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6[[center: [-'''[[Characters/HarryPotter Main Character Index]]'''\
7'''[[Characters/HarryPotterTheTrio The Trio]]''' ([[Characters/HarryPotterHarryJamesPotter Harry James Potter]])\
8'''[[Characters/HarryPotterHogwartsStudents Hogwarts Students]]''' ([[Characters/HarryPotterGryffindor Gryffindor]] | [[Characters/HarryPotterSlytherin Slytherin]] | [[Characters/HarryPotterRavenclaw Ravenclaw]] | [[Characters/HarryPotterHufflepuff Hufflepuff]])\
9'''[[Characters/HarryPotterHogwartsStaff Hogwarts Staff]]''' ([[Characters/HarryPotterAlbusDumbledore Albus Dumbledore]] | [[Characters/HarryPotterSeverusSnape Severus Snape]])\
10[[Characters/HarryPotterTheWeasleyFamily The Weasley Family]] | '''Ministry of Magic'''\
11'''[[Characters/HarryPotterOrderOfThePhoenixMembers Order of the Phoenix Members]]''' ([[Characters/HarryPotterMarauders Marauders]])\
12'''[[Characters/HarryPotterDeathEaters Death Eaters]]''' ([[Characters/HarryPotterLordVoldemort Lord Voldemort]])\
13[[Characters/HarryPotterMuggles Muggles]] | [[Characters/HarryPotterMagicalBeings Magical Beings]] | [[Characters/HarryPotterAnimalsAndPets Animals and Pets]] | [[Characters/HarryPotterOtherCharacters Other Characters]]\
14''[[Characters/FantasticBeasts Fantastic Beasts]]'' | ''[[Characters/HarryPotterHogwartsMystery Hogwarts Mystery]]'' | [[Characters/HarryPotterOtherCanon Other Canon]]]]-]
15----
16[[header:The Ministry of Magic]]
17
18[[quoteright:300:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/ministry_of_magic_logo.png]]
19->''"The Ministry of Magic wishes you a pleasant day..."''
20
21Founded in 1707, the Ministry of Magic is a secret ministry that governed the wizarding community in Britain for many years. The Ministry is governed by the Minister of Magic, who enjoys nearly autocratic powers, and the secretive Wizengamot, making the Ministry a police state on many occasions. After Voldemort's return in 1996, the Ministry eventually becomes a fascist government but when Harry Potter defeats the latter, the Ministry is reformed.
22
23----
24[[foldercontrol]]
25
26[[folder:In General]]
27* BadassArmy: The Aurors serve as this for the Ministry in general, acting in a similar vein to police officers for the Wizarding World. When there's an evil witch or wizard out there, the Ministry sends the Aurors to take care of it. And considering the Wizarding World faces Dementors, people who use magic that can torture people or instantly kill them, and the likes of BigBad Voldemort and his supporters, it's no small feat to become an Auror.
28* BadassLongcoat: With the exception of Tonks and Kingsley, Aurors in the films are depicted as middle-aged gentlemen in trenchcoats.
29* CrapsaccharineWorld: The Ministry takes a lot of effort to make the wizarding community look like an efficient government, but even if we remove corrupt politicians like Fudge and evil terrorists like Voldemort from the equation, the Ministry's own workings are basically those of a {{Dystopia}}, lacking basic human rights and separation of powers among many other things. The possibility of a final totalitarian turn, as it happens under Thicknesse's mandate, was not only predictable, but also inevitable.
30* DayOfTheJackboot: When Voldemort takes over in ''Deathly Hallows''.
31* DidntThinkThisThrough:
32** Surprisingly few Ministry officials seemed to think that having the Dementors - a race of evil beings that feed on souls - in charge of the most dangerous wizards alive was going to end badly. [[spoiler:Sure enough, they're happy to change allegiances to Voldemort.]]
33** Driving deranged psychopaths in Azkaban like Bellatrix or Barty Crouch Jr. even ''crazier'' was also a very bad idea.
34* {{Dystopia}}: Human rights are simply not a thing for the Ministry, as its judicial system sends people almost by default to a prison where dark spirits torture them psychologically every single minute, and summary executions through those same ghosts are perfectly viable too. Lawyers and social assistance are also non-existent, with minors and detainees of dubious sanity being expected to defend entirely by themselves in criminal justice trials if they cannot secure someone experienced enough to act as their defense. Finally, there is not even a true separation of powers, as the Wizengamot crams both legislative and judiciary functions, so you can perfectly have the head of state himself presiding a trial against ''you''.
35* GoodIsNotNice: The Ministry used very brutal tactics during the first war against Voldemort, including [[ColdBloodedTorture torture]] and MindControl, and for most of the series it maintain the Dementors ruling Azkaban.
36* TheGuardsMustBeCrazy: Harry, Ron, Hermione, Neville, Ginny and Luna easily break into the Department of Mysteries in ''Order of the Phoenix''. They comment on this at the time; it's implied that the Death Eaters had already been through and countered all the security to let them in. The scary thing is that given that the Death Eaters show up [[spoiler:when Harry takes the prophecy from its shelf]] in such a way as to imply they've been there for some time, it's likely that this implication was ''accurate''.
37* HeadInTheSandManagement: This is seemingly their official modus operandi after the First Wizarding War. When he's informed about Voldemort's return in 1995, Fudge organizes a mediatic campaign against those who claim so, and no other member of the Ministry (except by those who are already members or allies of the Order of the Phoenix) is shown to think very deeply about it or at least consider the consequences this measure might bring in case the bad news are true. This collective trait is likely the main reason why [[spoiler:the mind-controlled Pius Thicknesse is able to instantly implement all sorts of ObviouslyEvil policies, employ literal Death Eaters and openly enforce Voldemort's ideology without significant opposition from within the Ministry.]]
38* InspectorJavert: The Aurors, to Sirius Black. They fully intend to capture Black and bring him to Azkaban, even though he's innocent. And they will hear no argument to the contrary. A sentiment supported by the main Trio and most everyone on Harry's side until the truth comes out.
39* {{Large Ham}}s: Some members of the ministry tend to have very boisterous personalities.
40* NiceJobBreakingItHero: In ''Order of the Phoenix'', the Ministry makes a concerted effort to deny Voldemort's return after his revival. Unfortunately, it makes it ''harder'' for them to face the Death Eaters after Fudge discovers that Voldemort has returned.
41* ObstructiveBureaucrat: The Ministry seems to employ quite a few. Up to and including ''both'' Ministers of Magic shown in the series prior to Voldemort's takeover. To be fair, Scrimgeour isn't outright evil or corrupt like Fudge was, and refuses to give up anything on Harry even under threat of torture, but he does nothing to make life easier for people in desperate need of hope and reassurance. To say nothing of his adversarial relationship with Harry himself.
42* PacifismBackfire: While the Ministry brought peace to Britain's wizarding community after fighting Voldemort to a stalemate, they did it before making sure he was truly gone.
43* PoliceAreUseless:
44** These guys don't succeed at the hunting down of Death Eaters. At least, during the Second Wizarding War.
45** Averted in the First Wizarding War. The Ministry fights Voldemort to a stalemate for ''eleven years'' (albeit with help from the Order of the Phoenix). While things were grim, there were also successes, such as the Aurors driving the giants out of Britain and killing many Death Eaters.
46* PoliceState: Useless against Voldemort, harsh against its own people.
47* PretentiousLatinMotto: The Department of Magical Law Enforcement bears the motto "''Ignorantia juris neminem excusat''" ("Ignorance of the law excuses nobody").
48* PunchClockVillain: In the earlier books, Fudge was only doing his job when arresting Hagrid, executing Buckbeak and employing dementors, but it’s also hindering the heroes.
49* StateSec: Technically, as the Aurors seem to play as both police and military. Later played even more straight under Voldemort.
50* TokenGoodCop: Despite their esteemed reputation and CoolOldLady boss (Amelia Bones), the Department of Magical Law Enforcement Aurors, besides Tonks and Kingsley, display little obvious talent and never provide much help against the villains (whose return they take a while even to believe happened). Arthur Weasely, who works in a joke division of the Department, displays twice the intelligence, integrity, and magical skills as prominent Aurors like Dawlish and Scrimgeour.
51* TookALevelInDumbass:
52** From a government that fought Voldemort for eleven years and wiped out the British giant community to an utterly corrupt and incompetent madhouse that completely fails to stop Voldemort after he returns.
53** There are a few hints that, until Voldemort returned, his former followers were insinuating themselves into the Ministry and/or using bribery and {{blackmail}} to pave the way for an eventual coup. Their master's return allowed him to pick up and combine his followers' schemes in an EvilPlan.
54* WeHaveBecomeComplacent: By the start of ''Philosopher's Stone'', it has been ten years since Voldemort and the Death Eaters were defeated in the First Wizarding War and the Ministry of Magic believes them to have been obliterated forever. This eventually leads to their downfall towards the end of ''Order of the Phoenix'' as they fail to realise that Voldemort has already been revived until it's too late.
55[[/folder]]
56
57!!1990s
58
59[[folder:Cornelius Oswald Fudge]]
60[[quoteright:300:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/cornelius_fudge6.jpg]]
61-->'''Portrayed by:''' Robert Hardy
62-->'''Voiced by:''' César Izaguirre (Latin American Spanish), Miguel Rosenberg (Brazilian Portuguese)
63-->'''Appears in:''' ''[[Literature/HarryPotterAndTheChamberOfSecrets Chamber of Secrets]]'' | ''[[Literature/HarryPotterAndThePrisonerOfAzkaban Prisoner of Azkaban]]'' | ''[[Literature/HarryPotterAndTheGobletOfFire Goblet of Fire]]'' | ''[[Literature/HarryPotterAndTheOrderOfThePhoenix Order of the Phoenix]]'' | ''[[Literature/HarryPotterAndTheHalfBloodPrince Half-Blood Prince]]''
64
65->''"Exactly, Fudge '''isn't''' in his right mind; it's been twisted and warped by fear."''
66-->-- '''Remus Lupin''' on Fudge's deteriorating mental state
67
68The Minister for Magic for most of the series, initially a rather affable figure with a keen fondness for Harry who continually asks Dumbledore for advice, he outs himself as a slanderous, incompetent coward when he refuses to believe that Voldemort has returned, [[IRejectYourReality instead opting to act as if nothing is wrong]] and making Harry and Dumbledore out to be insane. After Voldemort's return is revealed to all, the national public outrage that ensues caused him to be sacked from his position and replaced by Rufus Scrimgeour.
69----
70* ZeroPercentApprovalRating: He reaches it after the end of ''Order of the Phoenix''. The first chapter of ''Half-Blood Prince'' reveals that all of Wizarding Britain unanimously demanded his resignation -- Fudge himself admits he had never seen the Wizarding World so united in anything else. According to Pottermore, he's considered the second worst minister of all time (the top spot jointly owned by the two ministers who created Azkaban and tried to ban Muggle/Wizard marriages, respectively), and no doubt the absolute worst minister in modern history.
71* AdaptationalNiceGuy: His role in the films isn't changed, but he doesn't appear to be as harsh as in the books due to many scenes involving him being altered or removed. His role in the ''Goblet of Fire'' film merely boils down to him not wanting to cancel the Triwizard Tournament so people won't see him as a coward, and his conflict with Harry and Dumbledore in ''Order of the Phoenix'' is toned down due to several interactions with them not being shown. Another difference in the film shows that Fudge was more willing to own up to his mistakes and willingly resign, unlike the books, where it was mentioned he initially fought to try to remain in power, despite his actions only making things worse until he was forced out of his position via a sacking.
72* AlasPoorVillain: While he doesn't die as his comeuppance, the Muggle British Prime Minister notes that, after seeing how far Fudge has fallen and was basically screamed at by his constituents until he left office, he was able to actually feel genuinely sorry for him.
73* TheAllegedBoss: According to Hagrid, Fudge used to constantly bombard Dumbledore with letters asking for advice on every decision he took. By the time of ''Order of the Phoenix'', in his effort to be his own man, Fudge seems to have shifted to just making all his decisions based on Lucius Malfoy and Dolores Umbridge's advice.
74* AlwaysSecondBest:
75** During his election, most of the popular support was actually for Dumbledore, who didn't want to run for office. It's implied that Fudge has a massive inferiority complex due to his knowledge that Dumbledore could easily have beaten his bid for the position if he'd so chosen, and that this factors into Fudge's need to prove himself better than Dumbledore.
76** He also seems to feel this way towards Bartemius Crouch Sr. who along with Dumbledore was the favoured minister candidate and generally seems to be better respected by the Ministry workers than Fudge is.
77* BigBadEnsemble: While Voldemort is the leader of the Death Eaters, it's Fudge's smear campaign against Dumbledore, Harry and any claims that Voldemort has returned that causes the most problems in ''Order of the Phoenix''. It also has repercussions in the last two books, as Voldemort used Fudge's denial to secretly prepare for the Death Eater coup in the seventh book.
78* BigBadWannabe: Cornelius Fudge led the smear campaign against Harry and Dumbledore, and he gave Umbridge all her powers as Inquisitor. But it all goes to hell once Voldemort returns ''in full view of the Ministry''. We learn in the next book that the massive national public outrage that ensued over Fudge covering up that [[WouldHurtAChild a child-murdering terrorist]] was back in action forced Fudge to resign as Minister.
79* BitchInSheepsClothing: In Books 2, 3 and for most of Book 4, he comes across as kindly and well-meaning, if a little pompous. By the end of Book 4 and through all of Book 5, he reveals himself to be a pretty nasty piece of work.
80* BreakTheHaughty: After an entire year of blustering attacks on both Harry and Dumbledore, seeing Voldemort with his own eyes, and then being forced to admit that the Dark Lord is back sucked the wind right out of him. Fudge later bitterly admitted that never did the Wizarding World seem more united than the very moment they all turned against him and demanded he resign as a result of him having recklessly endangered everybody.
81* CastingGag: According to Creator/JKRowling, much of Fudge's character is modelled on that of former UK prime minister UsefulNotes/NevilleChamberlain. One of Robert Hardy's most celebrated previous roles was as Chamberlain's great rival and successor UsefulNotes/WinstonChurchill in ''Series/WinstonChurchillTheWildernessYears''.
82* CharacterTics: Spinning his bowler hat in his hands when he's nervous.
83* CrossingTheBurntBridge: When he falls in disgrace, he shamelessly tries to beg for Dumbledore's and Harry's help to stay in office, despite everything he'd been doing to antagonize them for a whole year. To no one's surprise, they're having none of it.
84* DareToBeBadass: At the end of Book 4, Dumbledore tells him to accept Voldemort's return, remove the Dementors from Azkaban, and send envoys to the Giants. He tells Fudge if he takes these steps, he will be remembered as one of the bravest and greatest Ministers of Magic; if Fudge refuses (which he does), he will be remembered as the man who stepped aside and allowed Voldemort a second chance to destroy everything the Wizarding World has tried so hard to rebuild (which he is).
85* DarkHorseVictory: It's implied that his initial election as Minister of Magic was this, with the two most popular candidates being Dumbledore (who refused to run for office despite widespread urging) and Barty Crouch Sr (who suffered an unexpected drop in popularity after sentencing his own son to Azkaban).
86* DemotedToExtra: After having a major role for much of the series, he makes a couple of brief cameo appearances in Book 6 before disappearing altogether.
87* DirtyCoward: Caused a number of deaths and a good deal of suffering and setback for the wizarding world by deluding himself, rather than swallowing his pride and facing up to the fact Lord Voldemort had returned. And even when he was at the close, he desperately appealed to Dumbledore to have Harry lie and tell the community that the Ministry has done an excellent job at combatting the dark forces under Fudge, even though he has done anything but.
88* TheDitherer: He's very bad at making his own decisions, often asking other people for advice. When he does stick to his own ideas, they tend to be fuelled by his ego and little else.
89* DoesThisRemindYouOfAnything: Fudge's choice to ignore Voldemort's return and let him accumulate power for himself rather than risk the unpopularity of war was clearly based off Prime Minister UsefulNotes/NevilleChamberlain's handling of Nazi Germany, [[DatedHistory although any modern historian will tell you that is really unfair to Chamberlain considering what he really did — namely, buy time with the Munich agreement to build up the British military and prepare for war]].
90* EntitledBastard: Despite having put Harry through hell throughout Book 5, Fudge still expects Harry to help him when the wizarding world calls for his resignation. Harry and Dumbledore are left disgusted by this.
91* EpicFail: His tenure as Minister for Magic had already seen some questionable decisions made—like sending Hagrid to Azkaban in ''Chamber of Secrets'' because he was accused of opening the titular Chamber the first time, or allowing Dementors near Hogwarts while they're searching for Sirius Black in ''Prisoner of Azkaban''—but his smear campaign against Harry and Dumbledore throughout ''Order of the Phoenix'' after Harry witnesses Voldemort's return, instigated out of paranoia that Dumbledore is after his position, is so fail-tacular that it helps Voldemort gain power while the Ministry does nothing, contributes to a vastly increased death count in the last two books, [[ArsonMurderAndJaywalking and gets Fudge ousted]] [[{{Irony}} from his position anyway]].
