Dolores Umbridge

**Madam 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 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. 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.

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.

## Biography

Dolores Umbridge was appointed as Head of the Ministry of Propaganda.

## Physical appearance

"*Dolores Umbridge is said to resemble a 'large, pale toad'.*"
— Physical description[src]

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.

## Personality and traits

**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[src]
Dolores Umbridge was an evil woman, who represented the very worst of political power. 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 herself. She was even willing to go to Hogwarts for Fudge, in spite of her bad memories there and strong dislike of children. 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". Although Umbridge saw such deeds as doing what was necessary, they ultimately amounted to a form of "the ends justify the means".

Her fanatical loyalty clouded her judgement and caused her to place a blind faith in authority, believing that it could not possibly be wrong, and even after it was proven wrong she did not change her opinion, as was clearly seen when she was loyal to Fudge over Dumbledore, rather than accepting the truth, and then abandoning Fudge when he was ousted from his office. However, as he was out of the picture, she was flexible enough to turn her loyalty towards Scrimgeour, proving she was more loyal to the cause than its leader and therefore continued to show the authorities her unbreakable devotion. However, when Fudge gave her power, it inflated her sense of self-importance and instilled a sense of ruthlessness, making her seek to exercise complete control over everyone and everything around her. Even as a student, she was resentful that the school did not grant her any position of power and responsibility, and felt that she was deprived of a chance to exercise authority over her peers.

Umbridge's strictness bordered on the ideal representation of the qualities of a totalitarian government. From her perspective, free speech, dissent, diversity and multiple points of view could not be tolerated. She led not by consensus and respect, but rather by fear and intimidation; as the year progressed, she grew more independent of Fudge's will by beginning to use her own available resources in order to make people obey her, even attempting to use the restricted Veritaserum and then the Cruciatus Curse on Harry Potter when he would not give her desired information.

Umbridge was capable and intelligent, as she was high-ranking in the Ministry at a relatively young age, although her general magical knowledge seemed limited. She unreasonably demanded Snape to brew Veritaserum in less than the required month after she squandered an entire bottle on one previous interrogation, although Snape had told her that three drops would suffice. She also could not figure out how the students were suffering from the symptoms of "Umbridge-itis," nor how to remove the Weasleys' Wildfire Whiz-bangs and the Portable Swamp left by Fred and George Weasley, which Flitwick vanished in a matter of seconds.

Her cruelty was disguised by her quiet, childish, high-pitched voice (which both took Harry aback and made the hair on his neck stand up straight, as he had childishly expected a croak), as well by decorating her office with paraphernalia related to kittens, chocolate cakes, biscuits, tea, and other cute things to the point of coming across as sickening to her enemies despite her genuine appreciation for them. Although she liked kittens (hence her decorations relating to them), she doubted she was responsible enough to actually care for real ones, and so maintained her focus on decorations. Her personality was described as "poisoned honey," and it was said on various occasions that the sweeter her voice was, the more dangerous or infuriated she became.

She also tended to give her signature fake cough, "*Hem-Hem*," when she wanted someone's attention, rudely interrupting them, as well as usually speaking to people she felt were beneath her in a very condescending tone, as if they were simpletons or very young children, both of which she hated.

**Bane**: "*I asked you who are you, human.*"
**Dolores Umbridge**: "*I am Dolores Umbridge! Senior Undersecretary to the Minister of Magic and Headmistress and High Inquisitor of Hogwarts!*"
**Magorian**: "*You are from the Ministry of Magic?*"
**Dolores Umbridge**: "*That's right! So be very careful! By the laws laid down by the Department for the Regulation and Control of Magical Creatures, any attack by half-breeds such as yourselves on a human —*"
— Umbridge expressing contempt towards Centaurs[src]
For unknown reasons, but most likely because of the Ministry's beliefs, Umbridge was fanatically prejudiced against part-humans (such as werewolves and half-giants), which she called "half-breeds". It was her prejudice that caused her to pass a series of anti-werewolf legislation, which made it almost illegal for those afflicted with lycanthropy to hold jobs. Her prejudice also led to her mistakenly believe that mermaids and centaurs were part-humans, when in fact they were separate species, and in her haste of prosecuting them she would forgo her usual feigned politeness, and be outright rude. However, after the incident with the Hogwarts centaurs, she developed a phobia of centaurs. An odd derivative from this prejudice was that, despite her hatred of half-breeds, Umbridge did not seem to hate part-goblin Filius Flitwick (most likely due to lack of knowledge of Flitwick's ancestry and his undeniably skilled teaching methods), as Fred Weasley stated that she marked him well on his inspection.

