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Description
After another user here wrote up a nice entry on my previous Harry Potter work on her blog , my ego was stroked enough to inspire me to get to work on an idea I've been sitting on for quite some time.

It came to me a few years ago when I was looking at some Harry Potter sites and noticed that Professor McGonagall was born only a year earlier than Tom Riddle. Therefore, they would've attended Hogwarts at the same time. It's never brought up in the books, and there's no proof that they knew each other, so that's where I had to start using my imagination in a bit.

Hogwarts isn't that big a school, and Minerva McGonagall and Tom Riddle were both very gifted wizards. Therefore, it's not a real stretch to think they knew each other. It's also not a real stretch to think they would've strongly disliked one another.

There's a couple reasons for that. One, the long-standing animosity between Gryffindor and Slytherin. Yeah, I can already hear some of you saying how McGonagall isn't the type to show bias, but she's only 17-18 here, that's quite young yet. And, yes, she was objective PROFESSIONALLY, but that doesn't mean she was particularly fond of Slytherin House personally.

And even if she wasn't the type to label someone based on the house he was sorted to, she probably saw right through Tom Riddle. That's not to say she knew he would grow up to wage war against the wizarding world, but I'm sure she saw right past his charms and probably thought he was a manipulative, two-faced little shit. Kinda like Malfoy, perhaps.

And Riddle probably saw Minerva McGonagall as some obnoxious little do-gooder. Also, he probably considered her beneath him, like he did everyone else. He probably felt more contempt toward here than outright hatred.

Which brings us to the situation we're witnessing in this picture. Minerva's in her 7th year, Riddle in his 6th, so they've had years of dislike toward one another. Their paths crossed on the grounds of the school, and they exchanged rude gestures as they passed each other.

And McGonagall wearing the Head Girl badge is just another product of my imagination. But, again, it's not that big a stretch, really. She seems like someone who would've been chosen for that.

I originally intended for them to encounter each other in the hallway, but fall is on its way here in Michigan, and I was in the mood to do something autumnal. So, I simply changed the setting to outdoors, with a fresh blanket of fall leaves on the ground and blazing orange foliage on the trees.

OH! And just to make something crystal clear Tom isn't waving at McGonagall, he's thumbing his nose at her. It was kinda hard to make that really clear, so I wanted to point that out because I'm a little worried people might think he's just waving at her. And in that case, Minerva would be a bit of a bitch for giving him the finger.

EDIT: I changed up the backdrop a little. I replaced my castle photo in the far background so I can submit this to a group here on dA. With the old one, I couldn't have done it. It's unlikely anyone would've noticed, it was so blurry, but I thought I'd just replace it. And I actually wound up with something I like better, since I used a photo of the library here in town as my Hogwarts stand-in. It sort of looks like a small castle, and it gives it a local touch. ^_^

Description
After another user here wrote up a nice entry on my previous Harry Potter work on her blog , my ego was stroked enough to inspire me to get to work on an idea I've been sitting on for quite some time.

It came to me a few years ago when I was looking at some Harry Potter sites and noticed that Professor McGonagall was born only a year earlier than Tom Riddle. Therefore, they would've attended Hogwarts at the same time. It's never brought up in the books, and there's no proof that they knew each other, so that's where I had to start using my imagination in a bit.

Hogwarts isn't that big a school, and Minerva McGonagall and Tom Riddle were both very gifted wizards. Therefore, it's not a real stretch to think they knew each other. It's also not a real stretch to think they would've strongly disliked one another.

There's a couple reasons for that. One, the long-standing animosity between Gryffindor and Slytherin. Yeah, I can already hear some of you saying how McGonagall isn't the type to show bias, but she's only 17-18 here, that's quite young yet. And, yes, she was objective PROFESSIONALLY, but that doesn't mean she was particularly fond of Slytherin House personally.

And even if she wasn't the type to label someone based on the house he was sorted to, she probably saw right through Tom Riddle. That's not to say she knew he would grow up to wage war against the wizarding world, but I'm sure she saw right past his charms and probably thought he was a manipulative, two-faced little shit. Kinda like Malfoy, perhaps.

And Riddle probably saw Minerva McGonagall as some obnoxious little do-gooder. Also, he probably considered her beneath him, like he did everyone else. He probably felt more contempt toward here than outright hatred.

Which brings us to the situation we're witnessing in this picture. Minerva's in her 7th year, Riddle in his 6th, so they've had years of dislike toward one another. Their paths crossed on the grounds of the school, and they exchanged rude gestures as they passed each other.

And McGonagall wearing the Head Girl badge is just another product of my imagination. But, again, it's not that big a stretch, really. She seems like someone who would've been chosen for that.

I originally intended for them to encounter each other in the hallway, but fall is on its way here in Michigan, and I was in the mood to do something autumnal. So, I simply changed the setting to outdoors, with a fresh blanket of fall leaves on the ground and blazing orange foliage on the trees.

OH! And just to make something crystal clear Tom isn't waving at McGonagall, he's thumbing his nose at her. It was kinda hard to make that really clear, so I wanted to point that out because I'm a little worried people might think he's just waving at her. And in that case, Minerva would be a bit of a bitch for giving him the finger.

EDIT: I changed up the backdrop a little. I replaced my castle photo in the far background so I can submit this to a group here on dA. With the old one, I couldn't have done it. It's unlikely anyone would've noticed, it was so blurry, but I thought I'd just replace it. And I actually wound up with something I like better, since I used a photo of the library here in town as my Hogwarts stand-in. It sort of looks like a small castle, and it gives it a local touch. ^_^