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Yes, now. I warned you. When Voldemort has killed Harry Potter and Narcissa checks on Harry, she lies to Voldemort and tells him Harry is dead. She also wants to know how Draco is doing, but she could have asked Harry, then called out that Harry was actually alive after Harry answered her. So why did she lie to Voldemort, especially since doing ...
Dolores Jane Umbridge is a fictional character from the Harry Potter series created by J.K. Rowling. Umbridge is the secondary antagonist of the fifth novel, Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, where she has been stationed at Hogwarts by the Ministry of Magic to take power away from Harry Potter and Albus Dumbledore, who have both been ...
- Overview
- Biography
- Physical description
- Personality and traits
- Magical abilities and skills
- Possessions
- Relationships
- Etymology
"When they entered the Defence Against the Dark Arts classroom they found Professor Umbridge already seated at the teacher's desk, wearing the fluffy pink cardigan of the night before and the black velvet bow on top of her head. Harry was again reminded forcibly of a large fly perched unwisely on top of an even larger toad."
— A negative impression of Dolores
Dolores Jane Umbridge (b. 26 August 1961 or earlier) was a half-blood witch and a British Ministry of Magic bureaucrat who served as Senior Undersecretary to the Minister for Magic under Ministers Cornelius Fudge, Rufus Scrimgeour, and Pius Thicknesse.
In 1995 by order of the Ministry, she was installed as the Defence Against the Dark Arts Professor at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry and then later the Hogwarts High Inquisitor and finally Headmistress, after Professor Albus Dumbledore had been fired. In all three of these positions at Hogwarts, she had enormous power over the students, teachers, and the curriculum, which she wielded despotically.
Her time at Hogwarts was characterised by her cruelty and abusive punishments against students. She became well known at the school for her interfering and condescending ways which caused her to be despised by most students and teachers alike.
After her suspension from these additional posts and the fall of the Ministry of Magic, Umbridge ran the Muggle-Born Registration Commission and sadistically prosecuted many innocent people. After the Second Wizarding War, she was sentenced to Azkaban for her crimes against Muggle-borns, where she would remain for the rest of her life.
Early life
Dolores Umbridge was the first child of a wizard named Orford Umbridge and a Muggle named Ellen Cracknell. Her younger brother was a Squib, but Dolores was a witch. Under her father's influence, she despised her Muggle mother and her Squib brother, considering them inferior to her and her father, and Dolores and her father denounced them. Before Dolores reached 15 years old, Ellen and her son returned to the Muggle world, never to be heard of again. At some point, she obtained her wand, made from birch and dragon heartstring with an unusually short length of only eight inches. According to Garrick Ollivander, abnormally short wands usually selected those whose moral character was stunted, rather than because they were physically short.
Hogwarts years
On turning eleven, Umbridge started attending Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. She was Sorted into Slytherin and her head of house was Horace Slughorn. She did not have a good relationship with Slughorn, who considered her to be an "idiotic woman" who he "never liked". She was also never given any position of power (i.e. Prefect, Head Girl) during her studies, which made her feel deprived, and she never truly enjoyed her time as a student at Hogwarts.
Imprisonment (1998)
After Lord Voldemort's death at Harry Potter's hands and the reformation of the Ministry of Magic by Kingsley Shacklebolt, Umbridge was arrested, tried, convicted and given a life sentence to Azkaban for her crimes against Muggle-borns, as not all of them survived.
"Dolores Umbridge is said to resemble a 'large, pale toad'."
— Physical description
Dolores Umbridge was described to be a short squat woman resembling a large pale toad. She had a broad, flabby face, a wide, slack mouth, and little neck. Her eyes were bulging and pouchy, and in her mousy brown hair she often wore a black velvet bow, which reminded Harry of a fly perched dangerously above a toad, furthering Umbridge's toad-like characteristics.
