Hogwarts Teachers.

[justcarol67]

No: HPFGUIDX 86892

--- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, "rach9112000" <RACH911 at a...> wrote:
> We've recently been talking about marriage and romance and was 
> wondering why none of the Hogwarts teachers are married? I know 
> we've touched on this topic before but I can't even think of a 
> teacher that has a partner at all. This does seem strange. I went to 
> boarding school also and a lot of the teachers there were married or 
> had partners. The closest we've come to seeing any teacher romance 
> is simply our own speculation on Snape and Lily Potter which is not 
> even in canon. 
>     Just seems weird that's all,
>              Rachel

Carol:
Doesn't the fact that some of the teachers and staff members are
addressed as "Madame" indicate that they are or have been married? Or
does it only indicate that they're not professors? Madame Pince is the
librarian and Madame Pomfrey is the school "healer" (to use Ron's
term), but Madame Hooch is a teacher, albeit, like Hagrid, not a
full-fledged professor. But these women are addressed in the same way
as Madame Rosmerta, the owner of the Three Broomsticks. Why "Madame"
if they're not married? And yet Mrs. Weasley and even the late Mrs.
Black go by the ordinary (Muggle-sounding) "Mrs." Maybe "Madame" is
used by married women who work outside the home?

OTOH, Madame Pomfrey, at least, seems to be needed at all times in
case of emergencies, which arise rather frequently at Hogwarts. She,
at least, is probably a widow.

As for Professor Snape, Professor McGonagall, Professor Flitwick, and
Professor Sprout (the heads of the respective houses), Hogwarts seems
to be their home and the other professors their "family." We can see
occasional cooperation among them against outsiders (McGonagall and
Snape seizing the opportunity to expose Lockhart as a fraud in CoS)
and at the same time a sort of sibling rivalry among the houses.

Several people have mentioned a father/son relationship between Snape
and Dumbledore, which I also see to some extent. Regardless of how
Snape feels about it, he has a sonlike obligation to do as Dumbledore
tells him, and Dumbledore, having had Snape for seven years as a
student and fourteen years as his Potions master, could well feel a
fatherly affection for him. After all, he's only about 115 years older
than Snape. Never having had a loving family, as far as we can see,
Snape would consider Hogwarts his home. (There's also Professor
Trelawny, for whom Hogwarts is still "home" even after she's deprived
of her teaching position.)

Why, then, have these people never married and left their "home" and
"family"? Maybe for McGonagall and Sprout, teaching is enough to
fulfill them intellectually and emotionally? For Flitwick, there may
not be many tiny little witches who would be suitable wives, and he,
too, seems perfectly content with his life at Hogwarts. And for our
complicated Snape, who undoubtedly is *not* happy, there are just too
many other urgent demands on his time and energy, from teaching and
spying to the unfulfilled life debt to James. Even during his summer
vacations before Voldemort's return, when he theoretically could have
met the "right" witch, given his Slytherin standards, she would have
to be a pureblood and they appear to be hard to come by. Possibly one
of his former Slytherin schoolmates would qualify. But Snape's wife
would also have to be extremely understanding to put up with all his
brooding over old resentments--not a common Slytherin trait. Florence,
where are you?

Carol