92* EstablishingCharacterMoment: It's quite telling that in his very first scene, he throws Hagrid into Azkaban because he wants to look like he's doing something about the attacks on Muggle-borns and needs a convenient scapegoat.
93* EveryoneHasStandards:
94** After the Chamber of Secrets is reopened and Muggle-borns are attacked, Lucius Malfoy convinces the Hogwarts board of governors to suspend Dumbledore's authority as headmaster of the school. Fudge tells Lucius that this is a terrible idea, and objects to Dumbledore accepting the motion.
95** After the Dementors sent to protect Hogwarts from Sirius Black attempt to perform a kiss on Harry, Fudge immediately decides to remove them from the school since they're clearly dangerous to the students.
96** As per Umbridge, Fudge would never have tolerated her decision to send Dementors after Harry (even if he could use the incident to try and expel him), or allowed her to use the Cruciatus curse for torture.
97* EvilAllAlong: While "evil" might be a stretch, there are indications that he was never really a good guy to begin with, notably when Molly reveals that he's kept Arthur at his low-ranking, low-paying job for years because Fudge thinks Arthur "[[FantasticRacism lacks proper wizarding pride]]."
98* EvilCannotComprehendGood: Again, "evil" might be a stretch, but Fudge was always paranoid of Dumbledore trying to take his position for himself - in his mind, such a great and powerful wizard ''must'' want to become the most powerful figure in wizarding society. Either he hadn't heard or had conveniently forgotten that Dumbledore, not trusting himself with that level of authority, turned down the job offer ''three times'' already. It's so bad that, when Dumbledore announces Voldemort's return, the idea of this being a mad power play on Dumbledore's part is somehow the more ''reasonable'' explanation to Fudge.
99* FantasticRacism: According to Dumbledore, he has always put too much importance on so-called blood purity, having held back Arthur Weasley to low-paying positions within the Ministry because of Arthur's like of and fascination toward Muggles, considering Arthur to lack proper wizarding pride. He's also condescending to the Muggle Prime Minister, and shows heavy hints of prejudice toward Giants, accusing Madame Maxime of being the one who attacked Barty Crouch Sr and Viktor Krum just because of her giant heritage, and being totally shocked and horrified at Dumbledore's suggestion to talk with and ally with the surviving giants before Voldemort does it first.
100* FatalFlaw:
101** '''[[GreenEyedMonster Jealousy]].''' Deep down, Fudge is jealous of Dumbledore and Barty Crouch Sr, constantly asking for their advice. Fudge knows he's a weak man trying to play the strong man, but won't admit it. The result of this envy leads to a number of increasingly bad decisions on his part, which get a lot of people killed in the second half of the saga.
102** '''[[DirtyCoward Cowardice]]'''. When Dumbledore tells him Voldemort has returned, Fudge is so terrified of the possibility that he'd rather delude himself into believing that Dumbledore is lying to him in a self-serving attempt to gain more power. He throws all of his and the Ministry's efforts into painting Harry and Dumbledore as liars and trying to gain more control over Hogwarts, giving Voldemort an entire year to prepare for his takeover of Wizarding Britain. This is after Dumbledore tells Fudge in no uncertain terms that if he publicly acknowledges Voldemort's return and takes measures to fight him, he'd go down in history as one of the greatest and bravest Ministers of Magic; instead, Fudge's fear of losing his power and reputation along with the peace the Wizarding World had built leads to just that happening when Voldemort reveals himself on his own terms.
103* {{Foreshadowing}}: Even before his true colours were revealed at the end of ''Goblet of Fire'', he had a preference for superficially making it look like the Ministry was doing something over confronting problems head-on, throwing Hagrid in Azkaban during ''Chamber of Secrets'' to appear progressive instead of conducting a full-fledged investigation into what's going on at Hogwarts. This approach hints at his true nature.
104* HateSink: After initially being presented as something of a ReasonableAuthorityFigure, by the end of Book 4 and throughout Book 5, Fudge shows his true colours: that of a corrupt, cowardly, greedy, xenophobic moron who puts the entire world in danger by ignoring Voldemort's return. To do this, he launches a smear campaign against Harry and Dumbledore ([[UngratefulBastard despite the latter always gave him helpful advice during his years in office]]) and puts the former through a KangarooCourt where he acts incredibly smug and refuses to let Harry state his case. He also puts too much importance on so-called blood purity, having held back Arthur Weasley to low-paying positions within the Ministry because of Arthur's like of and fascination toward Muggles, considering Arthur to lack proper wizarding pride, while continuing to associate with Lucius Malfoy, a former Death Eater. [[EntitledBastard Eventually when the truth about Voldemort's return is revealed, he wants Harry to help him despite everything he did]], leaving Harry and Dumbledore disgusted.
105* HeadInTheSandManagement: The trope could be named "The Cornelius Fudge School of Crisis Management" for how badly Fudge handles real threats. Running a smear campaign against Harry, Dumbledore, and anyone who says that Voldemort has returned blows up in Fudge's face when Voldemort appears right outside of the Ministry of Magic, with several witnesses. Fudge's management is based heavily off Neville Chamberlain, the British Prime Minister who is unfairly [[ArtisticLicenseHistory stereotyped by popular culture]] as a gullible leader who ignored UsefulNotes/AdolfHitler's aggressive expansion in Europe prior to UsefulNotes/WorldWarII.[[note]]In real life, UsefulNotes/NevilleChamberlain was neither naïve nor stupid about the threat of Hitler; he only used appeasement policy as a means to avoid another [[UsefulNotes/WorldWarI world war]] in Europe, and had no illusions about what Hitler was like - at the same time as signing the Munich Agreement, he was also signing off on a massive rearmament of the British armed forces, recognising that Munich only bought him time. It's only when Hitler broke his promise and then invaded Poland that Chamberlain dropped diplomacy and formally declared war on Germany.[[/note]]
106* HeroicBSOD: He goes through a brief one during [[spoiler:Dumbledore's funeral, realizing how badly he's messed everything up]].
107* HeroInsurance: Before the fifth book, he's quite committed to providing this for Harry, making several special exceptions for him to avoid him getting into too much trouble. He considers Harry, as "the boy who lived" a special case, a DoubleStandard that Snape criticizes, noting that Harry is better off being treated like any other student -- a valid point, though hollow given Snape's bias to treat Harry ''worse'' than any other student. This bites him in the ass when he attempts to dredge up these instances, at which Dumbledore points out that he himself was happy to dismiss them at the time.
108* HiddenDepths:
109** He mentions that he has recurring dreams about the aftermath of the Sirius Black/Peter Pettigrew confrontation that resulted in the deaths of 13 Muggles (he was one of the first responders), suggesting he suffers from some form of [=PTSD=].
110** For all his corruption and prior moral cowardice, Fudge does stand up to Voldemort and refuse to step aside in the face of threatened Muggle killings. While it's certainly harsh and ends with Voldemort carrying out his threat on the Brockdale Bridge, it's a legitimately brave thing and a sign of what kind of leader he could have been if he hadn't stuck his head in the sand.
111** While he may be [[FantasticRacism prejudiced]] against {{Muggles}} and [[OurGiantsAreBigger giants]], the fact that [[GovernmentAgencyOfFiction the Werewolf Support Services]] was created during his first few years as the Minister for Magic, seem to suggest that he is sympathetic to the plight of werewolves to offer assistance by creating the agency or has nothing against the werewolves to stop the creation of the agency.
112* HorribleJudgeOfCharacter:
113** In ''Goblet of Fire'', when Crouch goes missing, Fudge suspects Madame Maxime of attacking him, with his reasons being that her carriage was close to Crouch's last sighting and because [[FantasticRacism she's a half-giant, and giants are known for being violent by nature]]. [[InsaneTrollLogic When Dumbledore points out the flaws in Fudge's reasoning, Fudge accuses Dumbledore of being prejudiced because of his half-giant employee Hagrid]]. He then acts somewhat shocked when Dumbledore gently suggests ''he's'' the one being prejudiced.
114** Come ''Order of the Phoenix'', it's easy to imagine Lucius Malfoy and Dolores Umbridge effortlessly manipulating him by acting like cliché {{Evil Chancellor}}s. In fact, given [[ObviouslyEvil their personalities]], that's probably exactly what they do.
115** Fudge believes Dumbledore wants to steal his position as Minister of Magic, when the truth is that Dumbledore is content with being Headmaster of Hogwarts, and does not trust himself to hold such power. In fact, Dumbledore had previously been asked to become Minister of Magic after Crouch was ousted, but refused. So why Fudge continuously believes Dumbledore wants the position anyway is born out of paranoia and jealousy.
116* HumblePie: Receiving the public backlash and being sacked after officially reporting Voldemort's return beats the bluster out of him by the opening chapter of ''Half-Blood Prince'', as he muses over his mishandling of the situation to the Prime Minister. However, while he does have regrets for how pear-shaped the magical world became because of his inaction, his whining about Dumbledore's refusal to convince Harry to function as the Ministry's spokesman and inform the wizarding community [[BlatantLies they're doing a good job]], despite the smear campaign he put them through for a year, makes it evident he hasn't undergone a full HeelRealization.
117* ImplausibleDeniability: Fudge denies to himself that Voldemort has not returned, just to reassure himself he won't have to resort to destabilizing everything that he and Ministry had worked so hard to rebuild.
118* InadequateInheritor: From the very beginning he felt this way and was deeply insecure in his role as Minister of Magic after being compared to Dumbledore, who turned down his position multiple times. This insecurity turns out to stem from his own ''actual'' inadequacy and incompetence; he exhibits [[FantasticRacism bigoted tendencies]] and governmental corruption, and by books four and five his truly nasty behaviour shines through.
119* InspectorJavert: What his roles in the second and third books amount to. In the former case, he arrests Hagrid despite not actually believing him to be guilty of opening the Chamber of Secrets in order to make the Ministry out to be taking action to stop the attacks on Muggle-borns. His prioritization of keeping up appearance over doing any actual good foreshadows his true nature as later shown.
120* IRejectYourReality: His response to claims that Voldemort returned. Even when Snape shows him his Dark Mark, which faded of Death Eaters' arms after Voldemort's first downfall and is now back with his return, Fudge still refuses to face reality and doubles down in his opposition to Harry and Dumbledore. Averted when he finally sees Voldemort face-to-face at the end of ''Order of the Phoenix'', he immediately faces up to his failure and defers to Dumbledore, though the fact that it happened in public kind of left him with no room to save face.
121* {{Irony}}: His [[HeadInTheSandManagement response to word of Voldemort's return]] is motivated by fear of losing his position as Minister for Magic, as reporting Voldemort's return would indeed cause major unrest among the wizarding community. In the end, his attempt to sweep things under the rug is exactly what leads to him losing his position, when he sees Voldemort in the flesh and is forced to accept the truth.
122* {{Jerkass}}: Fudge is a very unpleasant person once his apparently friendly demeanour slips. Beyond his FantasticRacism, penchant for corruption and loving his power way too much he instigates a yearlong smear campaign against a ''fifteen-year-old boy'' out of a paranoid fear that his comfy, complacent job would become a lot harder with Voldemort's return. By ''Half-Blood Prince'', the shock of having the entire wizarding world scream for his resignation seems to have made him realize what a jerk he's been, but it's too late.
123* JerkassHasAPoint: Fudge is too much of a coward to decry Dumbledore's proposal to remove the Dementors from Azkaban as anything but something that would risk his employment as Minister; however, it's hardly the first thing anybody besides Dumbledore would recommend given that Voldemort is back and is the Dementors' preferred master.
124* KickedUpstairs: After his sacking, he's relegated to an advisory role, which anybody reading can tell is a position of no true power and is probably just a courtesy to keep him from being killed on the streets (if not to taunt Fudge with the power he so desperately wanted but lost).
125* LaserGuidedKarma: Fudge spends a year denying Voldemort's return, and slanders Harry, Dumbledore, and their supporters. Once it turns out that Voldemort really had returned, all of the slander he aimed at his "enemies" turns around and bites him in the ass. He's forced to resign in disgrace, his reputation is ruined, [[ZeroPercentApprovalRating he's going down in history as one of the worst Ministers of Magic ever]], and the community that he was trying to protect was nearly destroyed thanks to his denial.
126* MeaningfulName:
127** In British idioms, to "fudge" an issue means either to evade addressing it or to devise a pathetic and useless compromise. Furthermore, ''Oswald'' has fallen out of favour in Britain ever since Oswald Mosley, who led the British Union of Fascists.
128** In the Polish translation his last name is changed to "Knot", which roughly translates to "the one who screws up".
129* MyGreatestFailure: Fudge would later recall that he had never seen the Wizarding world so unified than when it roared for his resignation following the revelation that he had kept the public unaware of Voldemort's return.
130* NoHistoricalFiguresWereHarmed: He's heavily based on UsefulNotes/NevilleChamberlain, Britain's prime minister from 1937 to 1940. Chamberlain's most famous deed was his attempt of appeasing Adolf Hitler by letting him conquer Hungary, Poland, and the borders of Czechoslovakia through the Munich Agreement with Nazi Germany to prevent the Second World War. After Hitler took over the rest of Czechoslovakia less than a year after the agreement, Britain ultimately went to war. In 1940, Chamberlain retired and he has been seen as a divisive figure by members of the public because they blame him for underestimating Hitler's megalomania and for naively trying to end the war diplomatically, a decision that could have led to Britain's defeat. In the series, traits of Chamberlain [[note]] or at least, how Chamberlain has stereotypically been seen - Chamberlain was actually far more competent and realistic than either Fudge or his reputation would suggest [[/note]] made their way into the character and how he managed the Ministry of Magic and the return of Voldemort.
131* NoodleIncident: A former Prime Minister tried to throw him out the window when he revealed the Wizarding world to him.
132* NotBrainwashed: Harry and members of the Order of the Phoenix mull the possibility that Fudge is under the Imperius Curse after Voldemort's return to power, which is a valid theory considering his close interaction with Death Eaters working at the Ministry of Magic. He turns out to be a paranoid, racist, power-hungry jerkass without the aid of mind control.
133* ObstructiveZealot: His insistence that Voldemort can't have returned leads him into some truly deep delusions, and ultimately leads to his resignation.
134* OhCrap: When he sees Voldemort in the flesh for the first time towards the end of ''Order of the Phoenix''. Beyond just seeing the BigBad yards away from him, Fudge instantly realizes that the game is up with his attempts to deny that Voldemort has returned.
135* OurPresidentsAreDifferent: He starts off as Minister Buffoon and Minister Focus Group, but becomes Minister Corrupt/Scheming.
136* ParentalSubstitute: Played with before being averted. Fudge takes a fatherly liking to Harry when they first meet in ''Prisoner of Azkaban'', with Harry feeling as though Fudge is addressing him as he would a son or favourite nephew. This is completely averted by ''Order of the Phoenix'', where Fudge becomes so desperate to deny Voldemort's return that he instigates a yearlong smear campaign against Harry and organizes a sham trial to try and expel him from Hogwarts to discredit him.
137* PetTheDog: In the books, he was vocally against the idea of Dumbledore stepping down as headmaster, but Lucius tells him that this decision is the governors concern and not his. He keeps protesting until Dumbledore himself agrees to step down.
138* PointyHairedBoss: He's definitely there by the fifth book, though Hagrid's remarks about him in the first book suggest that he was never a particularly effective leader. Even before he [[TookALevelInJerkass takes his level in jerkass]] during his last years, he is willing to send Hagrid to Azkaban on the mere ''suspicion'' of having opened the Chamber of Secrets just so that the Ministry appears to be taking action, and considering the nature of Azkaban, that's not a very nice thing to do.
139* ProperlyParanoid: He is reluctant to reveal the truth about Voldemort's return on the account of maintaining his reputation and preventing mass chaos in the wizarding world.
140* PumpkinPerson: Luna heard a rumor in ''Order Of The Phoenix'' that Dumbledore left him in Saint Mungo's with a pumpkin for a head. Whether or not this was actually true was not confirmed.
141* PutOnABus: After his resignation as Minister and passing the position to Scrimgeour, we only see him again in a brief cameo at [[spoiler:Dumbledore's funeral]] at the end of the sixth book.
142* ResignedInDisgrace: Having totalled his reputation and cemented his legacy as a DirtyCoward and one of the worst Ministers of Magic in recorded history, he's forced to resign less than two weeks after it turns out that Voldemort's back.
143* SanitySlippage: It's certainly implied by Lupin in the quote above, but that may be them trying to give him the benefit of the doubt.
144* ScrewTheRulesIMakeThem: He has this chilling line you never want to hear from any head of state.
145-->'''Fudge''': Laws can be changed if necessary, Dumbledore!
146* ScrewThisImOuttaHere: He resigns as Minister of Magic after Voldemort returns; then again, his ZeroPercentApprovalRating caused by the outraged wizarding community meant that he would have gotten kicked out of office if he didn't resign.
