A RaM-based little game
Let's all play . . .
Who's the Orphan? (or "half-orphan")
Which of the following Resolving a Misunderstanding characters has at least one absent or deceased parent before reaching the age of seventeen?
(Base your answers on RaM or well-known canon "facts.")
Robert Crouch
Aberforth Dumbledore
Albus Dumbledore
Deborah Dumbledore
Gertrude Gamp
Rubeus Hagrid
Lucius Malfoy
Aileen Gamp MacAirt
Aine MacAirt
Alroy MacAirt
Egeria Egidius McGonagall
Malcolm McGonagall
Melina McGonagall
Merwyn McGonagall
Minerva McGonagall
Morgan McGonagall
Murdoch McGonagall
Carson Murphy
Robert Pretnick
Tom Riddle
Dorcas Tyree
Maisie Tyree
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Feel free to post your answers here in a comment, if you like. I will add the answers to this post later, so you can come back and check to see how you did. (Remember that RaM completely disregards DH, but is otherwise canon-compliant.)
People did pretty well, congratulations! Now here are the answers, with explanations.
Correct Answers:
Robert Crouch: Father killed by Grindelwald when he was not yet sixteen.
Albus & Aberforth Dumbledore: Father vanished when Albus only nine and Aberforth, four.
Rubeus Hagrid: Mother abandoned family when he was three; father died during Hagrid’s second year at Hogwarts.
Lucius Malfoy: Father died of dragonpox when Lucius was still a child; it is canon that Abraxas Malfoy died of dragonpox; in RaM, we learn that little Lucius is already fatherless.
Aine & Alroy MacAirt: Mother died when Aine was a baby and Alroy was a toddler.
Melina McGonagall: Mother absent or dead since Melina was a toddler (we haven’t learned which yet).
Merwyn McGonagall: Father died from falling from cliff and boulder crushing his skull when Merwyn was around two years old.
Tom Riddle: Father abandoned family before his birth; mother died shortly after giving birth to him.
Dorcas Tyree: Absent father (Egeria expresses the opinion that the family may have been better off without him).
Tricky ones:
Deborah Dumbledore: She was Albus’ cousin; her father, Christopher Dumbledore, died close to the time that she married and moved to Canada with her new husband, so she grew up with both parents.
Aileen Gamp MacAirt: Her father, Gertrude’s brother, was killed during the war, before she met Quin, but after she was already an adult. (Clue that she was an adult: absence of any mention of Aileen being at school with Minerva at the time her father was killed in December 1941, and as she was a Gamp, it is surely something Minerva would have noticed, since Gertrude was teaching at Hogwarts in 1941. In fact, Aileen overlapped Murdoch’s last year at Hogwarts and Minerva’s first year, but neither of them were acquainted with Aileen. Gertrude began teaching during Minerva’s third year.)
Robert Pretnick: He mentions that his father recently passed away, but his mother is still alive; hence, he grew up with both parents in his life.
Maisie Tyree: She is Merwyn’s half-sister; her father, Herbert McKenna, is still alive and well in RaM, and Maisie is older than Minerva, with a grown daughter, Dorcas.
Everyone else:
Gertrude Gamp: Parents both still alive in RaM; Gropius Gamp, her father, was a teenager when survived the paralytic morbilliac fever epidemic that also struck Albus’s mother when Albus was a young man.
Egeria Egidius McGonagall: Kind of a tricky one, since it isn’t explicitly mentioned, but both her parents were alive right on through Minerva’s childhood. Minerva does mention to Carson once that she never knew one grandfather (Collum McGonagall) and rarely sees the other one, which means at least Egeria’s father was still around when Minerva was a child.
Malcolm, Morgan, Murdoch, and Minerva McGonagall: Siblings; parents still alive during RaM.
Carson Murphy: After Carson’s death, Albus delivers his letter, which was written to both his mother and father.
Hope everyone enjoyed this -- there's another one posted 13 November that might be a little easier and may elicit a couple of chuckles!