She spoke with a simpering high-pitched voice that was girlish and breathless, contrary to her appearance (Harry expected a croak) and decorated her office with kittens and other cute pink paraphernalia. Her wide toad-like smile and tendency to speak in a sugary voice that was often described as poisoned honey was a physical exemplification of her cruelty that was barely hidden by her seemingly harmless dress-style. Umbridge's thick stubby fingers were adorned with several gaudy old rings. She also was said to have a big chest, as noted by Harry Potter when he saw Slytherin's locket lying there.
Umbridge was seen wearing various green tweed outfits, usually with a pink fuzzy cardigan on top, giving her greater toad-like qualities. The head-to-toe matching outfits, usually in shades of pink, were worn while she taught and during her duties as High Inquisitor. According to Harry, she looked like someone's maiden aunt, and that her style of dressing would fit someone half her age. During Harry's hearing regarding under-age magic, Umbridge wore the black robes of the Wizengamot with a silver "W" on it.
Also, while she interrogated Muggle-borns, she wore Salazar Slytherin's locket on top of her frilly girlish pink outfits in an attempt to prove her blood purity, claiming that the S stood for the pure-blood Selwyn family. However, since her imprisonment in Azkaban, it is unlikely that she wore any of her old outfits, but instead wore the black and white striped uniform of all prisoners.
Sirius Black: "I know her by reputation and I'm sure she's no Death Eater —"
Harry Potter: "She's foul enough to be one..."
Sirius Black: "Yes, but the world isn't split into good people and Death Eaters. I know she's a nasty piece of work, though —"
— Harry telling Sirius Black his views on Umbridge
Dolores Umbridge was an evil woman, who represented the very worst of political power and the very worst aspects of the Ministry of Magic. She was extremely ruthless, cruel, callous, brutal, corrupt, sadistic, arrogant, intolerant, power-hungry and devoid of any kind of moral or ethical centre. She was apathetic and absolutist, yet also a committed and flexible witch who was dogmatically supportive of the British Ministry of Magic, eagerly obeying the every command of Cornelius Fudge, Rufus Scrimgeour and Pius Thicknesse when in their respective terms of power, in order to gain power for herself. She was even willing to go to Hogwarts for Fudge, in spite of her bad memories there and strong dislike of children (although she also saw it as an opportunity to get back at the school that denied her power when she was a student).
She was depicted using any means to maintain the political power of her bosses, often flaunting the power she in turn obtained during her time in Hogwarts. She committed attempted soul-removal (via the Dementor attack on Harry), solicited bribes, and tortured children to achieve her goals. Her draconian ideals of discipline, such as having victims write lines in their own blood using a Black Quill, which carves the words into the back of the writer's hand, were considered by Harry and Ron to be "sick".
"The Cruciatus Curse might loosen your tongue."
— Dolores threatening Harry Potter with Dark Magic
Although described as an "accomplished witch" at the time when she joined the Ministry of Magic, a statement backed up by her mastery of some rather difficult pieces of magic learned at N.E.W.T.-level, such as nonverbal spell-casting and Apparition, it would seem that on the whole, Dolores Umbridge was never a particularly powerful witch. By the time she became a teacher at Hogwarts, she had no knowledge of the brewing process for Veritaserum and because she needed it (and unwisely squandered a bottle full on one interrogation although she had been told that it was not necessary), it is unlikely that she was a Legilimens. She also could not eliminate the Weasleys' Wildfire Whiz-bangs and their Portable Swamp, feats that other professors easily did (which they refused to at first, just to give Umbridge trouble). She was also unable to remove Marietta Edgecombe's "SNEAK" pimple formation, implying that she may not have been very skilled with counter-jinxes (although it is possible that no counter-jinx existed for Hermione's spell). Her real magical power and knowledge were mainly focused in offensive and defensive magic, particularly of a Darker variety. In fact, her rise through the Ministry ranks were more to her abilities to pander to her superiors while taking credit for other people's efforts and tyrannising her inferiors, rather than any genuine magical talents.
