As a special Halloween treat, J.K. Rowling provided us with a biography of everyone’s least favorite Hogwarts professor. No, not John Granger (Trick, Headmaster, trick!). Dolores Umbridge.
Umbridge’s Offices. While we never get the chance to see Dolores Umbridge’s home, we do get a look at her offices at both Hogwarts (Order of the Phoenix, p.) and the Ministry of Magic (Deathly Hallows, p. ), and, since she chose identical décor both times, we can safely assume her office is a home away from home for her. Umbridge’s tastes do not reflect the beauty of nature; the walls are a garish pink and the furniture draped with frilly cloths and doilies. While there are plants and animals present, they are artificial; the flowers are dried and the animals are fake: pictures on “a collection of ornamental plates, each decorated with a large technicolor kitten wearing a different bow around its neck” (Order of the Phoenix, p. ) Readers may wonder how two characters as vastly different as McGonagall and Umbridge could share the same cat patronus. The answer may lie in their connection to the actual animal; McGonagall can become a cat in her Animagus form, while Umbridge never actually deigns to interact with a living cat, only the porcelain ones that Harry describes as “foul.” The two women also use their patronuses for different means: Umbridge to protect herself and McGonagall to protect her students (Carissa, n.d.).
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