**Hermione (as Mafalda Hopkirk)**: "*That’s — that’s pretty, Dolores*"
**Dolores**: "*What? Oh yes — an old family heirloom, The S stands for Selwyn.... I am related to the Selwyns.... Indeed, there are few pure-blood families to whom I am not related.*"
— Umbridge incredulously lying about her blood status[src]
Umbridge was a pure-blood supremacist, stemming from her childhood when her brother was discovered to be a Squib. Hating her mother for being a Muggle, Dolores would blame her for being the cause of her brother's lack of magical powers. After bribing her father to quietly leave public sight, Dolores lied to everyone that she was a pure-blood, believing it would give her social respect and status, later bolstering her credentials by falsely claiming that she was related to the Selwyn family (albeit controlled by Voldemort's Horcrux locket). She was known to spout very uncharitable views on the non-magical community when intoxicated, to the point that even fellow pro-pure-blood coworkers were shocked by her. While sober, Dolores would put up a facade of politeness for Muggle-borns, repressing her prejudice for them to maintain her public image; only when Voldemort took over the Ministry did she unleash her cruelty over them, tormenting them with sham trials and sadistically sending them off to Azkaban.

Her lust for power and social status turned her against her own family, though it is unknown how they treated her. Despising her Muggle mother and Squib brother as second class citizens while ashamed of her lowly janitorial employee of a father, Dolores would never speak of any of them again while shunning her father with a bribe, and went onto inventing her ancestry to make herself seem more noble to the higher ups. Dolores also attempted to seduce her superiors into marriage, not out of love, but for the social elevation and security it would provide, though she was always turned down as her obsession turned off any co-workers she flirted with. Her power-hungry nature was evident even as a child, as she came to despise her time as a student at Hogwarts because she was not given any power of authority, and upon returning as a Ministry-implanted teacher, she saw it as an opportunity to get what she thought was wrongly denied in her youth, heavily flaunting all the titles and power that Fudge granted her.

Umbridge was known to rapidly resort to cruel and unusual punishments over perceived slights and take great pleasure in such punishments. Umbridge also liked to showcase her statuses, as she arrogantly told the centaurs in the Forbidden Forest of her many titles, and mounted plaques on her office doors to display these titles. Unaware that she was in possession of Salazar Slytherin's Locket, she falsely claimed it was a family heirloom and proof of her relation to the Selwyn family.

Despite her confidence bordering on arrogance, Umbridge knew she could not do Cornelius Fudge's will at Hogwarts without help, and so enlisted Argus Filch and the Inquisitorial Squad.

**Umbridge**: " *No, not with your quill, you’re going to be using a rather special one of mine. Here you are. I want you write ‘I must not tell lies,’*"
**Harry Potter**: "*How many times?*"
**Umbridge**: "*Oh, as long as it takes for the message to sink in*"
— Dolores Umbridge making Harry use the Blood Quill[src]
She showed a particular hatred for Harry Potter, as she had no qualms about violently punishing Harry during detentions (though it is possible Fudge told her to be harsh on him). During her year as a professor at Hogwarts, she acted as a disciplinarian, insisting the students to greet her loudly and clearly in a monotonous style at the beginning of every class, and answer her questions in the same manner.

Despite (or perhaps because of) her feigned politeness, the other teachers found her extremely infuriating and obnoxious. Umbridge became more openly authoritative and cruel as she gained influence over the school, especially during her time as the High Inquisitor, as seen when she interrupted teachers with her leading questions, passive-aggressive comments, and disruptive note taking. She was especially insulting to Hagrid, whom she knew to be a "half-breed," and was blatantly condescending and rude to him during her inspection of his class. She interrupted Dumbledore during his speech at the Start-of-Term Feast, and delivered a very dull speech while being ignorant of the students' restlessness, to the point that Harry angrily speculated that she would have continued with it even if a full-scale riot broke out under her nose.

