Why is it that none of the professors in Harry Potter have partners? We know that wizards marry (Harry’s parents, the Weasleys) but none of the professors are hitched? We know they stay at Hogwarts, they are always available in the middle of the night. Spouses/SOs of professors are never mentioned. Maybe this doesn’t deserve its own thread, but it is something I’ve wondered about.
Well, the idea that some of the professors at Hogwarts are a bunch of freakin’ lunatics might have something to do with it…
Actually I just read this on mugglenet.com. According to an interview that Rowling gave:
“A few of the Hogwarts professors have spouses, but that information is restricted for reasons we will find out about later.”
http://www.mugglenet.com/books/booksix/facts.shtml
Scroll down to “General Facts Not Disclosed in the Books”
The linked page contains spoilers about the upcoming book 6.
I really am comming off as a Potter geek lately aren’t I? 
Personally, I think McGonnagal and Dumbledore are an item.
Perhaps, the single instructors live at the school and married instructors live in nearby Hogsmeade, hence why we only see a certain few professors after dark?
A joke about his age and the Engorgio spell comes to mind.
Well, at the risk of launching a minor spoiler, it looks like Hagrid will soon have a partner, unless there was something I missed in book 5.
As a student who attended a boarding school for high school, I remember three types of faculty: those who were married to other teachers, those who were married to non-teachers, and those who were unmarried. There wasn’t much difference in the way they taught, but there was more politics with married teachers. For example, if you were taught English by the headmaster’s wife, then you were on your best behavior. If a wife were dismissed from the faculty, then her husband was also asked to leave. The politics of it were really boggling – which teachers were dorm parents, which ones were dating whom (never within the faculty!), which teachers were rumored to be sleeping with students (pretty much a dirty rumor often spread and never believed).
My WAG on it is that Rowling didn’t want to deal with the complications and politics that spring up from marrying her professors to other characters. It’s also possible that the commitment of teaching at Hogwarts involves so much time and effort that only single wizards have the time to give to their students and still remain proficient in their own art. Snape, for example, still retains a frightening amount of power with his wand, while being Hogwarts’ expert in potions. In fact, with the exception of the DADA teachers and Prof Trelawney, Hogwarts professors are uniformly the best in their area of expertise, while still being excellent generalist spellcasters.
Given that Harry was orphaned by The Big V and several other kids of his generation lost parents (to death or worse) during that time, I wouldn’t be surprised if a fair few Hogwarts professors had been widowed. For those who do have living spouses, I doubt that many of their students pay much attention. Harry’s never had reason to care whether any of his teachers are married, and it’s not like he’s getting invited to staff parties where people would be expected to bring their significant others.
On a lighter note, Lupin and Sirius? So married (although probably not in the legal sense). I know, I thought that was just a silly slash fan theory myself until Book 5, but I’ve been sure of it since the bit where it mentioned that Harry received a gift from both of them. That’s as clear a sign as matching luggage!
I’ve seen some fanfic speculating that professors don’t live on the grounds, but use a postkey from their offices to their homes. Speaking of being a geek, I was in Cambridge, Mass. a few days ago and picked up the first HP in Latin at Schoenhoff’s. I figure it’s airplane reading that will either cause interesting conversations, or keep interesting conversations away. Bets?
That’s “portkey.” My friend has an ergonomic keyboard, which is impossible for us hunt-and-peck types.
I am SO glad I waited until all of my coworkers had gone home before I opened this thread. 
Just a theory… in the idealized, fictional British boarding schools of literature, the faculty are usually shown living a sort of monastic lifestyle. That’s certainly not realistic now, and may not have been realistic decades ago, but boarding school professors in literature have always been shown as sexless folk, devoted purely to the intellect.
Asking “where’s Mrs. Dumbledore” is sort of like asking “Why didn’t Mr. Chips ever get married?” In James Hilton’s idealized boarding school, teachers simply didn’t marry. My guess is, J.K. Rowling is merely carrying on a literary tradition.
Oooh! Oooh! I get to make a funny!
The policy at Hogwart’s is “Don’t Ask, Don’t Spell.”
[nitpick]
Charles Chipping, aka Mr Chips, did get married in Goodbye, Mr. Chips. His wife Katherine, whom he met on vacation, helped him get promoted to housemaster, then died in childbirth. It’s a major part of the story arc.
[/nitpick]
Maybe astorian meant “re-married.”
The monastic lifestyle among faculty exists today at many parochial schools, both K-12 and on the collegiate level. Having attended Islamic, Catholic and Methodist schools with lots of celibate, unmarried faculty, I personally never found the lack of faculty spouses particularly problematic.
That’s more than a nitpick, and you’re quite right- but for the bulk of the story, as far as the students know, Mr. Chips is a lifelong bachelor. The kids probably couldn’t conceive of the man having a genuine love life or (gasp!) sex life!
There have been hundreds of books about hijinks at elite British boarding schools. Apart from the supernatural element, the Harry Potter series isn’t so different from those other books. And in such books, the faculty always seem to be classic old bachelors, with the occasional old spinster tossed in.