Fertility, babies and such like

[Vicki Merriman]

No: HPFGUIDX 363

--- In HPforGrownups at egroups.com, Neil Ward <neilward at d...> wrote:

> 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. 

That basically sums up every student with whom we have a really close 
relationship and would know about their parents.  Plus, Seamus and 
his parents (I think they are still married); The Longbottoms, 
several couples mentioned in voldy's gang; Cedric's parents; Justin 
Finch mentioned his parents.

I think there are lots of couples mentioned in HP.  In fact, I 
conclude the opposite from what you seem to conclude, rather than not 
having many couples, there are actually far more couples in the 
wizarding world than there may be in the muggle world.  Dumbledore 
mentions several pairs from "the old days."


Percy had a chaste relationship with Penelope.
-----------

Yeah, it was SO chaste he was necking with her in an empty 
classroom :-) back when he was 16.

Hagrid > tried it on with Maxime.

Unfortunately for Hagrid, except for size, they don't have a lot in 
common.

> But, how many of the Hogwart's teachers have shown
> the hint of having a partner, let alone a wife or husband?  

No one that I can think of has had an implied partner.

> I suppose through the kids' eyes, the teachers would seem like 
asexual or > sexless beings (unless they had a crush on one of them). 

Students always do, even if their teachers are married.

> room was a bit of a knocking shop). I was shocked to find that my 

I need an English/American translation, please.

> 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'.


Except that many of the teachers stay at Hogwarts for Christmas, so 
that definitely implies that they don't have a spouse/partner/family 
to share Christmas.

McGonigal, Snape, Dumbledore and I forget who else, as clearly 
mentioned during Christmas dinners, which in my mind indicates they 
have no better place to go.  Now some teachers would always need to 
stay to keep an eye on the students who also stayed, but its been the 
same professors in books 1 - 3, so they really don't seem to have 
partners.

Now some of the other professors might go off to the train station 
and then apparate home from there.  Madame Pomfrey, Professor 
Sinestra, Professor Vector and several others have been mentioned by 
name as teaching at the school but not coming to christmas, so they 
must have a better place to go.

Actually, I don't think that JKR has thought about this in such 
obvious terms, because it is exceptionally amazing that the 
professors we know the best stay for Christmas and the ones that are 
nothing but names go away for the holidays, but still, this is an 
intra universe explanation that works.

 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]
> 
>  *****************************************