"*Oh no, no, no. This is your punishment for spreading evil, nasty, attention seeking stories, Mr Potter, and punishments certainly cannot be adjusted to suit the guilty one’s convenience. No, you will come here at five o’clock tomorrow, and the next day, and on Friday too, and you will do your detentions as planned. I think it rather a good thing that you are missing something you really want to do. It ought to reinforce the lesson I am trying to teach you.*"
— Umbridge justifying her cruel punishment on Harry Potter[src]

There were several signs indicating that Umbridge was impatient and had a short temper. However, she rarely expressed the extent of her anger openly, casually enforcing decrees written and signed by Fudge and handing out torturous punishments with a smile (most notably, forcing Harry to carve "I must not tell lies" into the back of his hand with a Black Quill) rather than openly taking out her hatred of children on the school as a whole. However, Umbridge's anger occasionally reached the surface when she did not feel things were as they should be, such as when Fred and George Weasley began a rebellion against her during her time as Headmistress, she had very little patience for the twins' antics. When Marietta Edgecombe's memories were secretly modified by Kingsley Shacklebolt and she did not tell the truth about Dumbledore's Army, Umbridge physically shook Marietta very hard, and only stopped when Dumbledore pointed his wand at her. She also had a tantrum when the gargoyle of the Headmaster's office refused to let her in when she became Headmistress, and an outburst against "half-breeds" led her to be carried away by centaurs in the Forbidden Forest.

"*Well, it is lovely to be back at Hogwarts, I must say! And to see such happy little faces looking back at me! I am very much looking forward to getting to know you all, and I’m sure we’ll be very good friends!*"
— Umbridge's condescending and insincere attitude towards children[src]

Umbridge often made hypocritical statements, claiming during the Start-of-Term Feast that she assured the students that they would all be very good friends, she admitted later that she actually hated children, showing she had sacrificed a lot to do Fudge's bidding. Despite claiming to be a "tolerant woman", she frequently attempted to silence those with whom she disagreed. Her hatred of both "half-breeds" and "Mudbloods" demonstrated her intolerance, while her constantly shifting attachment to the currently most powerful showed her opportunism. Despite her incessant claims that telling lies was wrong, she was perfectly willing to lie herself, evidently without shame for it.

Her style of teaching students was also simply having them read from the textbook, while avoiding any practical lessons and answering students' questions, though she was simply following Fudge's orders on how to change Hogwarts. Indeed, Umbridge enforced his belief that theories were enough for students to get by exams and mastering self-defence, which in many situations proved both of them wrong, though she refused to acknowledge that fact. It is unclear if she ever agreed with it or if she merely had to keep her mouth shut as her opinions were of little consequence compared to the Minister of Magic. Because of her lazy and ineffective methods, Umbridge was a thoroughly incompetent teacher with no ability or experience in the teaching of children, something which Minerva McGonagall mocked her for, much to Umbridge's anger.

Despite her wickedness and pure-blood supremacist attitude, Umbridge was repeatedly stated to be no Death Eater, as she never showed support for them until they took over the Ministry in 1997. She was fearful in response to the Azkaban breakout in 1996 and was determined to capture Sirius Black who was, at the time, believed to be a Death Eater. Despite this, she was not above allying with them if it suited her interests. Once they took over she allied with them due to sharing many beliefs with them, as well as being given further power within the Ministry. It is also possible that she allied with them out of fear of being targeted as a high ranking Ministry official, but given her sadistic enjoyment in persecuting Muggle-borns for the Muggle-Born Registration Commission, it appears that Umbridge allied with the Death Eaters willingly and freely, given how their ideology and cruelty was extremely similar to hers, along with the power they granted her, which allowed to carry out her wicked actions on the wizarding world.

Umbridge also understood the importance of Argus Filch's knowledge of the school's geography, and made efforts to befriend him in order to advantage herself, despite his status as a Squib, which many would consider a sign of a second-class citizen in the wizard community. However, she was not above blaming him for her own faults, to the point of irrationality, such as when she stunned one of the Weasleys' Wildfire Whiz-bangs causing it to explode, she called him out not to stun them despite his genetic inability to do so in the first place.

Umbridge also had an unhealthy habit of drinking a small cup of tea with three spoonfuls of sugar, which could have contributed to her gaining weight, and thus in all likelihood she had possessed the habit for a long time.

The time Umbridge spent wearing Voldemort's locket highly exacerbated her nasty qualities, as demonstrated with her sadistic and ruthless persecution of defenceless Muggle-borns, along with her dishonesty regarding her blood status. However, as it was never exactly clear how much influence the locket had on her mind, it may not be fair to judge her entirely for her actions with it on. For instance, her dislike of Muggle-borns increased into base cruelty, tormenting them with sham trials and sadistically sending them off to Azkaban. Her lack of control over her own mind is evidenced by the fact that she had no idea what she was wearing and so falsely claimed it was a family heirloom and proof of her relation to the Selwyn family, showing her extreme arrogance to the point of utter delusion.