The dialog from Scripture only makes sense if she intended to remain a virgin.
Other explanations are strained. “She was confused by the angel so she forgot where babies come from”.
“She knew what the angel was going to say before he said it”.
“She knew that conceiving a child meant a Virgin Birth but humored the angel by playing dumb”.
All silly arguments made worse by a failure to own the implications of the statements you make.
It doesn’t make sense that she was engaged to be married if she intended to remain a virgin. However, I now understand your first post and I did not before.
I don’t think Mary was confused and forgot where babies came from. I think she needed an explanation about where THIS baby was going to come from because she was not yet married and had not yet been with a man.
No - you are missing the most obvious interpretation, which has been pointed out to. At the time of the conversation with the angel she was still a virgin and was only engaged to Joseph. The scriptures state that she still wasn’t married to Joseph at the time of Christ’s birth.
Therefore, when she said, “How shall this be - I AM a virgin” she was considering her current position at that time. If she was to be married to Joseph immediately after the conversation with the angel, then it would make sense that she would expect to become pregnant via natural means.
Instead, she became pregnant very soon after that conversation and remained engaged (still a virgin) at the time of Christ’s birth. We don’t know when she and Joseph actually got married, but there’s no scripture that states their marriage wasn’t consummated.