- "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[src]
Madam Dolores Jane Umbridge (b. 26 August, year unknown) was a British half-blood[1] witch and 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 Defence Against the Dark Arts Professor at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, and then later Hogwarts High Inquisitor and Headmistress of Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, 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.[7] Her time at Hogwarts was characterised by cruelty and abusive punishments against students, and because of her interfering and condescending ways, she was widely despised by most students and teachers alike.[7]
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.[8] 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.
Biography[1][]
Early life[2][]
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 born 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.[1]
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.[9] Umbridge attended Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, where she was Sorted into Slytherin and her head of house was Horace Slughorn.[6] She never got along well with Slughorn, who considered her to be an "idiotic woman" and "never liked her",[10] 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.[1]
Career at the Ministry[3][]
- "...she drafted an anti-werewolf legislation two years ago that makes it almost impossible for him [Lupin] to get a job."
- —Sirius Black discusses Umbridge's anti-werewolf laws[src]
After leaving Hogwarts, Umbridge quickly rose to influential positions in the British Ministry of Magic. At the age of 17 (just after leaving Hogwarts) she started her political career as an intern in the Improper Use of Magic Office. Before reaching age 30, she became the Head of the Office, evidence of her ruthless tactics under her sweet attitude, which also involved taking credit for other people's work[1]. This set up the beginning of her dubious career as a Ministry employee, one who tyrannised her subordinates while flattering her equals and her superiors. Dolores, being very opportunistic and power-hungry, was ashamed of her father, who was a low-level worker in the Department of Magical Maintenance, while she was seeking a professional career. Under her pressure, he retired early and she promised him a small monthly allowance in exchange for quietly leaving the public sight. From that point on she lied about her family, claiming that she was a pure-blood rather than a half-blood. She eventually became Senior Undersecretary to the Minister for Magic and had a place in the Wizengamot.[1]
Whenever she was asked (usually by workmates who did not like her) 'are you related to that Umbridge who used to mop the floors here?', she would smile her sweetest, laugh, and deny any connection, claiming that her deceased father had been a distinguished member of the Wizengamot. Nasty things tended to happen to people who asked about Orford, or anything about which she did not like talking, and people who wanted to remain on her good side pretended to believe her version of her ancestry.[1]
Throughout her career, Dolores tried to garner affections of one of her superiors in order to advance her status and security, with no particular desire on which superior it would be, as long as he would be a powerful husband. However, while they valued her hard work and ambition, those who got to know her best found it very difficult to like her very much. Indeed, when she got intoxicated from a glass of sweet sherry, Dolores was prone to spout very uncharitable views, which shocked even those of anti-Muggle ideologies with some of her suggestions, behind closed doors, of the treatment that the non-magical community deserved. As such, Dolores never succeeded in getting married.[1]
Umbridge's hatred towards "half-breeds" led her to draft a piece of anti-werewolf legislation in 1993, which made it nearly impossible for werewolves, such as Remus Lupin, to find work.[11] This act also made it easier for Lord Voldemort to recruit werewolves to his cause, preying on their treatment by the Ministry. In 1994, she also campaigned that the merpeople be rounded up and tagged, though this idea was scrapped due to it being too ludicrous to be put into effect.[12] As Senior Under-Secretary to the Minister for Magic in 1995, Umbridge managed to claw her way up to power using Cornelius Fudge's increasing paranoia and insecurities to her advantage.
[1] She also used her authority to intimidate Harry Potter during an interrogation before the Wizengamot. She was very outspoken against him and tried to discredit his claim that the only reason he cast a Patronus Charm was because of the presence of Dementors.
She said that the Dementors were under the control of the Ministry, and that it was preposterous that they would just happen to wander into a Muggle suburb and chance upon a wizard. She believed Harry should be punished for inadvertently violating the Decree for the Reasonable Restriction of Underage Sorcery. Owing to the fairness of Madam Bones and a majority ruling of the court, Harry was found innocent. Only Fudge, Umbridge, and roughly a half-dozen of the court voted for conviction. Harry was cleared of all charges, much to Umbridge's disappointment.[7]
When Leland Evans found out that she was going to teach, he went to Sweden to buy the blood quill and then loaned the quill to Umbridge. What Umbridge did not reveal at the time was that she herself had ordered the Dementor attack on Harry and his cousin Dudley Dursley, since both possible outcomes would work in the Ministry's favour. Harry would either be subjected to the Dementor's kiss or would be forced to conjure a Patronus to fend them off, which would give them an excuse to expel him. As a result, she was distraught that Harry "wriggled out of that one
Later In Life[]
Killed by CaItlin In Brutal Way like nancy in oliver