OOC Information
Name: Jon
Email: ariensilverleaf@gmail.com
AIM/MSN: xhands of bluex / ariensilverleaf@hotmail.com
Time Zone: EST

IC Information
Name: Dolores Umbridge
Former House: Hufflepuff
Age: 59
Birthday: September 10th
PB Choice: Imelda Staunton

Wand: Ash, 8 inches, unicorn hair core, unusually stubby
Bloodline: Madam Umbridge has in her possession papers that attest to the purity of her blood. Whether they are factual is a secret only she knows.
Family Members: None living.
Owl/Pets/Familiars: None.
Place of Birth/Current Residence: Born in London / Currently resides in Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, Scotland

Patronus: A fat, contented tabby cat
Boggart: A charging centaur
Mirror of Erised: Her on the Headmaster’s Throne at Hogwarts, overseeing children writing lines

Political View:
Umbridge displays the trait that Hufflepuffs are famous for: loyalty. Her loyalty has always been to the Ministry of Magic. Whoever happens to be running that Ministry is not particularly important to her. The law is the law, and the Ministry is what creates the law. The fact that the Ministry is clearly under the control of the Death Eaters at this time bothers her not in the slightest, and seems in fact to have given her much opportunity for advancement as many other civil servants in higher positions seem to have conveniently vanished since the coup. However, she is not now and never plans to be a Death Eater. She is a servant of the law and will always remain as such, even should the law fall back into the control of those with somewhat more inconvenient ideals.

Allegiance:
Supporter of the Ministry of Magic, with a leaning towards Death Eater support.

Sexuality:
Dolores supposes that she is heterosexual, but romance and sex simply do not interest her very much.

Appearance:
Dolores is often described as toad-like by those who dislike her, which includes almost everyone she meets. She is short and somewhat squat, and her dress often accentuates those characteristics rather than flattering her frame. Her face could be pleasant if it were not always so smug and condescending. Her hair is iron grey and she often wears pink bows to hold it back.

Personality:
Dolores has been underestimated her entire life, and it took a good long while for her to learn how to turn that to her advantage. When she was younger she was incredibly impatient, always wanting to have things done immediately and without any difficulty, which made her years at school very hard. Today she has learnt to curb that habit somewhat, and has developed a tenacity that allows her to wait out a problem until a solution presents itself. She may not always find the solution right away, but she’ll be damned if she doesn’t get to it sooner or later. As a result she tends to surprise people with how cunning she can be from time to time, after she has had long enough to find a way around something. These days she often plays the role of the simpering dullard, giving her the opportunity to look for an opponent’s weakness.

This attitude is largely responsible for Dolores’ rise to power, and she has grown to love the taste of it. She is loathe to give up whatever scraps of power she ever gets her hands on, and this has made her slightly paranoid. She’s always expecting someone to come along and attempt to put her down. As a result she has become the type of person to create plans largely in advance, and prepare for as many contingencies as she can foresee. Her humiliating defeat at the hands of schoolchildren taught her to underestimate no one, to trust no one, and she relies only on herself to get things done now.

Dolores has always craved power, as she was taught by her mother when she was small that power was how you eventually gained control. Her mother was very strict and disciplined her regularly as a matter of course. She was taught that being bad merited punishment, and that punishment was fair and necessary to teach you to never repeat the same mistake twice. Dolores has always taken this to heart, and she has developed the desire to pass on this lesson to everyone she knows. She will not hesitate to dole out punishments to correct behavior, and pain is the best of teachers in her mind.

Over time, after dealing with pain at every possible turn, Dolores has become something of a sadist. She does not enjoy pain inflicted on herself, as she equates pain with being wrong and under someone’s control. But inflicting pain grants her the power and control she so desperately seeks, and it gives her thrills to watch someone squirm under something she’s inflicted upon them.

Inevitably, Dolores does everything she does because she believes it is for the greater good. She believes very firmly that order and reason must govern everyone’s lives, and that the majority of people around her have no idea what they’re doing; therefore she must teach them. Her loyalty will always lie with the lawful Ministry, whoever may be in charge of it, and she will always do whatever she is told by those who do have power over her. That is the way of things.

History:

Dolores grew up raised by her mother. Her father was killed in an accident when she was very young, and her mother never wanted to remarry. Mrs. Umbridge was an employee of the Ministry and split her time between her career and her daughter, so Dolores was immersed in a life governed by the Ministry from a very young age. Her mother always intended for Dolores to follow in her footsteps, and impressed upon her the lesson that the law was power absolute, and that power was what must always be respected.

School was a difficult experience for Dolores. Being sorted into Hufflepuff was something of an embarrassment to her mother, who had been a Ravenclaw, and Dolores had to work very hard to attain even moderate grades. Complex magic never came easily to her. But she worked at it and got through school, obtaining the required NEWTS to get into her career at the Ministry. She started off as a low-level clerk, which frustrated her to no end, but she eventually worked out the system and began to advance in the ranks.

When Cornelius Fudge came into power she quickly ingratiated herself to him and became part of his staff, moving up the ranks to eventually become his senior Undersecretary. The Minister’s conservative values appealed greatly to Dolores, and she began to insinuate herself into the process of creating the laws of the state. The more that her influence became known, the more the laws became more confining, more exacting. The policies to control non-humans became more strict, as they represented threats and variables that she found unacceptable. Fudge was more than happy to pass on more and more power to Umbridge, as she always seemed to anticipate the direction that he wanted to move things in, and this gave him more time to play the role of the charismatic politician.

When Dumbledore and Harry Potter began insisting that Voldemort had returned, Fudge began to panic. He’d always believed that Dumbledore would try to seize his power, and the very idea that Voldemort had come back filled him with abject terror. Dolores decided that he had lost his nerve and took charge of the situation, crafting the plan to wreck the reputation of Dumbledore and Potter both. When the trial against Potter failed, she knew she had to go to the source of her enemies’ power, and had Fudge create the role of Grand Inquisitor.

Eventually her stint as Inquisitor proved a failure. She underestimated Potter and his friends, and relied too heavily on aid from her Inquisitorial Squad. The attack on her by the centaurs only served to increase her fear and hatred of non-humans, and taught her to never again trust anyone else. She returned to the Ministry in disgrace, but once again managed to worm her way out of the blame. During the investigation into Fudge’s incompetence she managed to pin the blame entirely on orders from Fudge. She found herself a place in Scrimgeour’s emerging cabinet and began to plot a return to power.

When the Ministry was overthrown by the Death Eaters there was a purge done of those whose interests did not coincide with the new government’s. Dolores quickly found that there was ample room for promotion that she’d not had before. Impressed with her enthusiasm for conservative Pureblood policies, Yaxley offered her the position of Headmistress at Hogwarts. The promise of absolute power over hundreds of students who needed to be taught how to behave in this new world filled her with a kind of pure joy, and she accepted gleefully. She still has a hand in creating governmental policies, as she is known for having a particular skill for crafting laws that keep the lowborn in their place. Hogwarts under her control is a tightly regimented place, full of wonderful rules and restrictions to ensure that no one steps out of line and that everyone knows their place in the world. She is particularly avid in her support for the hunt of the Order of the Phoenix, especially for Minerva McGonagall, whom she would dearly love to see executed.

Life is very good for Dolores Umbridge, and that of course means that someone must be looking to take it away from her. Dolores has vowed that she will be prepared for when that day comes.