The McGonagall/Riddle Ship Explained

[Erin]

No: HPFGUIDX 116044


 
> Carol noted:
> 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) 

Erin:
Huh?  The conservative wizarding world? As far as women's rights, I 
don't see it that way at all.  And yes, I know that there have been 
huge debates about this issue, and I'm not trying to start one up 
again, but... just keep in mind that consevative (per women's rights) 
is a matter of opinion and there is nothing in canon that suggests a 
woman would have difficulty in resuming her maiden name if she wished 
to do so.


> Carol continued:
> 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. 

Erin:  
The exact quote is "he disappeared after leaving the school... 
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, that when he resurfaced as Lord Voldemort, he was 
barely recognizable."

Now, I admit that this does suggest his leaving *soon* after school, 
but it doesn't specifically say immediately.  I think there's leeway 
in there for a couple of months of marriage with Minerva, especially 
if we allow for the idea that Dumbledore is still covering for 
Minerva by not mentioning the marriage.  He's not actually lying, 
just leaving out a little.


Carol again:
 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. 

Erin:
Urgent reason?  Like a fight with Minerva in which she threatens to 
expose his evil ways if he doesn't leave?

Is young!McGonagall plain-faced?  I know present-day McGonagall is 
stern, but that isn't really the same thing at all.  Was she always 
sharp-tongued?  Who knows *what* she was like as a young woman?  In 
my version of McGonagall/Riddle, she doesn't know about the Dark 
Magic or the quest for immortality until right before they split up, 
so that wouldn't have been a factor at all in Tom's decision to hang 
around or not.

Hey, I'm not sure how much I believe in the Ship myself, but I don't 
actually see anything in canon to rule it out...

--Erin, who really wants McGonagall to be married to the Scottish!HBP