147* SelectiveObliviousness: Tends to fall into this when his personal interests and/or position might be compromised. In the third book, he seemed to be aware of the possibility of Voldemort returning to power if he had help (which, rather ironically, was ''exactly'' what happened, just not by the man he suspected). From the fourth book and throughout the fifth, he vehemently denies that Voldemort might have returned despite overwhelming evidence.
148* SlaveToPR: He refuses to acknowledge Voldemort's resurrection because he doesn't want to deal with the Wizarding World entering into hysteria. His solution is to make Harry, Dumbledore, and their supporters the scapegoats of a smear campaign. He even states that, "He has to be seen doing something."
149* SmallNameBigEgo: He apparently didn't start out as such, but he certainly comes across as one in the fifth book given his complete confidence that he can haul Dumbledore off to jail without a fight. He also awarded himself an Order of Merlin, First Class award, which is meant to be awarded for "acts of outstanding bravery", despite most people considering Fudge's career "less than distinguished".
150* TookALevelInJerkass: At first, he was a kindly, generous old man who relieved Harry of being punished without a second thought. Then Voldemort came back and he became a...[[{{Jerkass}} well, yeah]].
151* TurnInYourBadge: The beginning of the sixth book reveals that, thanks to his discovery that Voldemort had in fact returned, Fudge resigned in disgrace, and introduces the Prime Minister of Britain (Muggle Britain) to his successor.
152* UngratefulBastard: Dumbledore always gave him helpful advice during his years in office. That did not stop Fudge from waging a year-long smear campaign against him and Harry when he thought Dumbledore was plotting to overthrow him and take his position as Minister of Magic.
153* UnwittingInstigatorOfDoom: If Fudge was actually honest about what Harry and Dumbledore were saying, or was sceptical but still took precautions just in case, then Voldemort wouldn't have had his NearVillainVictory and the body count in the last two books would have been ''much'' lower. At the very least, the Ministry would not have been taken over, since Voldemort used Fudge's negligence to build up his spies and support-base in the Ministry. In the First War, the Ministry was infiltrated by Death Eaters for sure, but it didn't collapse or fall or get subverted.
154* VillainWithGoodPublicity: In his final year as Minister, he managed to get the public on his side in his campaign to discredit Dumbledore and Harry; this quickly goes downhill however once he sees Voldemort in the flesh, and he is immediately pushed out of office for having recklessly endangered the Wizarding World.
155* WouldHurtAChild: Downplayed. He doesn't directly physically harm any children, but he doesn't seem to have a problem with launching a smear campaign against an innocent teenager, trying to get said teenager expelled from school when Hogwarts is Harry's only respite from his abusive home life, and endangering the students of Hogwarts by effectively barring them from learning any magical self-defense. During Harry's hearing, when reminded that underage wizards can produce magic in front of Muggles under life-threatening circumstances, Fudge snaps that laws can be changed "if necessary".
156[[/folder]]
157
158[[folder:Professor Dolores Jane Umbridge]]
159
160[[quoteright:300:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/dolores_umbridge.jpg]]
161[[caption-width-right:300:''"I must not tell lies."'']]
162-->'''Portrayed by:''' Creator/ImeldaStaunton (films), Helena Lymbery (''Theatre/HarryPotterAndTheCursedChild'', first West End run), TBD (''Cursed Child'', first Broadway run)
163-->'''Voiced by:''' Ruth Toscano (Latin American Spanish), Nair Amorim (Brazilian Portuguese)
164-->'''Appears in:''' ''[[Literature/HarryPotterAndTheOrderOfThePhoenix Order of the Phoenix]]'' | ''[[Literature/HarryPotterAndTheHalfBloodPrince Half-Blood Prince]]'' | ''[[Literature/HarryPotterAndTheDeathlyHallows Deathly Hallows]]'' | ''[[Theatre/HarryPotterAndTheCursedChild Cursed Child]]''
165
166->''"As I told you, Mr. Potter, naughty children deserve to be punished."''
167
168A high-ranking Ministry functionary and [[HateSink perhaps the most universally despised character in the series]], Umbridge [[FauxAffablyEvil affects the mannerisms of a kindly old aunt or grandmother, but they're only a thin veneer that covers authoritarian nastiness at its worst incarnate in one woman]]. Sent to Hogwarts by Cornelius Fudge to keep an eye on Dumbledore, Umbridge wasted no time in turning it into her own personal fiefdom, [[TyrantTakesTheHelm running the school as a sugar-coated dictator]]. She lost her post at the end of ''Order of the Phoenix'' but retained her Ministry job under Fudge's successors, [[KnightTemplar Scrimgeour]] and [[BrainwashedAndCrazy Thicknesse]]. Umbridge is loyal only to the Ministry itself, no matter who runs it, and will gleefully uphold the status quo it lays down, no matter how horrible. The books make no mention of her final fate, but Rowling confirms that she was ultimately tried, convicted and sent to Azkaban.
169----
170
171* ZeroPercentApprovalRating: During her brief stint as headmistress she's likely more hated than Phineas Nigellus ever was. Students and even teachers subvert her authority at every turn to the point of orchestrating a full-fledged rebellion of sorts designed to make her job a living nightmare - [[LaserGuidedKarma not that she doesn't deserve it]]. The only people who tolerate her are Filch and the Inquisitorial Squad, which they clearly only do because she's given them positions of power. Hogwarts itself rejects her as Headmistress, and when she tries to get into the headmaster's office, the office seals itself and refuses to allow entrance to her.
172* AdaptedOut: Her brief cameo in ''Half-Blood Prince'' since her one appearance took place at [[spoiler:Dumbledore's funeral, which was not adapted for the film.]] She only appears in the film as a mocking statue in Weasley's Wizard Wheezes.
173* AdaptationalAttractiveness: In the books and the illustrations, she's portrayed as resembling a large toad. In the movies, she looks like someone's adorable grandmother, which actually helps [[FauxAffablyEvil mask her foul demeanour]] even better by not making it as obvious at first glance. Imelda Staunton, who played Umbridge in the films, also bears a passing resemblance to UsefulNotes/MargaretThatcher, whom Umbridge was written as a caricature of.
174* AdaptationalBadass:
175** In the book version of ''Order of the Phoenix'', she gets rolled pretty much instantly by the Centaurs once she pisses them off, showing that for all her bluster and high station, she's not really that skilled as a witch. In the film, she's able to hold off a group of angry and heavily armed Centaurs pretty much effortlessly all by herself [[note]]right until Grawp sneaks up on her and relieves her of her wand[[/note]].
176** An example that's more competence than badassness, she actually uses the proper dose of Veritaserum in the movie. She only runs out because she interrogates the entire DA with it. In the book, she uses the entire bottle to interrogate Harry when she only needs three drops, thus she comes off as incompetent when Snape asks what happened to the rest when she asks for more.
177* AdaptationalNiceGuy: ''Very'' mild, but in the movie there is no confirmation that [[spoiler:she was the one who sent the Dementors]], implying it was Voldemort as suspected.
178* AdaptationalDyeJob: Her hair is described as "iron-grey" in the books but is light brown in the film.
179* AdaptationalVillainy: She was still a horrifically vile person in the book, but also in the book, she is only seen inflicting her punishment method on two students (Harry and Lee), as well as getting Fred, George, and Harry a lifetime [[note]]meaning as long as she's in power there[[/note]] ban from playing Quidditch. In the film, she did it to practically every student who disagreed with her, even [[WouldHurtAChild first years]], and threatened [=McGonagall=] with everything up to legal action on trumped-up charges, not to mention the 100+ educational decrees hanging on the wall outside the Great Hall.
180* AnimalMotifs:
181** Umbridge uses the CatsAreMean motif, but it's downplayed; while she has paintings of cats and a cat Patronus, she's never actually shown with a '''living''' pet cat and is thus juxtaposed against Hermione and Ms. Figg. That's assuming that a living cat could ''survive'' being in [[EnemyToAllLivingThings her]] presence. In fact, her backstory shared on Pottermore states she finds actual kittens to be too messy — fortunately for the kittens.
182** Appearance-wise, Harry (and years later, [[StrangeMindsThinkAlike Mundungus]]) also describes her as looking like a toad -- short and squat, with a black bow in her hair that reminds him of a fly.
183* BigBad: While she is eventually overshadowed by [[GreaterScopeVillain Voldemort]] himself, for about 90% of ''Order of the Phoenix'', she is effectively the main antagonist, the only one in the series that is not affiliated with Voldemort at all. She is actually [[HateSink more despised]] than Voldemort by fans.
184* BigBadEnsemble: In ''Order of the Phoenix'', she shares this role with Lord Voldemort as the person who directly threatens the students and opposes Harry for most of the book, whilst the latter works behind the scenes and only shows himself in the climax after Umbridge has already been dealt with. Despite both of them being main antagonists, they never interact with each other and are actually working independently from each other towards different goals.
185* BitchInSheepsClothing: She may come off as affable, but her true personality is nothing more than a {{Sadist}} that loves to torture the students of Hogwarts.
186* BoomerangBigot: She despises Half-Bloods despite, according to Rowling, being one herself and having a Squib brother to boot.
187* BreadEggsMilkSquick: Her profile on Pottermore names her hobbies to be "collecting the 'Frolicsome Feline' ornamental plate range, adding flounces to fabric and frills to stationary objects, inventing instruments of torture."
188* BreakingOldTrends: Unlike the past {{Arc Villain}}s within the first four installments of the franchise, Umbridge is the only one to not have a direct connection to Lord Voldemort himself.
189* BrightIsNotGood: [[color:pink: Pink]], [[color:pink: pink]] everywhere, but her soul is as black as the night itself.
190* TheBully: At her core Umbridge is nothing but a sadistic bully who lives to enforce her authority to others by torturing, tormenting, and making their lives the most miserable possible by depriving them of their freedom and of the slightest joy they can have.
191* BullyingADragon: In ''Order of the Phoenix'', she insists on [[spoiler:insulting a herd of angry Centaurs, currently surrounding her and armed with bows, eventually calling them "filthy half-breeds" ''to their faces''.]] She is promptly abducted and dragged off into the depths of the forest; it takes intervention from Dumbledore himself to save her life.
192* TheCameo: She makes a brief appearance in ''Half-Blood Prince'' attending [[spoiler:Dumbledore's funeral, looking unconvincingly sad.]]
193* ChildHater: While she explicitly says she hates children in the film version of ''Order of the Phoenix'', this is averted in the books themselves where she doesn't ''particularly'' hate children, but rather all people who challenge her power. The only reason why she abuses children in the books is simply because it's a way to assert power over them and because she can get away with it.
194* ColourMotif: Pink, to go with her sickly sweet personality.
195%%* TheComicallySerious: She's played this way more prominently in the fifth film.
196* CondescendingCompassion: She likes to speak to her students and coworkers alike as though they're idiots, whilst simultaneously insisting that she's doing what's best for them.
197* CoughSnarkCough: Frequently interrupts people with a fake cough/clearing of the throat.
198* CrouchingMoronHiddenBadass: In the films. She's petty, cruel, and woefully saccharine, but her altercation with the centaurs in ''Phoenix'' establishes that she ''is'' a dangerous witch with surprisingly good reflexes.
199* CuteKitten: Has decorative plates with images of kittens hung up on her office wall. [[BitchInSheepsClothing Don't take this as a good example of what to expect from her, though]].
200* DeanBitterman: During her time as the "Hogwarts High Inquisitor", she was pretty much a headmistress of Hogwarts all but in name, and created many rules in order for her to suit her sadistic, intrusive, and old-fashioned nature. She becomes this trope full-time when she actually becomes the headmistress for a short while.
201* DemBones: In the film, her cat Patronus has a visibly skeletal appearance, a trait not seen in any other character's Patronus.
202* DisproportionateRetribution: She forces students to write lines in their own blood with a quill that cuts into the skin on the backs of their hands. It's stated that at least one student's hand is bleeding quite badly and that Harry himself has another permanent scar. All of this is for speaking out of turn and/or questioning the Ministry.
203* TheDragon:
204** Umbridge is the one who sabotages the Defence Against the Dark Arts education at Hogwarts on behalf of Fudge.
205** She also seems to be this to Yaxley in the Death Eater-controlled Ministry.
206* DragonInChief: Umbridge is nominally subservient to the Minister, who gave her access to those powers to start with, but she's far more of a personal antagonist than the Minster.
207* EstablishingCharacterMoment: A series of them. At Harry's trial, she acts to deflect the blame for the incident that put Harry there and votes for him as guilty in the face of all justice and logic. During her first portrayed class, she puts Harry in detention [[DisproportionateRetribution because he said that Voldemort had returned]], and punishes him by making him write lines with a quill that puts a scar on his hand.
208* EvenEvilHasStandards:
209** In the fifth book when the Death Eaters escape from Azkaban she looks just as dismayed as the other teachers do. Knowing her, however, this was likely more about the stress this would cause the Ministry or [[ItsAllAboutMe fear for her own safety as a ranking Ministry official]]. Ultimately it becomes [[AvertedTrope moot]] in the seventh book when she ends up working with Death Eaters.
210** Also in the fifth book, she seems to consider using the Cruciatus Curse on Harry a GodzillaThreshold as she actually spends a few moments talking herself into it, since per her word, Fudge still would ''never'' have authorized it being used on Harry, let alone her commanding the Dementors to attack the boy.
211* EvilCounterpart: Several scenes position her as this to [=McGonagall=]. Umbridge is the right-hand woman of Cornelius Fudge, mirroring [=McGonagall's=] position under Dumbledore and, with the power she's given by Fudge, Umbridge has just as much of a say in Hogwarts affairs as [=McGonagall=] does. While [=McGonagall=] is a SternTeacher who is ultimately reasonable and caring under her strict exterior, Umbridge puts on a facade of friendliness to hide her sadistic, ruthless true personality.
212* EvilerThanThou:
213** {{Subverted}} in comparison to the Death Eaters. She's clearly not as brutal as they are, preferring to punish her enemies in more refined ways or through authoritativeness. However, she's otherwise just as evil as many Death Eaters or only at best a step below them.
214** When interacting with Snape, a SmugSnake and (by this point) known Death Eater, she makes him look very good next to her.
215---> '''Snape:''' Unless you wish to poison Potter -- and I would be in the greatest possible sympathy with you if you did -- I cannot help you.
216** In her backstory on Pottermore, ''Muggle-hating wizards'' were shocked at some of her ideas about Muggles -- and this was stuff she said in private, "behind closed doors"!
217* EvilIsPetty: Unsurprisingly for such a sadistic bully and tyrant, Umbridge is incredibly petty and spiteful, willing to go to incredible levels of low just to make others' lives miserable.
218** She puts Harry, as well as other students such as Lee Jordan, in detention and has them write on their hands with their own blood, for very minor offences such as Harry claiming that Voldemort is back, or Lee jokingly pointing out the hypocrisy of one of her decrees, out of sadism.
219** During her inspection of Professor Trelawney, she constantly harasses her with questions, follows her around the class, visibly aware that it annoys and stresses Trelawney, and when firing her she gleefully makes a show of it, fully intending to expel her from Hogwarts.
220** Her inspection of Hagrid is just as petty and cruel, with her loudly taking notes that are extremely unfair to Hagrid, accusing him of being insane, of loving violence and seeing students being hurt, and not knowing what he's doing right in front of him, and obviously in part to unnerve him and make him lose his confidence.
221** After Fred and Harry attack Malfoy, who had spitefully insulted their mothers after losing a Quidditch match to Gryffindor, she bans them, as well as George, who had been restrained by his teammates, from ever playing Quidditch again.
222** She bans Harry from returning to Hogsmeade and gives him another week of detention after he gives an interview about Voldemort's return here.
223* EvilTeacher: Dolores Umbridge is a government stooge who got a job at Hogwarts School by government mandate and proceeds to force students to carve words into their skin, forcibly removes every staff member who disagrees with her politics, and goes so far as to threaten the main character with ''torture''.
224* FaceFramedInShadow: When she's introduced.
225* FantasticRacism:
226** She is noted to have an intense loathing of those she considers "half-breeds" or "part-humans," ranging from Werewolves to Centaurs. It [[HoistByHerOwnPetard comes back to haunt her]] at the end of ''Order of the Phoenix'', where she is [[spoiler:carried off into the Forbidden Forest by a herd of Centaurs]].
227** Her hatred of half-breeds apparently extends to half-blood wizards and witches [[BoomerangBigot like herself]], as evidenced in ''Deathly Hallows''. She sends a Half-Blood Wizard to his FateWorseThanDeath, labelling him a Muggle-born without listening to his argument. She gets her comeuppance for sending countless half-bloods and Muggleborns to the Dementors, though.
228* FatBitch: She is depicted in the books as extremely, almost humorously squat. This is {{downplayed|Trope}} in the film, though, as Imelda Staunton isn't really that overweight at all.
229* FauxAffablyEvil: She certainly tries, but overdoes it; her fake persona is every bit as foul as her real one, and the fact that it's so over the top actually adds to her creepiness.