•Charms: Umbridge was shown to be proficient with charm-work. She could cast charms such as the Blackboard Writing Spell, parchment-sealing spell, Fire-Making Spell, Shield Charm and Stunning Spell successfully and effortlessly. She also used a charm to neaten the uniforms of Hogwarts students, much to their irritation. She could perform the highly advanced Patronus Charm even under the influence of Dark Magic; in fact, due to her malice and the locket Horcrux being compatible with one other, her Patronus was strengthened by Voldemort's fragmented soul. It took the form of a Persian cat.
•Dark Arts: Umbridge was sure of her ability to cast the Cruciatus Curse, which would require the desire to inflict and relish in the harm of the victim, her sadism being a perfect prerequisite. She invented the Black Quill sometime before 1994, a Dark magical torture device that cut the words written with it into the writer's hand, which she utilised heavily for punishing dissident students while she was working at Hogwarts, showing she was skilled with handling Dark artefacts. The fact that she was able to craft such a malicious object capable of inflicting much plain and displeasure upon its victims implies she had a great amount of talent in Dark Magic, as it was even capable of leaving physical scars. Furthermore, she had considerable skill with handling and commanding Dementors, known Dark creatures, as she successfully ordered several Dementors to attack and attempt to murder Harry Potter and Dudley Dursley.
•Transfiguration: She was able to effectively conjure ropes at a moment's notice with the Incarcerous Spell, which is an advanced form of Transfiguration, as conjuration can only be performed by those who are proficient in this highly difficult branch of magic. Umbridge was also capable of conjuring glasses and cups of various drinks, which she offered to Harry Potter at one time in her office.
•First wand: Umbridge owned a wand made of birch and dragon heartstring. It was noted for being unusually short in length, only eight inches. It was snapped in half when a centaur stomped on it in the Forbidden Forest. Garrick Ollivander also noted that wands unusually short in length are often destined for those that have something lacking in character.
•Frolicsome Feline plates: Dolores owned many ornamental kitten plates which she hung all along the walls of her office at Hogwarts School, as well as her office at the Ministry.
•Black Quill: Umbridge owned at least one Blood Quill which she used as a method of punishment. She had students who displeased her write lines using a blood quill, which Minerva McGonagall considered a "medieval method" of punishment. This quill was her own dark invention.
•Second wand: After losing her previous wand, Umbridge obtained a replacement of unknown length, wood and core, which she used throughout the remainder of her career in the Ministry. It was likely confiscated when she was incarcerated in Azkaban.
Family
Dolores was born a half-blood to wizard Orford Umbridge and muggle Ellen Cracknell, and had a younger brother, who was a squib. Under the influence of her father, Dolores blamed her mother for being the cause to her brother being born without magical powers as well as looking down on said brother. Coupled with Ellen's flightiness and untidiness, Dolores came to hate both her mother and brother. She considered them to be inferior, and upon reaching 15 years old, she and her father remained in the wizarding world while Ellen took her son and returned to the Muggle world, never seeing each other again. Although her father was the source of influence on her prejudiced views on blood purity, Dolores found him rather irksome for his unambitious nature as a janitorial worker at the bottom of the social ladder. While climbing the ranks in the Ministry herself, Dolores found her father to be a source of embarrassment and pressured him into an early retirement by disappearing from public sight in exchange for the promise of a small monthly allowance. With her father silently removed from public, Dolores managed to give herself a better public image. Whenever her colleagues (mostly the ones who disliked her) asked if she was related to the Umbridge who used to mop floors, she would use her sweetest smile (which indicates her suppressed rage) to deny all connections and falsely claimed that her deceased father was an esteemed member of the Wizengamot. Nasty things tended to happen to people who asked about Orford or anything else Dolores did not want to talk about, so people who wished to be on her good side would pretend to believe her false heritage. Once Dolores was arrested and sentenced to Azkaban, Orford lost his pittance that his daughter gave him. Ambitious and prejudiced, Dolores was utterly disgusted with all three of her family members, having no love for any of them, dismissing them, and severing all ties with them due to their low birth and/or poor social statuses, and never again speaking about any of them. She then lied to others about being a pure-blood, seeing herself as such, and even falsely connecting herself to the prestigious Selwyn family to bolster her pure-blood credentials and cover her shameful heritage.
