[HPforGrownups] Teachers' and wizards' families

[manawydan]

No: HPFGUIDX 52709

Claire wrote:

>Doreen" <nera at r...> wrote:
>>
>>   --- In HPforGrownups at y..., "Doreen" <nera at r...> wrote:
>>   > I was wondering about the fact that all of the teaching staff
>of
>>   Hogwarts are all single, apparently childless.
>>   >
>>   > Also, aren't most of the wizard families mentioned so far on
>the
>>   small side of only one or two children? There seem to be a lot
>>   of "only child" characters in the books.

> I read a webchat/interview (I honestly don't remember which and have
>no idea how to find out) with JKR after the publication of Goblet of
>Fire and she said that the martial status of the Hogwarts staff was
>hidden for "security reasons". She gave no indication of what these
>were, maybe it's to stop parents (like Lucius Malfoy) going  around a
>nd cursing a teacher's family because they gave their child bad
>marks ;).

However, it would seem unlikely that the professors who we know to live on
the premises at Hogwarts are all married, if only because they would (I
think) not be prepared to live their entire lives away from their families.

My thought on it is that Hogwarts would expect the Head and the Heads of
Houses to live in (if only because they might be expected to have to deal
with administrative or disciplinary matters outside normal school hours) and
that accommodation would be available for staff _if_ they wanted it. But if
you were married and didn't want to live on the premises, then that would be
ok as well, and that married professors could quite easily live down the
road in Hogsmeade or even further afield (they would just apport or floo to
somewhere in the village each morning, stroll up to the school, and go the
other way in the night).

>I hadn't realised that apart from the Weasleys, all the mentioned
>wizarding families are small; maybe that's because one or two
>children is the norm for British families. But it does remind me of
>another question I have: Draco said in Philospher's Stone that "all
>the Weasleys have red hair and more children than they can afford."

It's a "don't know" kind of area really. Are the Weasleys typical (when you
consider that puberty seems to arrive at the same time of life for wizards
and muggles alike, but that wizards live twice as long, so that a witch
would be fertile for twice as long)? Many of the students we've been
introduced to have had disrupted family lives (like Harry and Neville) or
come from muggle or mixed backgrounds (and you'd expect those families to be
more likely to follow muggle patterns of reproduction).

Cheers

Ffred

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