230* {{Foil}}: With two characters after learning her backstory:
231** Voldemort: Wizard supremacists who hid their Half-Blood parentage (Voldemort killed his relatives; Umbridge's mother "melted back into the Muggle world" with her son after leaving Mr. Umbridge, who blamed their son's powerlessness on her, which seems to be where Dolores got the idea that Muggle-Borns steal magic) and have horrendous ideas about what to do with Muggles.
232** Percy Weasley: Ambitious children of Ministry of Magic worker fathers who are described as "unambitious" (Mr. Umbridge was a janitor who never got a raise or a promotion and didn't seem to care about it) and do their best to rise above their fathers' reputations and their embarrassing families (after he retires, Dolores basically bribes her father with a nice cottage and small allowance to stay out of her life forever).
233* ForTheEvulz: Most of her actions are understandable (though obviously [[DisproportionateRetribution disproportionate]]) when viewed through the lens of her [[MyCountryRightOrWrong fanatical loyalty to the Ministry]], but her imposition of a lifetime Quidditch ban on Harry and the twins is all down to her wanting to [[EvilIsPetty hit them where it hurts]].
234* FoulFlower: Under the Voldemort-controlled Ministry, she produces and distributes an anti-Muggleborn/pro-pureblood propaganda pamphlet, which has on its cover an illustration of a rose with a simpering face being strangled by a scowling green weed. Really subtle metaphor, there.
235* FreudianExcuse:
236** According to ''Pottermore,'' her parents were unhappily married and fought frequently. Her wizard father blamed her Muggle mother for their son being born a Squib and influenced Dolores into turning against them. By the time she was fifteen, her parents divorced, and her mother and brother were never seen again.
237** Her pureblood supremacist beliefs stem from the shame of having a Muggle mother and a Squib younger brother.
238** It's also implied that her [[AmbitionIsEvil hunger for political power]] and [[SadisticTeacher clear enjoyment over tormenting the students]] seems to stem from lingering embitterness from her time at Hogwarts, where she was deprived of the chance at getting a position of power, like prefect or Head Girl.
239* FromNobodyToNightmare: When she started working at the Ministry of Magic, she was just an intern working there long before she became one of the highest-ranking members of the Ministry.
240* GlurgeAddict: As evidenced by her ornamental kitten plates, which Harry finds sickening.
241* GoldDigger: Her backstory reveals she tried to romance various Ministry members (including her bosses) to gain wealth and status but [[FatBitch for some reason]] they never saw her as anything more than a colleague.
242* GonkyFemme: In the books, she's described as squat and toadlike, while also being a glurge-addicted MisplacedKindergartenTeacher who loves kittens and the colour pink. In the movies, the {{Gonk}} part is very downplayed.
243* HateSink: Voldemort has done lots of horrible things, but we can't really hate him since he's an awesome villain with a tragic backstory. We can, however, hate Umbridge [[invoked]] [[RealismInducedHorror for a dozen reasons that make her too close to the sort of people we encounter in real life]]. In ''Order of the Phoenix'', she's shown to be a despicable character which is driven home when she takes over as headmaster of Hogwarts, enacts "Educational Decrees" to limit the authority of the teachers, and mocks the centaurs as half-breeds. She's been compared to [[Literature/ASongOfIceAndFire Joffrey Baratheon]] in this regard. In just about every fan poll of who the worst ''Harry Potter'' villain is, she wins in an absolute landslide. Even ''Creator/StephenKing'' has praised her as one of literature's most horrifying villains.
244-->'''Stephen King:''' The gently smiling Dolores Umbridge, with her girlish voice, toadlike face, and clutching, stubby fingers, is the greatest make-believe villain to come along since Franchise/HannibalLecter. One needn’t be a child to remember The Really Scary Teacher, the one who terrified us so badly that we dreaded the walk to school in the morning, and we turn the pages partly in fervent hopes that she will get her comeuppance… but also in growing fear of what she will get up to next. For surely a teacher capable of banning Harry Potter from playing Quidditch is capable of anything.
245* TheHeavy: While Cornelius Fudge creates most of the problems Harry deals with in ''Order of the Phoenix'', Umbridge is the main enforcer of his will at Hogwarts.
246* HoistByHerOwnPetard:
247** Umbridge enacts several "Educational Decrees" that, among other things, severely limit the authority of the other teachers at Hogwarts. This backfires ''spectacularly'' when the students raise holy hell in rebellion and the teachers don't do anything to stop them because they don't have the authority to do so (although the teachers might be using the lack of authority as a convenient excuse, given that they hate Umbridge just as much as the students do.)
248** Her "I must not tell lies" punishment with Harry has bitten her in the ass twice: when cornered by the centaurs, she begs Harry to tell them she doesn't want to hurt them, and he only coldly responds that he can't because he "must not tell lies" and just lets them carry her off with nary a backwards glance. The second time when she accuses a Muggle-Born Ministry employee of stealing a wand and not being a real Witch, Harry calls her out on her lies, again throwing her words in her face, before zapping the hell out of her with a Stupefy Curse. Suffice it to say, Harry didn't take that punishment well.
249* TheHorseshoeEffect: Umbridge pursues an insanely harsh and fundamentalist interpretation of law and order. In the process, she commits numerous sins while trying to do the Ministry's work, including pride and wrath. By the end of ''Order of the Phoenix'', she ends up becoming the "naughty" person she claimed to oppose.
250* IdiotBall: Surrounded by Centaurs aiming arrows at you... and you ''still'' insult them for being ''"[[FantasticRacism filthy half-breeds]]"''? Dumbledore has to personally bail her out of that one, and [[UngratefulBastard she's not even grateful for it in the slightest]]!
251* IHaveNoDaughter: She grew to despise her Muggle mother and Squib brother, under her father's guidance. After her mother left the family and took her brother with her, she never bothered to contact them again and instead pretended she was the daughter of a wealthy Pure-Blood family to gain further rank in the Ministry of Magic.
252* InformedAbility: She's said to be a skilled Witch on Pottermore, though from what we see in the series, her magical abilities seem to be rather average at best.
253* InsanityImmunity: Slytherin's Locket Horcrux corrupts the soul of anyone who wears it, but her soul is already so pitch-black that it doesn't affect her one bit to the point that she's able to cast a Patronus while wearing it by summoning happy thoughts of torturing people.
254* IronicEcho: In the film adaptation of ''Order of the Phoenix'', Harry uses one against her right before the Centaurs carry her off.
255-->'''Umbridge:''' Tell them, Potter! Tell them I mean no harm!\
256'''Harry:''' I'm sorry, Professor. I must not tell lies.
257* JerkassHasAPoint:
258** Several instances that arguably make her more annoying like firing an incompetent teacher or pointing out that practicing magic in class might be dangerous as her predecessor used forbidden curses on students. [[spoiler:That being said, [[{{Hypocrite}} she later decides to use the Cruciatus Curse on Harry.]]]]
259** She cracks down on Hogwarts teaching standards because she's afraid of Dumbledore, not because she's concerned about the children's welfare. But she's not wrong when she says Hogwarts has a bad habit of hiring incompetents (Lockhart and Trelawney, both of whom were deliberately hired despite this on Dumbledore's part), subpar teachers (Hagrid, at least compared to the much more experienced Grubbly-Plank) and lunatics in disguise (Quirrell, Barty Crouch Jr.) and that someone needs to impose standards.
260** She's not wrong that Sybill Trelawney is not a great Divination professor and also not very good at actually predicting the future -- Dumbledore himself admits all of this and acknowledges that he primarily hired Trelawney to protect her from the Death Eaters, which is the [[UltimateJobSecurity main reason she's still around.]] However, the sadistic enjoyment she takes in seeing Trelawney's grief and distress when she fires her is absolutely revolting.
261** A similar case can be made about Hagrid, mainly due to his [[FluffyTamer attitude]] towards monsters. However, her clear attempts to have him [[DisproportionateRetribution arrested]] as opposed to simply fired is extreme, to say the least. She's also so openly racist against non-humans that her axe to grind likely has more to do with Hagrid being a half-giant than his teaching skills.
262* JerkWithAHeartOfJerk: Umbridge initially appears to be sympathetic and worrying when Harry hesitates after feeling the effects of the Black Quill he is forced to use during one of his detentions. Umbridge, however, claims that deep down, Harry knows he deserves to be punished.
263* JudgeJuryAndExecutioner: Especially in ''Deathly Hallows'', in which she accuses Muggle-borns of "stealing" magic from true mages (which is a load of crap) and feeds them to Dementors. And she ''enjoys'' it.
264* JustAKid: Umbridge views her students as children. In her speech at the start-of-term feast, she addresses the students (who range from eleven to seventeen years old) as though they're toddlers ("And to see such happy little faces looking back at me!").
265* KarmaHoudiniWarranty: Besides being captured by some centaurs and getting chased out of Hogwarts by Peeves when Fudge is forced to admit the truth about Voldemort's return, she gets away with most of her misdeeds in ''Order of the Phoenix''. Never once does she get charged with the ''numerous'' cases of blatant child abuse, abuse of Veritaserum in the movie (which Snape told us in ''Goblet of Fire'' is a heavily-controlled substance) and even participating in an unprovoked attack on both Hagrid ''and'' [=McGonagall=] that left the latter in need of serious medical attention. Pottermore revealed the reason for this was that the Ministry was so busy reorganizing itself to fight Voldemort and the Death Eaters that it got overlooked. She does finally get her first major comeuppance in ''Deathly Hallows'', though; In the movie version she is left at the mercy of Dementors she would use on muggle-born and half-blood wizards after the Golden Trio inflitrates the Ministry to get [[SoulJar the Slytherin Locket]]. And Creator/JKRowling confirms that [[spoiler:after the end of ''Deathly Hallows'', she received a life sentence in Azkaban for her war crimes.... though regrettably, that was after they banished the Dementors from the place]].
266* KarmicButtMonkey: Hogwarts Headmistress Umbridge is subject to an ensemble of pranks thanks to the Weasley twins, other Hogwarts students alike, and Peeves. Later when escorted into the Forbidden Forest, she is dragged away after she calls a pack of centaurs "filthy half-breeds" in their presence. Given her actions and attitude, however, she deserves every bit of it.
267* KnightTemplar: While she's on the side of the Ministry of Magic rather than the Death Eaters, she's one of the most horrible characters in the series.
268* KnowNothingKnowItAll: During her tenure as a DADA professor, it was blatantly obvious that she had neither any idea of nor any interest in defensive magic, she got the job entirely due to Ministry pressure, and her onscreen fight record is two easy losses. She still feels free to patronize and boss around people who could do (or in Harry's case, ''did'' do) her job better than she ever could.
269* LackOfEmpathy: She cares not for the fact that the Black Quill she forces Harry to use during his detention pains him to the point of eventual permanent scarring on his hand. Quite the opposite, in fact.
270* LightIsNotGood: Unlike the Death Eaters, she can summon a Patronus (although, as noted in the seventh book, it had no warmth unlike the heroes'), and unlike the heroes, she is not the least bit impaired by [[SoulJar Slytherin's Locket]], thanks to the fact that what she considers "happy thoughts" are pretty much the exact opposite. To say nothing of her GlurgeAddict status.
271* ManipulativeBitch:
272** It's strongly implied that for having the chance to read Harry's letter she lies to Filch that he is ordering Dungbombs. Also, her general attitude towards Filch is this, letting him have his way in exchange for serving her faithfully, while actually having no respect for him.
273** She reveals that near the end of Book 5 that she was responsible [[spoiler:for ordering the Dementor attack on Harry so that he would perform magic to defend himself, thus giving the Ministry a chance to expel Harry]]. She did it secretly because she knew not even Fudge would go to that extreme to achieve his goals, which [[KnightTemplar she considered soft]].
274** To ensure that those in the student body are loyal to her, she creates the Inquisitorial Squad, a gang of Slytherin students, i.e. Malfoy and his cronies, who spy for her, and, in exchange, they can dock points however they want. This resulted in a colossal drop in House Points of Hufflepuff, Ravenclaw, and Gryffindor, which eventually led to Gryffindor having zero points at the end of the year when [=McGonagall=] returned.
275* MarriedToTheJob: She believes her main job to be "taking care" of Hogwarts's student population and interprets almost everything around her through that lens. At the Ministry of Magic, she is like this as well and relishes when Voldemort takes over.
276* MeaningfulName:
277** ''Dolores'' means "sorrows" or "pains".
278** ''Umbridge'' is a homonym of "umbrage" (outrage, also shade or shadow). The Cambridge Dictionary defines the phrase "take umbrage" as "to feel upset or annoyed, usually because you feel that someone has been rude or shown no respect to you", which is a pretty solid description of how she felt for most of her debut novel.
279** If we consider the ongoing Arthurian legend ThemeNaming of the series, her first name could also be a reference to [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dolorous_Stroke the Dolorous Stroke]]. A wound against the Fisher King caused both he and his land to weaken and wither. Umbridge's attacks on Hogwarts (and Dumbledore himself) turn Hogwarts into a pretty miserable place under her rule.
280** The Traditional Chinese translation goes toe-to-toe with the original English version on the topic of her name being meaningful and reflective of her. Other than giving her a DubNameChange to Dorothy, it transliterates her surname as 恩不里居 (''Ēnbùlǐjū''), which roughly translates to "[[{{Sadist}} kindness]] [[JerkWithAHeartOfJerk does not]] [[HateSink reside inside]]".
281* MildlyMilitary: Umbridge's authority as Headmistress appears to have no limits, as it seems as far as the book's concerned she is the KnightTemplar dictator of Hogwarts. She commands a sizable garrison in the school in the form of the All-Slytherin Inquisitorial Squad and can ban students like Harry from playing Quidditch for life.
282* MisplacedKindergartenTeacher: She initially introduces herself to the school by treating the students rather condescendingly and maintaining a sugary sweet demeanor. This soon becomes more sinister as she reveals herself to be a SadistTeacher (she gives Harry detention by making him [[WritingLines write lines]] in his own blood that cut into his skin), and she becomes even worse when she [[TyrantTakesTheHelm takes over the school]].
283-->"Well, it is lovely to be back at Hogwarts, I must say! And to see such happy little faces looking back at me!"\
284''Harry glanced around. None of the faces he could see looked happy; on the contrary, they all looked rather taken aback at being addressed as though they were five years old.''
285* {{Mundanger}}: What makes Umbridge more terrifying and hated than Voldemort himself: she is essentially a walking embodiment of incompetent, cruel and corrupt authority figures everywhere. It's very unlikely that a regular person would be unlucky enough to cross paths with someone like Voldemort. However, unless you live a ''very'' charmed life, you have met or ''will'' meet someone like Umbridge, whether it's a [[SadistTeacher teacher]], a [[BadBoss boss]], or your government.
286* MyCountryRightOrWrong: Umbridge doesn't care who runs the Ministry so long as she gets to keep her job, though one rather gets the impression that she enjoys enforcing the most ruthless laws more than anything. In the fifth book her devotion to Fudge seemed sincere (and therefore probably her ''only'' redeeming trait), but by the seventh, she's very comfortable with the promotion she's gotten under Voldemort's regime and her previous love of Fudge comes off more in a ProfessionalButtKisser kind of way.
287* TheNapoleon:
288** In the books, she is described as so short, that standing up from a chair makes no difference in terms of her overall length. This is especially obvious during her argument with [=McGonagall=] during Harry's career advice. When [=McGonagall=] stood up, her full-length intimidated Umbridge. When Umbridge stood up as a response, Harry felt it made no difference.
289** In the movies, she's played by the five-foot-tall Creator/ImeldaStaunton and is dwarfed by every other adult character and even most of the students at Hogwarts. In ''The Order of the Phoenix'', she stands on a step to try and look down on everyone during her argument with [=McGonagall=] and only comes up to Snape's shoulders.
290* {{Narcissist}}: She is a textbook narcissist who projects her own narrow-minded ideas into an open-minded school system. Her office is a physical example as it is decorated in her signature color and image. As is typical of a KnightTemplar, she uses self-righteous morality to justify her perceived superiority, such as when she tells Harry that he deserves to be punished.
291* ANaziByAnyOtherName:
292** Umbridge [[BitchInSheepsClothing hides it a bit better]] than the Death Eaters, but she's honestly no better than them. Her main role as Headmistress of Hogwarts in the fifth book is to have her paramilitary force (the Inquisitorial Squad) persecute and keep Dumbledore's Army under their thumb. By the final book, she [[JumpingOffTheSlipperySlope skydives off the slippery slope]] and starts holding a KangarooCourt to persecute Muggle-Born Wizards.
293** In ''The Cursed Child'', Umbridge continues her prejudice streak [[spoiler:and happily tortures Muggle-Borns on the orders of the Augurey.]]
294* NeverMyFault: The one person Umbridge never blames is herself. She never acknowledges her faults and screw-ups, as best shown when she deals with Fred's and George's magical fireworks. In a comedic moment, she berates Argus Filch, telling him to not Stupefy the fireworks, as it causes them to multiply, as if he was the one who had done it when she was the one who did it and despite Filch being utterly unable to use magic as a Squib.