Harry Potter
"The Cruciatus Curse ought to loosen your tongue. What Cornelius doesn't know won't hurt him. He never knew I ordered Dementors after Potter last summer, but he was delighted to be given the chance to expel him, all the same...." — Umbridge explaining her hatred of and willingness to torture Harry Potter Dolores Umbridge did everything in her power to make Harry Potter's life as miserable as possible, and thus, the two of them had a mutual loathing for each other. In the summer of 1995, Umbridge sent two Dementors after Harry and his cousin Dudley. This was an attempt to silence him from contradicting the Ministry's official opinion that Voldemort had not returned. Umbridge was one of Harry's jurors when he was summoned to the Ministry for a trial of the underage magic he used to fend off the Dementors, and she wanted him to be convicted, but he was acquitted due to the efforts of Albus Dumbledore and Arabella Figg. With Dolores Umbridge as his new Defence Against the Dark Arts teacher, Harry found himself hating Umbridge the moment he set his eyes on her, from her fluffy pink cardigan to her high-pitched girlish voice, despite not having an actual reason at the time. He often was outspoken in class and suffered for his inability to control his temper; he served detention several times with her during that year in which he would be forced to write lines with his own blood using a Blood Quill, which magically scarred his hand. Minerva McGonagall was highly critical of Umbridge's methods, and warned Harry not to cross her because he would get into big trouble at school, and, possibly, even with the Ministry. Before Umbridge, Harry thought there would never be a teacher he hated as much as Severus Snape, but found Umbridge to be a strong contender. "Harry felt a strong urge to swing around and seize her by the throat" — Harry Potter furious at Umbridge for calling Rubeus Hagrid a "great half-breed oaf" Using her newly acquired power under the Educational Decrees from the Ministry, she banned all extra-curricular activities and gatherings until they were approved by the High Inquisitor (herself); this meant that the House Quidditch teams were disbanded. Slytherin's team was immediately reinstated while Gryffindor was delayed from reforming for nearly a month after then-captain Angelina Johnson put in the request. As well as making Harry use a quill that would slice open his hand and cause him to write in his own blood, she banned Harry, Fred, and George from playing Quidditch later in the year after they attacked Draco Malfoy (though their bans were all lifted following Umbridge's eventual removal from Hogwarts) for his cruel insults. Umbridge monitored all incoming and outgoing mail, and Harry's owl Hedwig was injured on Umbridge's orders. She made it difficult for Harry, Ron, and Hermione to visit Hagrid. When Rita Skeeter published an article in The Quibbler about Harry's past experiences with Voldemort during the Triwizard Tournament, Dolores banned Harry from trips to Hogsmeade. Umbridge nearly used the Cruciatus Curse to get Harry to talk before Hermione intervened and, together with Harry, tricked Umbridge into going into the Forest to show her "Dumbledore's weapon". This resulted in Umbridge being carried off by the centaurs, whom she had attacked first, due to her hatred of half-breeds. After the Ministry had finally acknowledged Voldemort's return to power, Umbridge was removed from Hogwarts. However, Harry was furious to learn later that year that Umbridge was still working for the Ministry of Magic. The next year Lord Voldemort took over the Ministry. Umbridge showed her respect for Lord Voldemort and the Death Eaters by taking part in the hunt for Harry Potter. She branded Harry as "Undesirable No.1," and was given the job of Head of the Muggle-Born Registration Commission. This was a job that involved sadistically sentencing innocent Muggle-borns to Azkaban on the false charge of stealing magic. Harry learned that Umbridge had one of Voldemort's Horcruxes and Mad Eye Moody's magical eye in her possession. During the Infiltration of the Ministry of Magic, Harry saw Umbridge ruthlessly interrogating a poor Muggle-born. Enraged, Harry stunned Umbridge and retrieved the Horcrux. He also took the eye from her office and buried it. In the alternative reality created by Harry's son, Albus, and his friend, Scorpius Malfoy, it was found that Umbridge seemed delighted in Harry's death in May 1998. The delight of it extended to the point where she wished that he did not rest in peace but in endless despair in the Voldemort-controlled world.
