A: Good question - yes, a few of them but that information is sort of
restricted - you'll find out why.

Q:What is your favourite book ever (not including Harry Potter)?
A: Let's see...there are loads probably 'Emma' by Jane Austen <snip>
*********************

Okay, so the questions now become -- *which* teachers are secretly
married, and *why* is that information restricted? Why would JKR
restrict the information about married teachers? Well, probably
because something about them will surprise the reader, and also
reveal important clues to the plot. In other words, because the
information Bangs. This is where Jane Austen's Emma as a favorite
book comes in. For those of you who haven't read Emma, the surprise
ending of the novel hinges on the discovery of a marriage previously
unsuspected by the heroine.

But what exactly could be so bangy about teachers being married? Why
should we care? Let's start with the teachers fans care about. It's
a fairly short list, I suspect. A Married!Professor Sprout or
Flitwick is not going to make us sit up and go "Aha!". So I think
we can narrow it down to Snape, Dumbledore, McGonagall, Hagrid, and
possibly Trelawny.

Of these, the most suitable is clearly McGonagall. Trelawney rarely
leaves her tower room, and when Umbridge fires her she says Hogwarts
is her home and she has nowhere else to go. Hagrid felt free to
court Madame Maxime in GoF, something I don't think his
straightforward character would permit were he already attached to a
spouse. If Dumbledore had a living wife she would have been
mentioned on his Chocolate Frog Wizard Card, or in one of the
newspaper articles about him. Snape... well, he has enough mystery
without a wife, and, sadly, I don't think JKR sees him as very
lovable :-(

So McGonagall it is. There are a myriad of possible hookups for her
(some including Dumbledore, Snape, and Hagrid, and my new favorite,
the Half-Blood prince himself!) but the one we're focusing on is Tom
Riddle. It has to be Riddle back when he was still Riddle, because
no one thinks scaly Voldemort capable of attracting women other than
Bellatrix, unless you go for Evil!McGonagall, and that's a whole
different kettle of fish than a simple McGonagall/Riddle Ship.

So, when was Riddle still Riddle? According to both the CoS "fifty
years ago" statement and the supposedly JKR-approved time line on the
CoS DVD, Voldemort is between 65 and 67 in CoS. Which brings us to
the third interview question, asked in 2000, the year of GoF's
release.

********************************
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.)
*********************************

Aha! So if McGonagall is 70 at the time of GoF, and Voldemort is,
say, 69... then they were in school together! At most, Riddle was
three years younger, but they could be construed as in the same
grade, depending on when their birthdays are.

So... this is how my favorite Riddle/McGonagall scenario goes.

Tom Riddle is in his sixth year at Hogwarts. He's evil, and last
year he opened the Chamber of Secrets, commanded the basilisk, and
got a poor, nerdy little girl named Myrtle killed, but no one even
suspects this save a handful of Tom's "most intimate friends" and
transfiguration teacher Albus Dumbledore.

Dumbledore is watching Tom more closely these days. Tom needs
something to make himself seem more like a normal, happy teenager and
less like a budding Evil Overlord. And besides, people are
beginning to talk: "What's up with that Tom Riddle? He's handsome,
brilliant, a prefect, makes good grades, a brave chap... how come
he's never dated anyone?"

Tom needs a girlfriend to make his twisted life seem normal. A
Slytherin girl would hardly put Dumbledore off the scent, so he
decides on Minerva McGonagall, a Gryffindor prefect nearly as
brilliant as himself, and one of Dumbledore's star transfiguration
pupils.

An alternate scenario is that Tom needed something from Minerva,
something only she could provide. Perhaps something to do with skill
in transfiguration, or the fact that she is a Gryffindor, or (if she
is a year or two older) access to somewhere that an older prefect
could provide.

In any case, Tom needs to get close to Minerva.

"If I say it myself, Harry, I've always been able to charm the people
I needed."-- Tom Riddle, CoS Ch. 17.

Minerva is completely taken in by Tom's good looks and charm. And
for his part, Tom discovers that it's easy to say and do all the
right things when there are no messy feelings involved. He can be
smooth and secure in his role of the perfect boyfriend.

And for whatever reason, things go too far. Perhaps Tom continues to
make use of Minerva's skills at transformation and is loathe to give
them up. Perhaps he is unable to think up a reason to dump her that
will allow him to keep his "good guy" image. Or maybe he thinks
she'll continue to make a good cover for his evil activities even
after Hogwarts. Soon after they finish school, the two are married.

And then it happens. Tom is careless and Minerva gets an inkling of
the sort of man she is really married to. She is horrified, there is
a huge fight, and she tells him to "Get out!!".

And he does. In fact, he leaves that very night to go on his long
journey around the world, the one where he "traveled far and wide...
sank so deeply into the Dark Arts, consorted with the very worst of
our kind, underwent so many dangerous, magical transformations...".

Minerva wants to divorce him, but is unable to find him (and anyway,
divorce is not *done* nearly so often in those days), so she goes
back to her maiden name and tries to forget him.

When Riddle does surface again, he is calling himself Lord Voldemort
and is unrecognizably altered in appearence. He doesn't contact
Minerva, and she has no idea who he is. By the time she realizes
Voldemort and her husband are one and the same, he is already Public
Enemy #1, and she is terrified to reveal her connection to him.

This also explains why so few people know who Voldemort once was.
Dumbledore figured it out, and he is protecting Minerva from the
angry friends and relatives of the dead by keeping silent.

So... that's one version of McGonagall/Riddle. At all plausible, do
you think?

--Erin