295* NoCelebritiesWereHarmed: Rowling has never hidden the fact that Umbridge is a thinly veiled parody of UsefulNotes/MargaretThatcher.
296* NoSenseOfPersonalSpace: She gets uncomfortably close to Harry at various times, mostly when she is punishing him.
297* NotSoWellIntentionedExtremist: Umbridge insists she's doing what's best for the Wizarding World when really she just wants power for herself and for the Ministry and its corruption to remain as is and never be questioned.
298* ObstructiveBureaucrat: She's a Ministry official who wholeheartedly participates in Fudge's efforts to block the truth about Voldemort's return. During her tenure as a teacher at Hogwarts, she constantly issues decrees that make life harder for the students and teachers in order to have total control over the school.
299* ObviouslyEvil: Despite wearing pink and having the mannerisms of a kindly lady and her own delusions about being a good woman, she treats her students like five-year-olds, has an annoying voice, has a scary demeanor, surrounds herself with the narrow-minded Slytherins, and shows prejudice against anything against her idea of normal. Harry is obviously unsettled as soon as he meets her.
300* OvershadowedByAwesome: Compared to many of the other teachers, she doesn't seem to be very magically capable. When the students rebel against her and make a mess out of Hogwarts, it takes Umbridge all day to clean up messes that would've taken [=McGonagall=] or Flitwick about three seconds.
301* PinkMeansFeminine: Wears fluffy, frilly pink clothes to hide her real nature.
302* PoliticallyIncorrectVillain:
303** Her prejudice against non-humans and half-breeds seems a little shoehorned in just to make her more hateable, but it might have been {{Foreshadowing}} to explain why she so gleefully goes along with the New Order's persecution of Muggleborns.
304** In fact, Rowling gives a bit of insight into her backstory, showing that she's ''always'' looked down on Muggleborns just as much as Half-Breeds.
305** During the third year of Harry's scolarity at Hogwarts, she wrote anti-werewolf laws that make it impossible for werewolves to legally find work, causing further misery for Remus Lupin and reinforcing Harry's disgust for her once he finds out about it.
306* PragmaticVillainy: Despite her prejudice and contempt toward Squibs she's pragmatic enough to recognise Argus Filch's usefulness with his intimate knowledge of Hogwarts and its secret passages, and to make him one of her accomplices by playing on his hatred of students.
307* ProfessionalButtKisser: According to her Pottermore profile, this is how she managed to rise through the ranks of the Ministry in the first place (with also [[StealingTheCredit taking undeserved credit for the work of others]]). She doesn't care who's in charge as long as she remains in a position of power and authority.
308* PsychoPink: Dolores Umbridge not only wears pink but has her office's walls coloured pink and lined with cute kitten-themed decorations upon becoming Hogwarts's Defence Against the Dark Arts teacher in ''Order of the Phoenix''. She's also a thoroughly corrupt SadistTeacher who delights in inflicting cruel punishments upon students and generally abusing her power.
309* PsychopathicWomanchild: In some respects. While she is intelligent enough to at least try to hide it, when pushed even so much as a little, she reveals herself as an overconfident, snot-nosed, petulant SpoiledBrat whose only response to her rule being challenged is to squeal about her apparent authority pathetically. That's not even getting into her sadism and dumping sugar into her tea.
310* PutOnAPrisonBus: As [[https://www.wizardingworld.com/writing-by-jk-rowling/dolores-umbridge confirmed]] by J.K. Rowling herself, Umbridge was taken to Azkaban for her war crimes after the end of ''Deathly Hallows''.
311* TheQuisling: In ''Deathly Hallows''. She didn't need to be Imperiused at all to go along with Voldemort's takeover of the ministry.
312* RedRightHand: Her wand is unusually short. According to Pottermore, a short wand usually chooses a wizard or witch whose character lacks something. In her case, any sort of moral compass whatsoever.
313* SadistTeacher: Another item on the (very short) list of things to call her without resorting to profanity (or trope titles). In the film, she becomes irredeemable when it's revealed that she forces ''first-years'' to use the blood quill.
314* {{Sadist}}: She is ''horrific'' in this regard. It is incredibly obvious that she loves to inflict pain and misery on everyone she can. Her ability to conjure a Patronus literally comes from her happy thoughts of torturing people.
315* SickeninglySweet: Several traits of hers, such as her fluffy pink clothing, her high-pitched girlish voice, and her fixation on {{Cute Kitten}}s and doilies are definitely seen as this InUniverse.
316* SmallNameBigEgo: Though she's a powerful Ministry official she vastly overestimates how much others respect her authority. In the second half of ''Order of the Phoenix'', insults a heavily-armed horde of Centaurs and then tries to stop them from retaliating by emphasising that she's the Senior Undersecretary to the Minister of Magic. The Centaurs aren't impressed.
317* SmugSmiler: In addition to being a SmugSnake and StepfordSmiler, she often shows her overconfidence this way.
318* SmugSnake: Umbridge is highly competent at exploiting the system to get what she wants. Otherwise, she's largely inept, and the best way to deal with her is to put her in a situation where her connections can't get her out (like the middle of a herd of angry centaurs, for example...).
319* TheSociopath: More so in the films. When you take away all of the sugary sweetness, this is what lurks at the core of her being. She has a staggering LackOfEmpathy for the victims of her cruelty, which is to say ''anyone'' put under her jurisdiction, is positively gleeful at the prospect of using ColdBloodedTorture ForTheEvulz, and when she's put under sentencing Muggle-borns and half-bloods, she uses the time to toy with and throw away their lives with the same happy-go-lucky attitude as a particularly sadistic child burning ants under a magnifying glass.
320* SoftSpokenSadist: Her fluttery, girlish, high-pitched voice belies her true nature.
321* StealingTheCredit: Her Pottermore profile notes that she often took credit for other people's works in order for her to rise up within the Ministry.
322* StepfordSmiler: Type C. Her smile is only a façade to hide her sadistic personality.
323* StrawHypocrite:
324** She teaches the students that the Unforgivable Curses are illegal. The Cruciatus Curse, itself an Unforgivable Curse, appears to be one of her favourite spells.
325** For all of her boasts of her strong sense of loyalty to the Ministry, she’ll ''constantly'' break the laws to get what she wants.
326** She hates liars, then goes around lying over who she is to make herself look better to the general public. From lying over her accomplishments to get promoted in the Ministry, her so-called family pure-blood ties, and accusing muggle-born witches or wizards of “stealing” magic. The movie takes this up a notch by begging Harry to reassure the very same centaurs she [[BullyingADragon insulted and strangled via a spell]] that [[BlatantLies she means no harm]]. Having been tortured by Umbridge herself because she accused him of being a liar, [[TheDogBitesBack Harry bluntly tells her]] [[IronicEcho he shouldn’t tell lies.]]
327** During her inspection of Hagrid, she loudly accuses him while writing her notes of not knowing what he’s doing, and of enjoying students being hurt. That's rich from a SadistTeacher who greatly enjoys punishing and torturing her students, and who's inept as a teacher.
328* SugaryMalice: She tortures students but she's very polite about it, in a grandmotherly way. And just ''look'' at all those cute little kittens!
329* TokenEvilTeammate: She's the only one on Fudge's side who remains a jerkass by the end of the fifth book.
330* TooSpicyForYogSothoth: Discussed in the seventh book. Ron speculates that Umbridge managed to open the Locket Horcrux and was possessed by the piece of soul inside it, but Harry dismisses the notion.
331-->"Wouldn't make any difference to her, she was so evil in the first place."
332* TraumaButton: After having been captured by the Centaurs, and rescued from them by Dumbledore, Umbridge has such a fear of Centaurs that anything that sounds like hoofbeats triggers a violent and fearful reaction from her, as shown when Ron fakes a hoofbeat noise with his tongue that causes her to frantically and anxiously rises her head from her bed and look for any centaur while in Hogwarts hospital wing. The mere sight of Firenze at Dumbledore's funeral is also enough for her to get away for a place where she can't see him.
333* TyrantTakesTheHelm: Her horrible misrule follows this arc, with her replacing ReasonableAuthorityFigure [=McGonagall=]. Ex-TropeNamer.
334* UndyingLoyalty: The closest thing she has to a positive trait is her undying loyalty to the Ministry, as when the Death Eaters' takeover ordered the interrogations of Muggle-Borns from all of Britain, Umbridge went as far as to judge the persecuted herself.
335* VillainousBreakdown: She often loses it every time her plans get derailed or when someone questions or bypasses her authority. Examples include:
336** When Harry tells her that he gave an interview to the Quibbler and shows her a copy of it, with Harry giving his detailed testimony of Voldemort's return, Umbridge becomes purple with fury, giving Harry another week of detention, forbidding him from returning to Hogsmeade, and furiously bans everyone from reading the Quibbler and searches for anyone having a copy of it.
337** When Marietta Edgecombe, who had been stealthily hexed with Imperium by Kingsley Shacklebolt, wordlessly denies Umbridge's affirmations about Dumbledore's Army and that they had meetings before, Umbridge loses it and begins to furiously grab and shake her, but she's stopped dead in her tracks when a furious Dumbledore warns her that he doesn’t tolerate anyone harming his students. Shortly after, she turns red with fury and angrily yells for Dumbledore to be taken away after the Headmaster jollily makes it clear that he has no intention of going to Azkaban, though she and the rest of the Ministry are quickly and easily stunned by Dumbledore.
338** Brief but she becomes hysterical and yells for someone to stop Fred and George Weasley when they leave Hogwarts on their brooms after putting a swamp in one of Hogwarts's corridors.
339** During Harry's career advice interview with [=McGonagall=], she loses her smile and all semblance of calm when [=McGonagall=] tells her to her face that Harry had good grades in Defense against dark forces when he had a competent teacher, meaning that she sucks as a teacher,[[note]]For extra insult, by competent teacher [=McGonagall=] could have been refering to just Remus Lupin, a ''werewolf''.[[/note]] and becomes utterly hysterical when [=McGonagall=] keeps contradicting her and defending Harry's chances of becoming an Auror, delusionally yelling that [=McGonagall=] is planning to become herself Senior Undersecretary of the Ministry of Magic after Dumbledore takes over the Ministry, much to [=McGonagall's=] contempt.
340** When confronted by Centaurs, Umbridge quickly loses her composure as the Centaurs make it clear that they don't bow to her authority as a member of the Ministry of Magic, becoming utterly terrified after one of the Centaurs shoots an arrow close to her, after which she totally derails and furiously calls them filthy hybrids, resulting in them capturing and taking her away while she screams hysterically for them to release her.
341* VillainRespect:
342** ''Very'' briefly. Harry notices that she actually looks genuinely impressed when Hermione completely bumrushes through her entire textbook's curriculum in a short amount of time and commits it to her legendary memory.
343** She is unable to find any fault with Professor Grubbly-Plank, who is just genuinely that good a teacher, even when she publicly praises Dumbledore and is forced to give her a pass during inspection.
344* VillainWithGoodPublicity: As a high-ranking and distinguished Ministry official, Umbridge is held in high regard by many, including [[HorribleJudgeOfCharacter Percy Weasley and her boss, Cornelius Fudge]]. Because of this, her [[SadistTeacher child abuse]] and FantasticRacism are either overlooked or ignored.
345* VocalDissonance: Her high-pitched girly voice surprised Harry the first time he heard her speak, as her "frog-like" appearance had left him expecting a croak.
346* WhyDidItHaveToBeSnakes: After her experience with the centaurs in the Forbidden Forest, she develops a litteral phobia for centaurs, with just the sight of a centaur or any sound reminding her of a centaur foot footstep terrorizing her.
347* WouldHurtAChild:
348** She forces the 15-year-old Harry to carve the words "I must not tell lies" onto his own hand so many times that it leaves a permanent scar. In the film of ''[[Film/HarryPotterAndTheOrderOfThePhoenix Order of the Phoenix]]'', we get a shot of a crying boy of eleven or twelve years, implied to have been subjected to the same punishment, and Umbridge commenting, "Naughty children deserve to be punished."
349** She comes ''very'' close to using the Cruciatus Curse on Harry to torture a confession out of him about the secret Dumbledore's Army meetings, justifying it as being for the greater good, and outright slaps him in the face in the film.
350* YouAreWhatYouHate: Umbridge despises Half-Bloods and Muggles. Supplementary material reveals that she herself is a Half-Blood, her mother is a Muggle, and her brother is a Squib.
351[[/folder]]
352
353[[folder:Bartemius "Barty" Crouch Senior]]
354[[quoteright:300:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/barty_crouch_sr.jpg]]
355 [[caption-width-right:300:''"[[IHaveNoSon You are no son of mine! I have no son!]] Take them away! [[PayEvilUntoEvil Take them away and may they rot there!]]"'']]
356-->'''Portrayed by:''' Creator/RogerLloydPack
357-->'''Voiced by:''' Creator/ArturoMercado (Latin American Spanish), Pietro Mário (Brazilian Portuguese dub)
358-->'''Appears in:''' ''[[Literature/HarryPotterAndTheGobletOfFire Goblet of Fire]]''
359
360
361->''"And I trust you remember the many proofs I have given, over a long career, that [[KnightTemplar I despise and detest the Dark Arts and those who practice them?]]"''
362
363The Head of the Department of International Magical Cooperation in the fourth book, and one of the organizers and judges of the Triwizard Tournament. In the First Wizarding War, he was Head of the Department of Magical Law Enforcement and one of the main forces opposing Voldemort. However, he fell from grace in the public eye after sentencing his own son to Azkaban on the charges of being a Death Eater. He was right in doing so, though, as Barty, Jr. really was one of Voldemort's supporters and ends up killing him after using him as a pawn through most of the fourth book.
364----
365* AccidentalMisnaming: He continually refers to Percy Weasley as "Weatherby." This seems odd given that he seems to know Arthur well. Could also be interpreted as EstablishingCharacterMoment, showing that Crouch is a type of man who is doesn't care about his subordinates. To quote Sirius Black about the man, "If you want to know what a mans like, take a good look at how he treats his inferiors, not his equals."
366* AdaptationalNiceGuy: He's ''much'' nicer in the movie version. His apathetic condemnation of his son pleading for mercy is changed to his son openly outing himself as a Death Eater due to Karkaroff's accusations, with Crouch being heartbroken about having to put him in jail. [[spoiler:His abusive custody and mind-control of Barty Jr. is omitted entirely, as is his cruel dismissal of Winky, who has been AdaptedOut.]]
367* AllForNothing: The tragedy and morbid irony behind his character. He dedicated his entire life and career to combating the Dark Arts, but despite his [[KnightTemplar increasingly extreme methods]] helping turn the tide against Voldemort, [[spoiler:none of it mattered. Despite Voldemort's downfall numerous Death Eaters not only remained at large but were able to maintain positions of power and influence while Crouch was shunted into a ceremonial role. His workaholism and lack of attentiveness to his family drove Barty Jr. into the arms of the Death Eaters, and Crouch himself ended up embracing the Dark Arts to break Barty Jr. out of prison. This had catastrophic consequences, as Wormtail and Voldemort eventually showed up to retrieve Barty Jr., who in turn masterminded the plan to return to Voldemort to full strength. Crouch ends up being killed by his son, transfigured into a bone, and being buried in Hagrid's garden while Voldemort would successfully do what he didn't in the First Wizarding War by taking over the Ministry of Magic.]]
368* AntiHero: Crouch Sr. was very much a PragmaticHero or UnscrupulousHero against Voldemort and his forces during the First Wizarding War.
369* AssholeVictim: A downplayed example of this trope occurs towards the end of ''Goblet of Fire''. He ''is'' the reason why his son is a Death Eater, but he showed great remorse for this slightly before his death and was always fiercely dedicated to battling the Dark Side. Averted in the movie, which removes a good chunk of his most negative personality traits.
370* TheAtoner: He becomes this just before [[spoiler:being murdered by his son]].
371* BecameTheirOwnAntithesis: He was a relentless prosecutor of law and justice and was so proud of his incorruptibility that he even sentenced his own son to Azkaban. [[spoiler:Then he breaks the law, and springs his son out of Azkaban, and holds him under house arrest under Imperius Curse for several years out of devotion to his wife, actions which directly cause Voldemort's return to power]].
372* BlueBlood: He and his family have (or, rather, ''had'') a house-elf, which are usually associated with old money in wizarding Britain. After Fudge's Dementor sucks out the soul of Junior, the last member of the family, Dumbledore states that the Crouch family was a very old pure-blood family. The Crouch family has also intermarried with the House of Black at some point and is listed as one of [[https://www.wizardingworld.com/features/who-are-the-sacred-twenty-eight the Sacred Twenty-Eight]].
373* {{Brainwashed}}: He's [[spoiler:put under the Imperius Curse by Voldemort soon after the World Cup.]]
