The McGonagall/Riddle Ship Explained

[justcarol67]

No: HPFGUIDX 116007


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

Carol notes:
The problem with the theory that McGonagall actually *married* Tom
Riddle (aside from the difficulty of taking back her maiden name in
the conservative WW) is that, as far as we know, Tom Riddle (having
murdered his Muggle relatives the previous summer and being too old
for the orphanage and having no place to call home), seems to have
started out on his travels immediately. I've always thought that one
of his reasons was fear that the Muggle authorities might become aware
of his existence and come after him as the obvious suspect in the
triple murder. In any case, he certainly wanted to begin his quest for
 immortality and his consorting with the worst of wizard kind (as I
think DD put it). Possibly he was involved with Grindelwald for a
short time before his defeat by DD in 1945. At any rate, he had some
urgent reasons to disappear from public view and he wouldn't have hung
around with a plain-faced, sharp-tongued young wife who disapproved of
Dark Magic and his quest for immortality. I think he left his diary
and perhaps a few other possessions with one of the "dear friends" who
called him Lord Voldemort, quite possibly Lucius Malfoy's father (the
27-year difference between Tom's and Lucius's ages make this likely
and Lucius's possession of the diary makes it still more plausible)
and began his quest for immortality unencumbered by any worldly ties.

I do wonder if McGonagall is or was married at some point in her life,
 though her fondness for tartan suggests that McGonagall is her maiden
name, but I very much doubt that sensible, morally upright Minerva was
ever smitten by charming, incorrigibly evil Tom. At least, for her
sake, I hope not.

Carol