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Hey everyone,
Welcome to another installment of Harry Potter Theory. In today’s video, we’re going to be discussing ONE of the most hated characters from the entire series. No it’s not Vernon Dursley and no it’s not Voldemort- it’s none other than Dolores Jane Umbridge- Hogwarts High inquisitor, proud Ministry employee and HEAD of the Muggle-Born Registration Commission. More specifically-however, we’re going to be digging in to Umbridge’s past and uncovering her humble beginnings. Was she always awful? Who were her parents? Where did she grow up? Why was she so prejudiced? Sit back, relax and enjoy the life of Dolores Jane Umbridge.
Now, before we get started I just want to refute one thing: Umbridge did NOT hail from the Selwyn family. In the deathly Hallows, while serving as head of the Muggle-Born registration commission, Dolores claimed that the ‘S’ on the necklace around her neck stood for ‘Selwyn’.
"That's - that's pretty, Dolores," she said, pointing at the pendant gleaming in the ruffled folds of Umbridge's blouse.
"What?" snapped Umbridge, glancing down. "Oh yes - an old family heirloom," she said, patting the locket lying on her large bosom. "The S stands for Selwyn... I am related to the Selwyns... Indeed, there are few pure-blood families to whom I am not related....”
While this was probably more of a distraction tactic rather than a genuine claim- she still said it, and I want to make it perfectly clear that Umbridge was NOT related to the Selwyns- in fact, she wasn’t related to any pure-blood families...at all. The truth is- Umbridge was a half-blood,part of her existence that she tried very hard to hide.
Dolores Umbridge was a british half-blood witch born sometime BEFORE the year 1965. BEFORE 1965 is a bit vague, but that’s all we’re given, so she could have been 31 when starting working at Hogwarts, or 61- it’s quite unclear. She was a short woman with a broad flabby face, little neck, and slack mouth- resembling a toad. She was born in the British Isles to one magical and one muggle parent. Her family was quite small. Her father was a wizard by the name of Orford Umbridge, her mother was a muggle named Ellen Cracknell, and her younger brother’s name is never actually revealed. Isn’t it interesting how the department head for the muggle-born registration commission was in fact a muggle-born herself?
Dolores’ family and home life was already very dysfunctional, and so it didn’t help that her father, her magical parent, had very little ambition- perfectly happy to work as a floor mopper at the ministry of magic.
Later in life when Dolores worked at the Ministry herself, she was occasionally questioned about her relationship to the floor mopper at the ministry- a connection that she would vehemently deny. In fact, it’s later revealed that those who did question her identity, or her fathers, almost always had ‘nasty things’ happen to them:
“Nasty things tended to happen to people who asked about Orford, or anything that Dolores did not like talking about, and people who wanted to remain on her good side pretended to believe her version of her ancestry.”
I’m sure you can only imagine what a terrible and judgemental person like Umbridge would think of a floor mopper. However, Dolores wasn’t the root cause of all of the issues in her family, in fact- I think it was her father that ended being being the root cause of the families problems- as he actively blamed Dolores’ mother for birthing a squib- the SQUIB in question of course being Dolores’ brother- whose name is never revealed. Despite having very little ambition- having a squib child was a source of shame for him- and the main focal point for all of the families troubles. This was undoubtedly an unhealthy environment for Dolores to grow up in, and I have no doubt that it contributed to turning her in to the dysfunctional woman that she would become. I’ll continue discussing her family later on, but for now let’s jump into Umbridge’s earlier years and her proper introduction to magic.
Like so many before and after her, At age 11 it was time for Umbridge to start planning to head to Hogwarts- “the finest school of witchcraft and wizardry in the world”- at least, according to Hagrid.
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