Reply #12: cool question! [View All]

[Lisa]

I had also been wondering a bit about this. After all, only a few of the profs mentioned in the books are housemasters (and presumed to live in residence to supervise their particular group of students). I had assumed that many, if not all, of those faculty members who had a "room" at Hogwarts would be keeping main residences somewhere else, at Hogsmeade or even as far away as London (with all the magical transportation techniques demonstrated, commuting shouldn't be a problem). A prof who wasn't part of the on-campus supervisory staff might only stay overnight on particular days (like if they had an early class the next day), or be available during exam periods for student coaching, grading, etc.. before going back to their families the rest of the time. Friends who attended British boarding schools (and colleges like Oxford) have told me that this is the usual arrangement, now or back when JKR was in school (though in Victorian times having a lot of faculty living on campus with their families would have made more sense, due to less flexibility in transportation, etc. -- see Kipling's "Stalky and Co." stories).