374* BrokenAce: During the First War, he was an incorruptible crusader against the Death Eaters, working tirelessly to combat Voldemort's army and ''succeeded'' in actually gaining the Ministry some ground. He was an intelligent man with an immaculate reputation, had a loving wife and a son who was a star student at Hogwarts. And everyone viewed him as a shoe-in to succeed Millicent Bagnold as the next Minister of Magic. But he was also a completely ruthless workaholic whose brutal methods left a scarred society where innocents were killed and imprisoned, and whose lack of attentiveness towards his son meant that Junior joined the Death Eaters and shocked the Wizarding community with what he did to the Longbottoms.
375* ByTheBookCop: Initially played straight. He tirelessly - if ruthlessly - enforced the law against dark wizards during the First Wizarding War. He's portrayed as extremely straight-laced and a rigid adherent to rules and regulations to the point where he refused to call off the Triwizard Tournament due to the rules surrounding the selection of champions despite the suspicion of Harry's name being mysteriously entered. Subverted by the end of ''Goblet of Fire'' when we discover his dirty laundry involving his son.
376* ClothingReflectsPersonality: Harry very quickly gets his measure when he shows up at the Quidditch World Cup in a very well-put-together suit and tie. It very quickly gives him a strict and professional demeanor and also highlights how strongly he followed the rules about Muggle dress code, both quickly establishing his strict and law-abiding personality.
377* ColdHam: He [[ChewingTheScenery chews the scenery]] a bit more in the films, but it doesn't detract from his uptight, stiff nature.
378* CompositeCharacter: In the film, he also takes the role of Ludo Bagman, who's AdaptedOut.
379* CrazyPrepared: Unlike most wizards who try (and fail) to blend in while in Muggle-inhabited areas, Crouch takes great pains to make sure he doesn't look conspicuous, to the point that Harry believes that not even the sharp-eyed Uncle Vernon could tell that Crouch was a wizard. Even more impressive, most pureblood wizards (of which he is one) usually know very little about the Muggle world and look silly when they try to blend in, so Crouch must have gone out of his way to learn what Muggles look like and dressed accordingly.
380* CreateYourOwnVillain: He was opposed to the Dark Arts but he was also a bad father, so his son turned to the Dark Arts. Barty Crouch Sr., having come to fame opposing Voldemort ends up paving the way for his return.
381* DaChief: He was once Wizarding Britain's chief lawman.
382* {{Determinator}}: [[spoiler:Travels from his home, probably somewhere in England, to Hogwarts, in Scotland, presumably on foot, while fighting Imperius Curse indoctrination the entire way.]]
383* DidntThinkThisThrough: [[spoiler:He gave very little thought to what would happen [[NowWhat after he broke his son out of Azkaban.]] His plan seemed to be to keep an escaped convict at home under Imperius Curse indefinitely and...that was it. All things considered it's impressive that Crouch Jr. wasn't discovered even sooner, especially after Crouch fires the servant that was helping keep his son under control (it takes two weeks ''at most'' from Winky's dismissal after the Quidditch World Cup to Crouch Jr. and Wormtail incapacitating Moody on the night of August 31 to the morning of September 1).]]
384* DisappearedDad: He wasn't all that present in his son's life. Needing a father figure, Crouch Jr. fell in with the Death Eaters.
385* DishonouredDead: [[spoiler:In the book. His son kills him, Transfigures his body into a bone, and buries it near Hagrid's cabin.]] This doesn't happen in the film since Harry [[spoiler:finds his body relatively easily while walking through the forest after the Second Task]].
386* EveryoneHasStandards:
387** Crouch is well-known among his Ministry peers for being a {{Workaholic}} who almost never stops working, but even he thinks Percy Weasley takes work way too seriously.
388** He tears into Amos Diggory for accusing Harry Potter of summoning the Dark Mark. As he points out, Voldemort killed Harry's parents, and the Dark Mark is a living reminder of that. Then Amos accuses Winky, and Crouch Sr. points out that Amos is accusing him by proxy, when Crouch's words and deeds show his fervent hatred of the Dark Arts and Death Eaters.
389--->'''Barty Crouch, Sr.:''' You have now come very close to accusing the two people in this clearing who are least likely to conjure that Mark!
390* TheExtremistWasRight:
391** [[spoiler:Wizarding Britain and the main cast saw him as cruel, cold, and too ruthless for sentencing his own son to Azkaban on charges of being a Death Eater and committing war crimes on fairly weak evidence without hesitation. It then turns out whether or not his son was guilty of torturing the Longbottoms, he absolutely did become a loyal and committed Death Eater at some point who went on to revive Voldemort.]]
392** On a societal level his brutality in waging war against Voldemort and the Death Eaters including authorizing the use of the Unforgivable Curses caused significant collateral damage and led to the imprisonment of innocent people. That said it ''did'' help turn the tide of the war in favor of the Ministry at a time when Voldemort was said to be on the brink of victory.
393* FallenHero: How the public saw him after he sentenced his son to Azkaban. By that point, Voldemort was gone for a couple years, and the Wizengamot had to endure the sight of a nineteen year-old boy being viciously disowned by his father, while his mother cried and fainted beside him. Their attitude towards Crouch, Sr. soured, they thought the reason Junior went astray and fell in with the Death Eaters was because of Senior's neglect, and his popularity was shattered, costing him his bid for Minister of Magic. By the time Harry meets him, he's been shunted into a rather useless posting as the Head of International Magical Cooperation, and no one particularly likes him, save [[ProfessionalButtkisser Percy.]] That said he never actually turned to Voldemort's side or the Death Eaters and fought them to the end.
394* {{Foil}}: To Cornelius Fudge in ''Phoenix''. While Fudge pretends as if everything is fine, is manipulated by his treacherous underlings, and goes along with HeadInTheSandManagement, Crouch is a KnightTemplar who was as ruthless as some of those on Voldemort's side, imprisoned many suspected of allegiance with Voldemort without trial, and was more effective in dealing with Voldemort more than Fudge or Scrimgeour ever were. And as with Fudge, he also fell out of favour with the Wizarding World, but for opposite reasons; Fudge didn't deal with Voldemort until it was too late to prevent anything, while Crouch fell out of favour due to dealing with Voldemort's supporters too harshly. They were also both admired by Percy Weasley, and were both favoured to become Britain's Minister of Magic at one point (Fudge succeeded in his case).
395* GoodIsNotNice: The epitome of this trope. He was an absolutely uncompromising enemy to Voldemort, and the Ministry would have probably fallen without him, but he was also a complete bastard, throwing people in a HellholePrison without a trial, being a HangingJudge in the trials that he ''did'' authorize, and giving the Aurors authorization to use Unforgivable Curses. Even Sirius, who hates the man for [[MiscarriageOfJustice very justifiable reasons]] doesn't outright condemn him as a villain, because for all his faults, Voldemort was always worse and Crouch's methods were effective in keeping him at bay.
396* HangingJudge: Sent Sirius to prison without a trial.
397* HappilyMarried: Barty Jr. claims that his father loved his mother and was a good husband, and he was so devoted to her that [[spoiler:he broke Barty Jr. out of Azkaban in place of his wife, who died in prison in the body of her son's]].
398* HeelFaceDoorSlam: He did a lot of terrible things in the name of the greater good, including sending people like Sirius to prison without a trial and condemning his son without verifying innocence or guilt. [[spoiler:The worst has to be busting his son out, putting him under the Imperius Curse to control him, and brain-damaging Bertha Jorkins, when she found out]]. Eventually, after Crouch Sr. [[spoiler:was put under the Imperius Curse as well, courtesy of Voldemort, he was able to fight it to realize that he gave the Dark Lord the tools for his resurrection and destroyed his family for nothing; Dumbledore needs to be warned. He manages to Apparate into the outskirts of the Forbidden Forest and makes it in time to find Harry Potter and Viktor Krum, who are talking in the privacy of the trees about Hermione. Unfortunately, neither boy is in a state to carry him so Harry tells Krum to wait and goes to get help. By the time Dumbledore comes, Crouch Jr. while disguised as Moody successfully kills his father and stuns Krum, with the latter none the wiser as to who really attacked him]].
399* HeelRealization: In his final appearance, he deliriously admits that everything from his son's fate, to Bertha Jorkins's disappearance, is his fault.
400* HeKnowsTooMuch: [[spoiler:He knows that "Moody" is really Crouch Jr. He is killed by his son before he can warn Dumbledore.]]
401* HeroicWillpower: He was able to walk from his home all the way to Hogwarts, while fighting indoctrination by the Imperius Curse cast by Voldemort himself the entire time. When Harry finds him, he's barely hanging on to his sanity, but the fact that he was able to do that speaks to some immense willpower. The best Harry, one of the very few people shown to be able to resist the Curse, was able to do was a few seconds, and Junior could only manage a few moments at a time. Only Junior having the Marauder's Map so he could ambush and kill him was able to stop him from informing Dumbledore.
402* HeWhoFightsMonsters: His devotion to fighting the Dark Arts leads him to become, in Sirius's words, "as ruthless and cruel as many on the Dark Side".
403* HiddenDepths: What's the one coherent thing he talks about, while completely insane after spending [[spoiler:months under the Imperius Curse]]? [[WellDoneSonGuy His son]], and not how much he hates the boy, but how [[SoProudOfYou proud he is of him]].
404* {{Hypocrite}}: Barty Crouch Sr., who claims to despise the Dark Arts and everything it represents, used a variety of Dark spells and Unforgivable Curses to keep [[spoiler:his back-from-Azkaban son]] under control. That said, he only ever used the Imperius Curse, which he legalized, and the Polyjuice Potion.
405* IDidWhatIHadToDo: Essentially his reasoning for the brutality he directed toward Voldemort's army (and often, innocent bystanders). Even Sirius, who has a deep antipathy for the man himself, admits that there was a legitimate reason for his early popularity; he produced real results against the Death Eaters when no one else could.
406* IdiotBall:
407** The trial with the Lestranges and his son was not Crouch Sr.'s greatest moment. His own wife was a NervousWreck on seeing Crouch Jr. put on trial, and Crouch Sr. showed NoSympathy towards her when she fainted. This made him look cold and uncaring to the public. Plus, as Sirius puts it, there was a possibility that Crouch Jr. was in the wrong place at the wrong time; no one at the Ministry had bothered to confirm or deny if he had actually tortured the Longbottoms when they had Veritaserum and Pensieves. Thus, people thought Crouch Sr. was a neglectful parent who failed to see his son was going astray, and he lost his reputation, as well as his chances at Minister of Magic.
408** Let's just say after putting a lot of effort to ''put'' his son in Azkaban, [[spoiler:Crouch Sr. should have thought through honouring his dying wife's wishes to get Crouch Jr. out of prison and giving him a second chance at life. Rather than say ask for a plea of parole at the trial, or ''something'' better than what he actually did, he breaks the law and his son's mind to honour Mrs. Crouch's LastRequest. This would later lead to Voldemort's return]].
409* IHaveNoSon: He says almost these exact words during his son's trial. He's a good deal more wistful about it in the film, though. That said, when he disowns him in the book, it was after Barty Jr. was revealed to be one of the Death Eaters who [[ThisIsUnforgivable tortured the Longbottoms into insanity.]] He was actually very proud of him beforehand and bragged about his academic accomplishments at the office.
410* InformedAbility: Though we are given a few references to his apparent high magical ability (Sirius refers to him as powerfully magical), we never see him cast anything more than Harry's score in the First Task.
411* KarmicDeath: In the novel, but not the film adaptation.
412* KnightTemplar: Noted by other characters to have used methods no different from Voldemort's in the First Wizarding War.
413* LoveMakesYouCrazy: In "relative" terms, Barty Sr's love for his wife led to a moment of weakness, where he violated the laws he so ardently upheld all his life and [[spoiler:spirited Barty Jr. out of Azkaban, keeping him hostage inside his house, albeit under an Imperius Curse. This action has disastrous consequences since Barty Jr was crucial in bringing Voldemort back to power]].
414* LoveMakesYouDumb: His relationship with his wife clearly blinded him to the near-endless list of things that could go wrong with breaking someone out of Azkaban and trying to hide him from the rest of the world indefinitely. Even prior to Winky being dismissed, Barty Sr. narrowly avoided his son being discovered by arriving home to confront Bertha Jorkins.
415* MarriedToTheJob: This alienated his son from him, which had disastrous consequences for the entire Wizarding world.
416* MasterOfDisguise: As far as Muggle clothing is concerned, anyway; at the Quidditch World Cup, his Muggle disguise is an impeccably crisp suit and tie. Harry notes that Crouch "could have passed for a bank manager; [Harry] doubted even [[FantasticRacism Uncle Vernon]] would have spotted him for what he really was."
417* MinorMajorCharacter: Appears only in the fourth book, long after his GloryDays are passed, but he's an important character in the backstory.
418* MyGodWhatHaveIDone: His final moments, when Harry and Krum find him, has him blurting in delirium about all the terrible mistakes he had done in his life.
419* NeverFoundTheBody: In the books, Barty Crouch Jr. murders his father then transfigures his body into a bone to make it easier to bury. Since Junior then had the Dementor's Kiss performed on him shortly after his confession, his father's body is lost to the Forbidden Forest and most likely will never be recovered.
420* NominalHero: In the novel, he cares more about [[spoiler:protecting his own reputation]] than doing good.
421* NoCelebritiesWereHarmed: He's based on [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enoch_Powell Enoch Powell]], a conservative politician from the 1950s-1980s famous for his [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rivers_of_Blood_speech "rivers of blood" speech]] agains mass immigration. Powell was also extremely authoritarian, just as Crouch Sr. is shown to be in the books. Roger Lloyd-Pack even copies Powell's speech patterns in the film.
422* {{Omniglot}}: According to Percy, he speaks more than 200 languages, including Mermish, Gobbledegook (goblin), and Troll.
423* ParentalNeglect: He didn't care much about his son by the looks of it. Let's face it; if your son thinks Voldemort is a better father than you are, then you've totally failed as a parent.
424* ParentsKnowTheirChildren: [[spoiler:It doesn't take long for him to figure out the truth about "Moody" actually being his son in disguise. This leads to his death because HeKnowsTooMuch]].
425* PayEvilUntoEvil: He gave the Aurors authorization to use Unforgivable Curses on the Death Eaters. You know, the people who killed Muggles for fun. Albeit it's {{deconstructed}}, as his methods are said to have caused collateral damage. Sirius was wrongfully imprisoned because Crouch refused to give him and other people who were suspected of being Death Eaters a fair trial before sentencing.
426* PetTheDog:
427** Unlike most of the Ministry's top officials, he treats Arthur well enough to the point he's on FirstNameBasis with him.
428** He defends Harry against Amos Diggory's accusations of the boy summoning the Dark Mark. Crouch reminds Diggory that Voldemort killed the Potters. He, however, conveniently forgets he was accusing Harry and his friends mere minutes before!
429* PoorCommunicationKills: [[spoiler:While in the throes of insanity, he actually expresses pride in his son's accomplishments. Evidently, if he had just expressed that pride to his actual son, his son wouldn't have fallen in with the Death Eaters.]]
430* PuttingOnTheReich: The film makes him resemble UsefulNotes/AdolfHitler by giving him a toothbrush mustache and a comb-over fringe. Ironically, in spite of this new appearance, [[AdaptationalNiceGuy he's nicer than in the book]].
431* RedHerring: Crouch isn't exactly 'evil' as much as he was WellIntentionedExtremist and ''certainly'' isn't the one responsible for putting Harry's name in the Goblet of Fire. [[spoiler:Turns out his son was behind it all.]]
432* SanitySlippage: He goes a little nuts after [[spoiler:months of being under the Imperius Curse]].
433* SharpDressedMan: To disguise himself as a Muggle, he wears a perfectly crisp suit and tie. Harry thinks to himself that even Uncle Vernon wouldn't be able to tell that he was a wizard.
434* TragicHero: A parallel to his son being a TragicVillain. Crouch Sr. was originally one of the primary heroes who vehemently opposed and fought Voldemort and the Death Eaters in the First Wizarding War and prevented the fall of the Ministry with his dedicated wartime leadership. Unfortunately, his ruthless KnightTemplar personality, methods and [[LoveMakesYouCrazy irrational devotion to his wife]] ultimately led to his own doom and and that of many others with the resurrection of Voldemort he inadvertently made possible.
435* UnwittingInstigatorOfDoom: [[spoiler:By breaking his son out of Azkaban. After Voldemort arrives seeking a follower to help him return to power, Barty Jr. is the one who engineers the plan to kidnap Harry as part of his role in the potion that restores Voldemort to full strength.]]
436* WellIntentionedExtremist: Oh so very much. His whole shtick is that he became just as ruthless and harsh as the Death Eaters he fought against.
437* {{Workaholic}}: Oh, yes. [[WhenYouComingHomeDad This is implied to be a large part of why his son turned out the way he did]]. Also, when he's imprisoned by Voldemort and forced to claim that he's staying home for his health, it's noted that this behaviour is [[OOCIsSeriousBusiness very strange for him]].
