Epithalamium (Albus and Minerva)

Series Metadata

Creator:
Series Begun:
2011-06-23
Series Updated:
2025-08-19
Description:

This series chronicles the life of Minerva McGonagall, particularly her 50-year relationship with Albus Dumbledore.

Notes:

About the Epithalamium Series

How It Happened

I first conceived the idea of writing an Albus Dumbledore/Minerva McGonagall (AD/MM) romance when I was trawling the depths of fanfiction.net for stories about my favourite witch.

Most were written before the 2007 interview in which J. K. Rowling revealed that she conceived Albus Dumbledore as gay, and a lot of them featured the AD/MM pairing. There were some good ones, to be sure, but the majority seemed as if they were written by young people who envisioned a relationship between the two characters as full of extravagant romantic gestures, hearts and flowers, and happily-ever-afters, which is, of course, fine. It just wasn't what I was looking for.

I wanted to write about McGonagall, possibly because the popular conception of her is so narrow and, to my mind, simplistic. While many casual commenters on the Harry Potter phenomenon seem to see her as a thoroughly upstanding BAMF, I think Rowling hinted at something more interesting and less black and white when she had the character perform a totally unnecessary Imperius Curse on Amycus Carrow in the final book. Rowling wrote her as a strong character with an emotional side that comes out when she cares about something or someone deeply. I hoped to explore and expand that characterization further, adding some murkier depths to a personality only loosely fleshed out in canon.

As the Harry Potter series followed the Boy Who Lived as he grew from innocent eleven-year-old to a more clear-eyed (if overtaxed) teen, Rowling's portrait of Dumbledore became increasingly complex, revealing him to be (alongside Severus Snape), one of the most morally ambiguous characters in children’s literature.

I have always been interested in the sexual dynamics between powerful people, and Dumbledore and McGonagall certainly fit the bill. The question of how those two characters might negotiate a complicated and ethically challenging relationship over time fascinated me, particularly when cast against the backdrop of several wars.

What About Gay Dumbledore?

I first started thinking about an Albus/Minerva relationship prior to Rowling’s sharing her thoughts on Dumbledore’s sexuality. For anyone who's wondering, her statement that Dumbledore was gay didn’t bother me, either as a fan of the series or an Albus/Minerva “shipper.” I welcomed the idea of LGBTQ+ representation in a major children's series even as I wished it had actually been present in the books. Nevertheless, I thought there was room for another interpretation, and that is what I've tried to present without ignoring Dumbledore's canon history with Gellert Grindelwald.

What About Canon?

As an inveterate rule-follower, I’ve tried to fit my story in between the cracks of canon. (For my purposes, only the seven original Harry Potter books comprise canon, as nothing else was completed before I started planning my stories.)

Eagle-eyed readers will note that I have strayed in a few places—notably Voldemort’s birthdate, which I’ve put in December 1927 rather than 1926, and the date of Sirius Black’s schooltime “prank” on Severus Snape, which I’ve placed at the beginning of their seventh year at Hogwarts rather than sometime in their fifth year. These were errors, pure and simple, but by the time I noticed them, it would have taken some fancy plotting to rectify, so I’ve just let them be. For these, and the other, smaller divergences from canon I’ve doubtless committed, I beg my readers’ indulgence.

What About Pottermore/Wizarding World?

Regarding Pottermore, etc., for the purposes of my own writing, I haven't felt compelled to stick to anything that didn't make it into the seven original Harry Potter novels. I look at it as Rowling's fanfic of her own series: enjoyable, but extra-canon, if you will. A bit like this guide, actually.

For example, I’ve ignored the entire Pottermore backstory for Minerva, using 1925 as Minerva’s birthdate, as that was what the sages originally calculated from information in the novels but before Pottermore dropped.

What's the Title All About?

In classical literature, an epithalamium was a poem written to sing a bride on her way to the bridal chamber. The form persisted and became popular again during the Renaissance and is even practised by modern poets.

I selected excerpts from a few famous examples to use as epigraphs for the parts of my novel Epithalamium, including possibly the best-known work in the form, Elizabethan poet Edmund Spenser's Epithalamion, along with Catullus's classical "Of the Argonauts and an Epithalamium for Peleus and Thetis", and E. E. Cummings's modernist "Epithalamium".

I leave it to the reader to determine how (or if) they complement some of the themes of my work.

Stats:
Words:
355,030
Works:
12
Complete:
No
Bookmarks:
38

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