The McGonagall/Riddle Ship Explained

[Erin]

No: HPFGUIDX 115706


 
> Meri wrote: 
> And also interesting how you seem to 
> think that there was no legitimate attraction involved. 
><snip> IMHO there could be an actual thing between them. Nothing so 
shallow 
> as "he just needed a girlfriend"; I think there may have at least 
> been attraction, if not real love.  

Erin:
In my favored version, there is real love-- on Minerva's part.  The 
problem with Tom feeling real love is the one you pointed out 
yourself:

> I do see one problem with all this speculation. IIRC, JKR said 
> in an interview that LV was never loved by anyone.

 
> Meri wrote: 
>I don't really see McGonagal as someone who would be taken in 
> on something as superficial as good looks and charm. (Like Hermione 
> after her, it would probably have taken her less than a year to see 
> right through them to who a person really is!) 

Erin:
I see student!McGonagall as sort of like what Hermione would have 
been without Ron and Harry as friends.  *That* Hermione was, IMO, 
very vulnerable to the first people who would befriend her-- lucky it 
was Ron and Harry!  But I don't see McGonagall's not understanding 
what Tom was really like as a failure on her part, but rather as an 
indication of how very good at deception Tom really was.  It wasn't 
that McGonagall was overlooking clues, it was that Tom made 
absolutely sure there were no clues at all.


--Erin