438* YouAreWhatYouHate: Despite being well-known for despising the Dark Arts and anyone who practiced them, this didn't stop him from authorizing the Unforgivable Curses against the Death Eaters. [[spoiler:This takes a much darker turn in ''Goblet of Fire'' when it's discovered that he's been using the Imperius Curse on the son he smuggled out of Azkaban.]]
439[[/folder]]
440
441[[folder:Amos Diggory]]
442[[quoteright:300:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/amos_diggory.png]]
443-->'''Portrayed by:''' Jeff Rawle (films), Barry [=McCarthy=] (''Theatre/HarryPotterAndTheCursedChild'', first West End run)
444-->'''Voiced by:''' Ismael Castro (Latin American Spanish), José Sant'Anna (Brazilian Portuguese)
445-->'''Appears in:''' ''[[Literature/HarryPotterAndTheGobletOfFire Goblet of Fire]]'' | ''[[Theatre/HarryPotterAndTheCursedChild Cursed Child]]''
446
447->''"Always modest, our Ced, always the gentleman…"''
448
449Cedric Diggory's father and a member of the Department for the Regulation and Control of Magical Creatures. He is extremely proud of his son, but appears to take it to an extreme by boasting about his achievements and giving Harry a hard time about it.
450----
451* AdaptationalNiceGuy: He's ''much'' nicer in the movie version. He is much more quiet and amicable, does not boast about Cedric in any way and when he meets Harry, he is very pleased and shakes his hand happily and never says anything inappropriate.
452* AmazinglyEmbarrassingParents: Cedric is embarrassed when his father brags about his Quidditch accomplishments in front of Harry. In an unusual variation, it's not just because Amos is boasting of Cedric's win, but also because he is openly belittling Harry in his face while doing so.
453* BigNo: Gives a [[TearJerker heart-wrenching]] one in the film as he kneels over Cedric's body. It currently adorns the TearJerker page for ''Goblet of Fire''.
454* TheBusCameBack: Returns in ''Cursed Child''. His only other appearance was in ''Goblet of Fire''.
455* HappilyMarried: He and his wife were apparently happily married, even when she attempted to calm him during his potential argument with Molly Weasley about Harry's entry in the Triwizard Tournament.
456* JerkWithAHeartOfGold: Despite being exceptionally rude and vain at times, he loves his son and is an honest and fair person.
457* OutlivingOnesOffspring: Outlives his deceased son Cedric who was murdered by Peter Pettigrew on Lord Voldemort's orders.
458* PutOnABus: Left after ''Goblet of Fire''.
459* TookALevelInCynic: While pompous and frequently rude to him, Amos has the sense to understand Cedric's death wasn't Harry's fault and thanks him for bringing his body back in ''Goblet of Fire''. In ''The Cursed Child'', he's come to blame Harry for Cedric dying, presumably due to a combination of old age and Harry refusing to use a Time Turner to change the past and save his son because of what it'd do to the timeline.
460 [[/folder]]
461
462[[folder:Ludovic "Ludo" Bagman]]
463[[quoteright:300:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/ludo_bagman_gof_illustrated_edition.png]]
464-->'''Appears in:''' ''[[Literature/HarryPotterAndTheGobletOfFire Goblet of Fire]]'' | ''[[Theatre/HarryPotterAndTheCursedChild Cursed Child]]''
465
466-->''Portrayed by'': Benjamin Stone (''VideoGame/HarryPotterQuidditchWorldCup''), Unknown (''Theatre/HarryPotterAndTheCursedChild'', first West End and Broadway runs)
467
468->''"If I can help at all... a prod in the right direction... I've taken a liking to you... the way you got past that dragon!... Well just say the word."''
469
470A former professional Quidditch player, and the head of the Department of Magical Games and Sports in the fourth book. He's also one of the organizers and judges of the Triwizard Tournament. A rather easygoing and jovial fellow, he's also a [[TheGamblingAddict gambling addict]] who has bet on Harry to win the Triwizard Tournament, and tries to help him win so he can pay back gold he borrowed to cover his gambling debts.
471----
472* AdaptedOut: He doesn't appear in the film version of ''Goblet of Fire''.
473* BigFun: At first. He's a plump guy full of energy and joviality whose quick to speak to Harry in an encouraging way and liven up the event.
474* BitchInSheepsClothing: Under his bluff, amiable exterior, he has a ''very'' nasty streak that comes out whenever someone demands that he honor his debts.
475** Fred and George confide to Harry that they tried pressing him, in all sorts of nice ways, for the gold they won at the Quidditch World Cup, until he finally snapped and said he wasn't giving them anything, and he'd report them for underage gambling if they didn't stop harassing him.
476** Harry also gets a glimpse of this when Bagman keeps encouraging Harry to accept "help" (i.e., cheat) to win the tournament. Harry says he has ethics, and besides, winning the tournament isn't that important to him, at which point Bagman snaps at Harry to just shut up and let Bagman help him cheat.
477* DumbMuscle: He used to be a professional Quidditch beater and has no end of enthusiasm for his job, but tends to put having a good time before common sense or secrecy. Lampshaded [[spoiler:during the trial that ''almost'' gets him thrown into Azkaban.]]
478-->'''Moody:''' If I didn't know he'd always been a bit dim, I'd have said some of those Bludgers had permanently affected his brain.
479* FixingTheGame: He gives the winners in his betting pool (such as the Weasley twins) leprechaun gold, which vanishes after a couple of hours. He also attempts to give Harry various hints to win the Triwizard tournament and rigs Harry's score as positively as he can.
480* FormerlyFit: He looks like a powerfully-built man gone slightly to seed; this is confirmed when Harry sees him in his Quidditch days via Pensieve.
481* FunPersonified: Or at least attempted to be one. How much genuine he was about it is unclear, since he is trapped by gambling debts for most of his appearance.
482* TheGamblingAddict: All the classical signs of it, including borrowing money to cover his debts, making extremely risky bets to try and win back what he owes, etc.
483* LongBusTrip: He goes on the run after the fourth book to escape the [[AllDevouringBlackHoleLoanSharks goblins he owes money to]] and is never seen in the books again. ''Pottermore'' reveals that [[spoiler:he survived and was eventually able to return to society, as he's seen writing about Quidditch for the ''Daily Prophet''.]]
484* MeaningfulName: "Ludo" is Latin for "I play" or "game", fitting for his athletic career and Ministry position. "Ludomania" is also the technical term for compulsive gambling... and Ludo is up to his eyes in gambling debts.
485* NasalTrauma: Bagman's nose is slightly squashed, which Harry thinks was probably due to a bludger hitting him in the face.
486* NoodleIncident: He gives the Weasleys tickets to the World Cup because Arthur got his brother out of a tight spot for something that’s never specified to do with a magical lawnmower.
487* PointyHairedBoss: Even his personality quirks aside, most signs point to him not being particularly great at running the Department of Magical Games and Sports. He lets the disappearance of Bertha Jorkins go uninvestigated for several ''months'' because he believes it's perfectly in-character for her to get lost and lose track of time, and he doesn't even bother attempting to dress in Muggle clothing at the campsite for the Quidditch World Cup, instead publicly wearing his old sports outfit. The impeccable Crouch Sr. certainly doesn't think highly of Bagman's responsibility.
488* PopularityPower: Bagman was an international Quidditch player who had secured victory for his team in '''every''' match he participated, and thus was as popular as one would expect. During his trial, the jury decided to forego the procedures and proceeded to congratulate his on one of his matches, much to Crouch Sr.'s fury.
489* RedHerring: He's set up as someone who may have put Harry's name in the Goblet of Fire, and is clearly acting suspiciously throughout the book, though for a completely different reason.
490* RunningGag: He spends ''The Cursed Child'' trying to rile up a polite French audience.
491* StillWearingTheOldColors: Bagman is introduced wearing his old Quidditch robes from his days as a beater for the Winbourne Wasps.
492* TrappedByGamblingDebts: His prime motivation.
493* UnwittingPawn: He's implied to have been one during First War for Augustus Rookwood, an Unspeakable who was actually a Death Eater mole. Bagman was put on trial for giving Rookwood information.
494* TheVoice: ''Theatre/HarryPotterAndTheCursedChild'' features Ludo, but only through his booming sports commentary.
495[[/folder]]
496
497[[folder:Rufus Scrimgeour]]
498[[quoteright:300:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/rufus_scrimgeour.jpg]]
499[[caption-width-right:300:"These are dark times, there is no denying."]]
500-->'''Portrayed by''': Creator/BillNighy
501-->'''Voiced by:''' Creator/GeorgesClaisse (European French), Sebastián Llapur (Latin American Spanish), Carlos Gesteira (Brazilian Portuguese)
502-->'''Appears in:''' ''[[Literature/HarryPotterAndTheHalfBloodPrince Half-Blood Prince]]'' (book only) | ''[[Literature/HarryPotterAndTheDeathlyHallows Deathly Hallows]]''
503
504->''"I won't pretend to be your friend, Mr. Potter. But I'm not your enemy."''
505
506Cornelius Fudge's successor as Minister for Magic. Though he's unquestionably more competent than Fudge, he shares with him a healthy dose of distrust for Dumbledore and Harry, and much like Barty Crouch, is harsh in his methods of fighting Voldemort, such as imprisoning people on the mere suspicion of being Death Eaters. He is killed when Voldemort takes over the Ministry, but in his final moments, he refuses to tell Voldemort Harry's whereabouts.
507----
508* AdaptationalNiceGuy: His more negative qualities (his authoritarianism, his [=McCarthyist=] tendencies, his hypocrisy, etc.) are largely not present in the movie universe, and his relationship with Harry is nowhere near as antagonistic.
509* AdaptedOut: Does not appear, nor is he even mentioned, in the [[Film/HarryPotterAndTheHalfBloodPrince sixth film]], though he appears in the [[Film/HarryPotterAndTheDeathlyHallows seventh]].
510* AnimalMotifs: Described as looking like an old lion.
511* BadLiar: He uses the pretext of Percy visiting his family - which the Weasleys are immediately suspicious about - as an excuse to talk to Harry alone with a laughably flimsy excuse that fools nobody.
512* BitchInSheepsClothing: He appears to be a relatively likeable person, but has a dark, harsh side.
513* ChekhovsGunman: He's mentioned in the fifth book by Order of the Phoenix members before taking over as Minister in the sixth.
514* DentedIron: As a result of his career as an Auror. He's described by the Muggle Prime Minister as having a "ravaged" face and walks with a limp.
515** The stress of dealing with Voldemort visibly ages him, even over the course of one year. Harry notes how much older he looks the last time they meet in person.
516* DyingMomentOfAwesome: [[spoiler:He withstands torture by ''Voldemort himself'' and refuses to give Harry away, despite not even liking him.]]
517* EveryoneCallsHimBarkeep: He's never referred to by name in the seventh film, only referred to as "the Minister of Magic".
518* {{Foil}}: Provides a significant contrast to his predecessor Fudge, and quite probably justified in-universe by how far in disgrace Fudge was when he resigned.
519** Unlike Fudge, who reacts to the threat of Voldemort by sticking his head in the sand and doing absolutely nothing, Scrimgeour goes in the other direction and takes an overly hard-line approach to the threat, even going as far as to arrest people on the mere suspicion of being a Death Eater.
520** Fudge seemed to be on friendly terms with Harry and Dumbledore, but when faced with the uncomfortable news of Voldemort's return, Fudge turned on them both and threw them under the bus while pushing a narrative that the two of them were trying to overthrow him. Scrimgeour keeps his high suspicions of Dumbledore and Harry rather than ever be their friend, and more than once attempts to pry into their relationship and plans, only to be rebuffed time and again. Neither of the two of them get along with Scrimgeour, but ultimately, Scrimgeour fights for good, and [[spoiler:dies stone-walling ''Voldemort himself'' while Voldemort attempted to break into his mind to find Harry's location.]]
521* HandicappedBadass: He is described as walking with a slight limp likely due to physical impairment, and he spent most of his career as an Auror. [[spoiler:Even ''Voldemort'', a master of breaking into peoples' minds, was unable to pry information of Harry's whereabouts from him.]]
522* HeroAntagonist: Unlike Fudge, Scrimgeour is doing his best to stop Voldemort's reign of terror. This does ''not'' automatically endear him to Harry, specifically not when it comes to blows between them concerning Scrimgeour's harsh methods or his attempts at rallying the wizarding population together with publicity stunts.
523* HeroicSacrifice: [[spoiler:Voldemort has been known to spare those such as Peter Pettigrew who sell out others to save their own skins. It's implied such an offer might have been extended to Scrimgeour, who nonetheless died before betraying Harry's location. Though being the Minister and previously an auror, he likely would've been killed anyway.]]
524* HeWhoFightsMonsters: While there's no questioning his dedication towards stopping Voldemort, his methods can get pretty awful. Just ask Stan Shunpike.
525* IdiotBall: He was appointed Minister of Magic after it's revealed [[spoiler:that Harry and Dumbledore were telling the truth about Voldemort's return]]. That being said, why doesn't he trust Harry? One would think he would try to befriend him and work together to [[spoiler:stop Voldemort once and for all]].
526* JerkassHasAPoint:
527** His meddling and spying on Dumbledore seems like Fudge-esque paranoia until you consider that Dumbledore IS in fact withholding crucial information that could lead to Voldemort's defeat ([[spoiler:the existence of the horcruxes]]) from Scrimgeour.
528** Later subverted, when it becomes clear that Dumbledore is keeping information from Scrimgeour not just because the latter is a jerkass, but because he knew the Ministry had been infiltrated and didn't want them to know he knew about Voldemort's [[spoiler:Horcruxes]]. And even then, wasting manpower on inspecting Dumbledore's will instead of publicizing the mass breakout helps the Death Eaters out even more.
529* KnightTemplar: Like Crouch before him, his methods of battling Voldemort lead him to cause his own kind of trouble for the Wizarding World.
530* LargeHam: Has the wildest eyes this side of Creator/SteveBuscemi. It's BILL NIGHY!
531* NiceJobBreakingItHero:
532** It's implied that his swift incarceration of Death Eater suspects ultimately helped Voldemort gain more followers by placing the innocent suspects under the Imperius curse while busting his real followers out of Azkaban. Stan Shunpike, who was wrongfully incarcerated by Scrimgeour, turns up on the Death Eaters' side during the Battle of the Seven Potters, seemingly under a spell. Given that he was originally arrested for some joke he made at a bar, it seems unlikely he was already under the curse when Scrimgeour had him arrested.
533** Harry never really liked the man, but might not have hated him so intensely if he hadn't let slip that Dolores Umbridge was ''still'' working at the Ministry, in a high posting, after all the abuse Harry had suffered at her hands, and all the damage she had caused at Hogwarts. In his defence, he never knew about the things she had done, as dealing with Voldemort's return let the details slip through the cracks. After learning this, Harry turns almost immediately cold to him, and is adamantly against him [[spoiler:until he learned Scrimgeour died trying to protect him from Voldemort]].
534* OldSoldier: A veteran Auror, he's described as looking like an old lion. He has a limp, presumably from his fighting days, [[spoiler:and he resists Lord Voldemort's torture before being killed.]] All in all, the guy seems like a poor man's Alastor Moody.
535* OurPresidentsAreDifferent: Mostly Minister Iron, with a few traces of Minister Scheming and Minister Action.
536* PayEvilUntoEvil: Scrimgeour's tendency for this is one of Harry's biggest criticisms of him, especially since it inevitably leads to innocents suffering punishments they don't deserve.
537* PerpetualFrowner: In the movies, he hardly smiles at all.
538* {{Pride}}: Rufus Scrimgeour's TragicFlaw is that he's too proud to ask for counsel.
539* RedeemingReplacement: Unfortunately subverted. While Scrimgeour is committed to fighting the Death Eaters, he is only barely more effective at it than Fudge, and makes many of the same mistakes as he and Crouch did. His one notably better quality than Fudge is to not possess Fudge's [[FantasticRacism favouritism for "wizarding pride."]] As a result, while Fudge kept Arthur Weasley in a low-ranked, low-paying job Scrimgeour quickly promotes him to head an important office investigating dangerous counterfeits.
540* RedemptionEqualsDeath: Harry reacts to his death by [[spoiler:realizing that, although he never liked Scrimgeour and the feeling was mutual, the last act of the Minister's life was likely protecting him from Voldemort]].
541* WhatYouAreInTheDark: [[spoiler:He and Harry almost immediately dislike each other, but nonetheless he refuses to reveal Harry's location to Voldemort even under torture, and pays for this with his life.]]
542* WitchHunt: He turns the battle against the Death Eaters into a borderline version of this, ironically enough, both due to paranoia and to keep up general morale by making the Ministry appear effective at battling Voldemort. This results in people obviously not affiliated with Voldemort, such as Stan Shunpike, getting incarcerated.
543[[/folder]]
544
545[[folder:Arthur Weasley]]
546See Characters/HarryPotterTheWeasleyFamily.
547[[/folder]]
548
549[[folder:Percy Ignatius Weasley]]
550See Characters/HarryPotterTheWeasleyFamily.