--
Who's the Orphan? (or "half-orphan")
Which of the following Resolving a Misunderstanding characters has at least one absent or deceased parent before reaching the age of seventeen?
(Base your answers on RaM or well-known canon "facts.")
Robert Crouch
Aberforth Dumbledore
Albus Dumbledore
Deborah Dumbledore
Gertrude Gamp
Rubeus Hagrid
Lucius Malfoy
Aileen Gamp MacAirt
Aine MacAirt
Alroy MacAirt
Egeria Egidius McGonagall
Malcolm McGonagall
Melina McGonagall
Merwyn McGonagall
Minerva McGonagall
Morgan McGonagall
Murdoch McGonagall
Carson Murphy
Robert Pretnick
Tom Riddle
Dorcas Tyree
Maisie Tyree
--
Feel free to post your answers here in a comment, if you like. I will add the answers to this post later, so you can come back and check to see how you did. (Remember that RaM completely disregards DH, but is otherwise canon-compliant.)
People did pretty well, congratulations! Now here are the answers, with explanations.
Correct Answers:
Robert Crouch: Father killed by Grindelwald when he was not yet sixteen.
Albus & Aberforth Dumbledore: Father vanished when Albus only nine and Aberforth, four.
Rubeus Hagrid: Mother abandoned family when he was three; father died during Hagrid’s second year at Hogwarts.
Lucius Malfoy: Father died of dragonpox when Lucius was still a child; it is canon that Abraxas Malfoy died of dragonpox; in RaM, we learn that little Lucius is already fatherless.
Aine & Alroy MacAirt: Mother died when Aine was a baby and Alroy was a toddler.
Melina McGonagall: Mother absent or dead since Melina was a toddler (we haven’t learned which yet).
Merwyn McGonagall: Father died from falling from cliff and boulder crushing his skull when Merwyn was around two years old.
Tom Riddle: Father abandoned family before his birth; mother died shortly after giving birth to him.
Dorcas Tyree: Absent father (Egeria expresses the opinion that the family may have been better off without him).
Tricky ones:
Deborah Dumbledore: She was Albus’ cousin; her father, Christopher Dumbledore, died close to the time that she married and moved to Canada with her new husband, so she grew up with both parents.
Aileen Gamp MacAirt: Her father, Gertrude’s brother, was killed during the war, before she met Quin, but after she was already an adult. (Clue that she was an adult: absence of any mention of Aileen being at school with Minerva at the time her father was killed in December 1941, and as she was a Gamp, it is surely something Minerva would have noticed, since Gertrude was teaching at Hogwarts in 1941. In fact, Aileen overlapped Murdoch’s last year at Hogwarts and Minerva’s first year, but neither of them were acquainted with Aileen. Gertrude began teaching during Minerva’s third year.)
Robert Pretnick: He mentions that his father recently passed away, but his mother is still alive; hence, he grew up with both parents in his life.
Maisie Tyree: She is Merwyn’s half-sister; her father, Herbert McKenna, is still alive and well in RaM, and Maisie is older than Minerva, with a grown daughter, Dorcas.
Everyone else:
Gertrude Gamp: Parents both still alive in RaM; Gropius Gamp, her father, was a teenager when survived the paralytic morbilliac fever epidemic that also struck Albus’s mother when Albus was a young man.
Egeria Egidius McGonagall: Kind of a tricky one, since it isn’t explicitly mentioned, but both her parents were alive right on through Minerva’s childhood. Minerva does mention to Carson once that she never knew one grandfather (Collum McGonagall) and rarely sees the other one, which means at least Egeria’s father was still around when Minerva was a child.
Malcolm, Morgan, Murdoch, and Minerva McGonagall: Siblings; parents still alive during RaM.
Carson Murphy: After Carson’s death, Albus delivers his letter, which was written to both his mother and father.
Hope everyone enjoyed this -- there's another one posted 13 November that might be a little easier and may elicit a couple of chuckles!
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