Fertility, babies and such like

[Neil Ward]

No: HPFGUIDX 355

All this took of pregancy is making me broody.

No, seriously...

All this talk of pregnancy is making me think how few couples we've
encountered in HP so far.  There are the parents of some of the kids - the
Weasleys, the Dursleys (and the Potters), the Malfoys, the Grangers .... and
that's about it.  Percy had a chaste relationship with Penelope.  Hagrid
tried it on with Maxime.  But, how many of the Hogwart's teachers have shown
the hint of having a partner, let alone a wife or husband?  

I suppose through the kids' eyes, the teachers would seem like asexual or
sexless beings (unless they had a crush on one of them).  At school, the
only teachers I imagined being married were those who were married to
another teacher in the school (strangely rather a lot of them - the staff
room was a bit of a knocking shop). I was shocked to find that my History
teacher (who had a big red face and a handlebar moustache) was dating my
cousin's girlfriend's sister. 

Anyway, back to point, which is 'where are the other halves?'  The sinister
conclusion is that some of them were killed by Voldemort.  Another thought
is that old favourite, 'just because they haven't been mentioned, doesn't
mean they don't exist'. And then there's the idea that the teachers are all
singletons who have devoted their lives to teaching and hardly spare a
thought for sexual doings. Lastly, perhaps some of the teachers are avoiding
the issue because they are animagi, werewolves or whatever and can't have
carnal knowledge of humans. 

With so few breeding couples around, talk of pregnancy is a bit academic and
the size of the wizarding population looks likely to be falling rapidly.

Neil
            Flying-Ford-Anglia

 *****************************************

   "Then, dented, scratched and steaming, 
   the car rumbled off into the darkness, 
   its rear lights blazing angrily"

 [Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets]

 *****************************************