The McGonagall/Riddle Ship Explained

[meriaugust]

No: HPFGUIDX 115710


--- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, "Erin" <erinellii at y...> wrote:
 
> 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.

Meri again: A good point, and entirley possible, but I would bring 
up one point. Even at Hogwarts Tom Riddle was already slipping down 
the slippery slope. He tells us in CoS that there were allready 
people calling him "Lord Voldemort" - though what a fifteen or 
sixteen year old boy was doing to be called "Lord" is best left to 
the imagination, I think. Anyway, Hogwarts is a fairly contained 
school; rumors could fly. I'd like to think that maybe Student!
McGonagal heard the rumors and stayed with him anyway...Maybe she 
thought she could redeem him. 
Meri