Cornelius Fudge
"What Cornelius doesn't know won't hurt him." — Umbridge before she attempted to torture Harry Potter with the illegal Cruciatus Curse, showing her view of Fudge Umbridge was Cornelius Fudge's right-hand woman, being his Senior-Undersecretary, and he trusted her greatly to place her into Hogwarts to control it. He granted her many powers through Educational Decrees, and full-heartedly agreed with all of her comments and mockeries against Dumbledore and Harry. Fudge seemed to be unaware of Umbridge's dark and sadistic nature. In return, Umbridge was loyal to Fudge only because of the power he was offering her, and she felt no true attachments to the misguided man. She was also willing to break the law behind the Minister's back to achieve results such as summoning Dementors in an attempt to expel Harry as well as attempting to use the illegal Cruciatus Curse for interrogation, all the while stating that "what Cornelius doesn't know won't hurt him." Umbridge was always an opportunist seeking for power and status, and when Cornelius was succumbing to paranoia in 1995, she took full advantage by stoking the Minister's vanity and fears, feigning sympathy for his anxiety in order to use him for promotions. When Fudge was dismissed, Umbridge stood beside the new Ministers instead, even when it became apparent that the new regime established in 1997 was morally corrupt (which actually fell in line with her true personality).
•Dolores is a common Spanish name, although it also occurs as an English name. In Spanish and Latin, "dolores" is also the plural form of "dolor", which means pain. In English, the similar sounding word "Dolorous" means causing or expressing grief and suffering. Dolor is the Danish name of the Cruciatus Curse.
•Jane is a sweet name for a girl, adding a cruel irony to her nomenclature. Because her middle name is "Jane", J. K. Rowling changed Hermione Granger's middle name (which was also Jane) to "Jean" in Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows.
- She Hates Her Daughter-In-Law. Draco eventually went on to marry Astoria Greengrass, despite some of his other on and off again relationships throughout his early years.
- She Had A Power Struggle With Her Sister. Narcissa was often overlooked in her family, perhaps due to the far more charismatic nature of her sister. She struggled within her family to always agree on how they should behave within the wizarding community.
- She Enjoyed The Finer Things In Life. Much like her husband, Narcissa very much valued the finer things in life. This was a trait somewhat shared by the rest of the family.
- She's Incredibly Strategic. Narcissa is a quick thinker and is able to put a plan together that benefits her and her family with impressive alacrity. Her choice to link Snape in the unbreakable vow, for instance, was incredibly strategic, pushing him into a corner.
Nov 30, 2018 · Somehow, 67 odd years later, Nagini ends up hanging out with the bad side, becoming one of Voldemort's most powerful weapons from Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire to the end of the series. How ...
- Stacey Nguyen
Jun 5, 2017 · Of all the horrible witches and wizards in the Harry Potter series, Dolores Umbridge is by far the one we all love to hate the most. With her sickening pink clothing, tacky obsession with cats, and cringeworthy 'ahems,' she makes our skin crawl and our teeth clench. There’s not one redeemable quality about her, but it’s her sinister ...
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May 29, 2017 · Regardless of Narcissa’s more moral moments, she was a Malfoy through and through. Born into a pure-blood line, it’s clear that Narcissa was brought up to believe in magic over Muggles. Like her husband Lucius, she clearly believed that Muggle-born wizards were inferior to pure-blood ones, even disowning her sister Andromeda for marrying one.