551[[/folder]]
552
553[[folder:Kingsley Shacklebolt]]
554See Characters/HarryPotterOrderOfThePhoenixMembers.
555[[/folder]]
556
557[[folder:Pius Thicknesse]]
558[[quoteright:300:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/pius_thicknesse.png]]
559-->'''Portrayed by:''' Creator/GuyHenry
560-->'''Voiced by:''' Armando Coria (Latin American Spanish), Dário de Castro (Brazilian Portuguese)
561-->'''Appears in:''' ''[[Literature/HarryPotterAndTheDeathlyHallows Deathly Hallows]]''
562
563->''"You have nothing to fear if you have nothing to hide."''
564
565A Ministry official who is initially head of the Department of Magical Law Enforcement. He is put under the Imperius Curse by the Death Eaters and made Minister for Magic when Voldemort takes over the Ministry. He participates in the Battle of Hogwarts but is beaten by Percy Weasley, and later by Percy and Arthur.
566----
567* AdaptationalVillainy: In the movie, he has more self-awareness than characters seen under the Imperius Curse, suggesting that he became TheQuisling voluntarily.
568* AmbiguouslyEvil: In the films, it's unclear whether he's under the Imperius Curse like in the books or if he [[LesCollaborateurs willingly aligned]] with Voldemort for power.
569* AuthorityInNameOnly: Particularly horrifying example. He'd normally be the legal Minister of Magic after his predecessor was killed, but he was put under mind control before that. Which means he's essentially a fleshy puppet controlled by someone else, who is in turn following Voldemort's orders. This is why after the downfall of the Death Eaters, his name is simply scrubbed from the list of the Ministers of Magic, under the grounds that he never was one in reality.
570* BeardOfEvil: The film gives him a distinct amount of facial air in addition to his sudden consensual fascism.
571* BrainwashedAndCrazy: Placed under the Imperius Curse by Yaxley and forced to institute a Death Eater regime in the Ministry. He is also forced to fight in the Battle of Hogwarts.
572* CharacterTics: In the film, he is shown frequently clenching and unclenching his fist, possibly struggling against the effects of the brainwashing.
573* CreepyMonotone: Speaks like this in the films, presumably because of the Imperius Curse.
574* DeathByAdaptation: After the destruction of Ravenclaw's diadem, Voldemort ruthlessly kills him in the last film when he distracts the former from his thoughts with an unwelcome interjection. His survival is left ambiguous in the books.
575* ForcedTransformation: Percy transfigures him into a sea urchin, though he is later restored.
576* ImpersonationExclusiveCharacter: The nature of the Imperius Curse means that the Thicknesse we see in canon is essentially [[BlackShirt Yaxley]] speaking through another man's body, and we know very little about the real Pius Thicknesse beyond the fact that he wasn't a Death Eater.
577* MeaningfulName: ''Pius'' is Latin and means, among other things, "devoted to order." ''Pius'' was also the name of several popes, including Pius V (former inquisitor general), Pius IX (under whom the Syllabus of Errors was proclaimed), and Pius XI (under whom the Vatican negotiated concordats with both UsefulNotes/NaziGermany and UsefulNotes/FascistItaly). It's pronounced like, and is related to, the English word "pious." "Thicknesse" is just a slight embellishment of the word "thickness," meaning stupidity and slowness to understand. So you're left with a man named "pious thickness," whose job is to keep up the appearance of leadership while blindly implementing orders from his true masters.
578* MindControl: Victim thereof.
579* PuppetKing: Perhaps the ultimate example, since he's literally just a mindless puppet under Yaxley's spell.
580* TheQuisling: [[BrainwashedAndCrazy Not that he has much of a say in the matter.]]
581[[/folder]]
582
583[[folder:John Dawlish]]
584[[quoteright:300:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/john_dawlish.jpg]]
585-->'''Portrayed by:''' Richard Leaf
586
587A very unfortunate member of the Auror office. He works under the regimes of Ministers Fudge, Scrimgeour and Thicknesse, resulting in various injuries to his persona on many assignments no matter whose side he's on.
588----
589* BlackShirt: When Voldemort takes over the Ministry through his control of Thicknesse, Dawlish continues to work there and do his bidding against the Muggle-borns. It's not entirely clear if he actually supports pure-blood supremacy or if he's JustFollowingOrders, but he becomes an obstacle to the heroes regardless.
590* ButtMonkey: One of the series' biggest. Literally every mention of Dawlish involves him being defeated, outwitted, humiliated or injured in one way or another. To date, he's been defeated by Dumbledore (twice), Hagrid and Fang, Augusta Longbottom, Dirk Creswell (''who wasn't carrying a wand''), and has been placed under a Confundus Charm several times by Order of the Phoenix members.
591* FaceHeelTurn: He continues to work for the Ministry after the Death Eaters take over, even arresting people simply for being muggle-born or to hold family members of enemies hostage. It's possible that he was simply JustFollowingOrders or under the Imperius Curse.
592* FeedTheMole: The Order of the Phoenix uses the Confundus Charm on him to feed misinformation to the Death Eaters at various points. Snape notes that he's "especially susceptible" to it.
593* HateSink: A ministry Drone who doesn't have any likable qualities whatsoever
594* InformedAbility: Dumbledore says he's sure Dawlish is an excellent Auror and that he received an "Outstanding" on all his N.E.W.T.s upon graduating from Hogwarts. However, while Dawlish can be forgiven for losing to Dumbledore, the greatest wizard in the world, he's generally shown as incompetent even when going up against other characters. This might imply he is just not a man of action and more on the bookish side of the things.
595* OvershadowedByAwesome: No matter how competent an Auror he might be, he can't hold a candle to the likes of Dumbledore (in fairness, no one can, but he's a particular example).
596* SmallNameBigEgo: Was certain that he would be able to arrest Dumbledore, a wizard who was known to strike fear in the likes of Lord Voldemort and Grindelwald.
597* UnderestimatingBadassery: Definitely the case with his attempted arrest of Augusta Longbottom. According to Rowling, Dawlish was "punch drunk" on that assignment. Also shown when he thought that he would be able to arrest Dumbledore.
598* TheWorfEffect: His repeated defeats could be considered examples of this, being an auror who achieved "Outstanding" in all of his N.E.W.T.s, but the books and films never show him succeeding at his job.
599[[/folder]]
600
601[[folder:Albert Runcorn]]
602[[quoteright:300:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/albert_runcorn.png]]
603-->'''Portrayed by:''' David O'Hara
604-->'''Appears in:''' ''[[Literature/HarryPotterAndTheDeathlyHallows Deathly Hallows]]''
605
606Albert Runcorn is a massive, deep-voiced man who works at the Ministry. Under Voldemort's dictatorship, he is charged with investigating and persecuting Muggle-born witches and wizards, which makes him a favourite of Umbridge, but an enemy of Arthur Weasley. He is known to have falsified wizards' family trees when he considers them a political enemy. When the Trio infiltrated the Ministry of Magic, Harry disguised himself as Runcorn. In this disguise, Harry finds that many of his allies are being tracked by the Ministry, and he later steals the locket of Slytherin from Umbridge.
607----
608* AmbiguouslyEvil: It is unknown if he actually was all in for the beliefs amongst Voldemort's group. Either way, Yaxley and Umbridge sure seem to be a bit friendly with him, but this isn't revealed to be appreciation for the Muggle-borns he's searched for them or because he's a fellow Death Eater. If this was a case of him JustFollowingOrders, then he is ''really'' successful at his job.
609* BadassInANiceSuit: His movie-only pinstriped suit.
610* BadassLongcoat: His leather trench coat in the film.
611* BeardOfEvil: In the book. In the movie, he's clean-shaven, albeit with some stubble.
612* CharacterTics: In the film while Harry impersonates him, Harry-as-Runcorn walks rather slowly with his feet shuffling and his head bent forward, most likely due to Harry not quite being accustomed to walking around as someone much larger than him.
613* TheDreaded: The majority of his colleagues who do not support Voldemort are terrified of him, especially after he exposed Dirk Cresswell of having forged his birth papers to hide Muggle lineage and thus getting sent to Azkaban.
614* EvilSoundsDeep: Has a reputation as an enforcer for the Voldemort-controlled Ministry and his deep voice is mentioned several times. Harry actually finds this useful while impersonating him, as it's a voice made for barking orders.
615* TheGhost:
616** He never actually appears in the book, only being there to provide someone for Harry to impersonate while infiltrating the Ministry.
617** Averted in the film where he appears twice, albeit briefly. He is first seen when Pius Thicknesse gives his speech in the Ministry of Magic, and then again after he has been rendered unconscious by the Trio.
618* HateSink: While we never see the Real Runcorn (in the Book) what we hear of him is Enough for Harry to feel terrible pretending to be Him.
619* MusclesAreMeaningful: He is described to be powerfully built, and Harry makes use of this while disguised as him, sending opponents flying with punches.
620* PuttingOnTheReich: In the film, his suit and leather coat make him look like a Gestapo agent, fitting his duties.
621* UnceritainDoom: We never hear from him again but !Imposter Runcorn has just let a ton of Muggle Borns escape imprisonment, Voldy would probably not take it well and Yaxley being the Selfish Death-eater he is (and Fellow HateSink) probably won't bother telling him that it was Really a Disguised Harry as that would mean he let HARRY escape.
622[[/folder]]
623
624[[folder:Reginald "Reg" Cattermole]]
625[[quoteright:300:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/reginald_cattermole4.jpg]]
626-->'''Portrayed by:''' Creator/SteffanRhodri
627-->'''Appears in:''' ''[[Literature/HarryPotterAndTheDeathlyHallows Deathly Hallows]]''
628
629Reginald "Reg" Cattermole is a small man who works in Magical Maintenance as a janitor. His wife, Mary, is a Muggle-born witch who is subjected to a show trial on the day the Trio infiltrate the Ministry. Reg Cattermole is impersonated by Ron Weasley, and is unable to attend the trial, but later shows up and takes his family into hiding.
630----
631%%* BeneathSuspicion
632* {{Determinator}}: Even being incapacitated by a Puking Pastille (in the books) or knocked out and stripped down to his skivvies (in the movie) will not stop him from trying to attend his wife's trial.
633* TheDitz: Is not terribly intelligent, but is devoted to his family.
634* {{Foil}}: To Ron. Both of them are wizards who are looked down upon, who are utterly and devotedly in love with a Muggle-born witch, and who look out for their families.
635%%* JanitorImpersonationInfiltration
636* ScrewThisImOuttaHere: He and his wife successfully escape the Ministry in the chaos and take their children into hiding.
637* VomitIndiscretionShot: Averted in the films, but in the books, the effect of the Puking Pastille is described in...graphic detail.
638[[/folder]]
639
640[[folder:Mafalda Hopkirk]]
641-->'''Voiced by''' Jessica Hynes, Creator/ElsaCovian (Latin American Spanish), Priscila Amorim (Brazilian Portuguese)
642-->'''Portrayed by''': Sophie Thompson
643-->'''Appears in:''' ''[[Literature/HarryPotterAndTheChamberOfSecrets Chamber of Secrets]]'' | ''[[Literature/HarryPotterAndTheOrderOfThePhoenix Order of the Phoenix]]'' | ''[[Literature/HarryPotterAndTheDeathlyHallows Deathly Hallows]]''
644
645Mafalda Hopkirk is a short, middle-aged witch who works in the Improper Use of Magic Office. In that capacity, she sends Harry Potter notices on two occasions (''Literature/HarryPotterAndTheChamberOfSecrets'' for Dobby's Hover Charm and ''Literature/HarryPotterAndTheOrderOfThePhoenix'' for a Patronus) warning him about the use of underage magic. By the time of Voldemort's dictatorship, she is still working at the Ministry, and is impersonated by Hermione during the infiltration. Umbridge conscripts her as a stenographer for the show trial against Mary Cattermole.
646----
647* AgeLift: In the books she's implied to be an older woman with grey hair. In the films she appears to be middle aged and her hair still has its color.
648* ChekhovsGunman: Before the 7th book, her only mentions are sending letters to Harry about reports of underage magic. She finally appears in person and as an UnwittingPawn in Deathly Hallows.
649* DirtyCoward: Her appearance in ''The Deathly Hallows'' subtly implies that she's not as much of an eager Death Eater accomplice as someone frightened of their wrath, but even if that is the case, her fear still causes her to accept a posting to the KangarooCourt Muggle-Born Registration Commission and send scores of innocent people to Azkaban.
650* JustFollowingOrders: She doesn’t appear to actually be against Harry, just sending him letters about how admonishing him for underage magic outside of Hogwarts as per wizarding law. Even if she has to send a letter that includes mentioning of destroying his wand, she just has to send it as part of her job.
651* MuggedForDisguise: She's knocked out and impersonated by Hermione via Polyjuice when the trio infiltrates the Ministry of Magic in the 7th book.
652%%* MyRuleFuIsStrongerThanYours
653* PunchClockVillain: She's just doing her job by sending Harry warnings about the use of magic outside of school. Whether or not she's actively malicious is unknown.
654* ReadTheFinePrint: She's quick to recite violations of the rules which are obscurely written.
655%%* RulesLawyer
656[[/folder]]
657
658[[folder:Bertha Jorkins]]
659-->'''Appears in:''' ''[[Literature/HarryPotterAndTheGobletOfFire Goblet of Fire]]''
660
661->''"Listen, I knew Bertha Jorkins. She was at Hogwarts when I was, a few years above your dad and me. And she was an idiot."''
662-->-- '''Sirius Black'''
663
664A PosthumousCharacter in ''Literature/HarryPotterAndTheGobletOfFire''. As a Hogwarts student, she was dimwitted and gossipy. She grew up to work for the Ministry of Magic. While working for Barty Crouch, she learned that his son was still alive and imprisoned in his home; Crouch placed a Memory Charm on her so powerful that it permanently damaged her memory, making her extremely forgetful. She was bounced hopelessly from department to department for years afterwards, ultimately coming to work for Ludo Bagman in the Department of Magical Games and Sports.
665
666Shortly before the start of ''Goblet of Fire'', Bertha Jorkins was captured by Wormtail and horribly tortured/interrogated by Voldemort. From her, Voldemort learned information crucial to his evil plot, including the revival of the Triwizard Tournament at Hogwarts. He even broke through the Memory Charm to learn the fate of Barty Crouch, Jr. This "damaged" her beyond repair and Voldemort subsequently killed her. Her death was the murder used to turn Nagini into a Horcrux.
667
668Throughout the book, the disappearance of Bertha Jorkins is talked about. Ludo Bagman and much of the Ministry assumes there was no foul play involved and that she will turn up alive sooner or later. While the characters don't know what happened to her until the end of the book, the reader does as her fate is mentioned in the VillainOpeningScene.
669
670She appears in the book when Harry sees her sixteen-year-old self in the Pensieve and when her spirit reappears during the graveyard battle.
671----
672* AdaptedOut: She isn't mentioned in the movies.
673* {{Cloudcuckoolander}}: Apparently partially the result of the Memory Charm placed on her by Barty Crouch, Sr. Her memory was actually good before that, at least for gossip. This is also why Bagman isn't concerned about her disappearance for quite a while and he assumes that she just got lost [[OhNoNotAgain again]].
674* ColdBloodedTorture: Was subjected to this by Voldemort during his interrogation of her. We thankfully don't hear the details, but they damaged her mind beyond repair.
675* TheDitz: She is largely this; however, she had a sharp memory as per Sirius. She immediately recognized Peter Pettigrew and put two and two together when confronting him in Albania, requiring Wormtail, in Voldemort's words, to show rare presence of mind in bringing her to Voldemort as an "offering."
676* TheDogBitesBack: Her echo whispers nasty things to Voldemort after ''Priori Incantatem'' summons her along with his other victims. He's genuinely terrified.
677* DramaticIrony: Mentioned as missing frequently throughout the fourth book. The reader knows from the first chapter that Voldemort murdered her.
678* FatIdiot: She was described as being plump and Sirius refers to her as having no brains.
679* {{Gossipy Hen|s}}: At least in her Hogwarts days.
680* LaserGuidedAmnesia: Quite literally. According to Barty Crouch Jr. the Memory Charm his father used on her was so strong, it damaged her brain permanently.
681* LooseLips: Sirius says "she never knew when to keep her mouth shut."
682* TheStoolPigeon: Despite her being a {{Gossipy Hen|s}}, her actual classification under this trope is Lacerated Larry, since the reason she squealed was because she was tortured by Lord Voldemort and Wormtail.
683* TooDumbToLive: As described by Sirius.
684--> '''Sirius:''' She was at Hogwarts when I was, a few years above your dad and me. And she was an idiot. Very nosy, but no brains, none at all. It's not a good combination, Harry. I'd say she'd be very easy to lure into a trap.
685** However, Sirius noted that Bertha had a very good memory and does not accept the rumours that she's forgetful. He noted her good memory was used for nosiness and gossip.
686** This is what ended up killing her. She happened to be in Albania and was eating dinner in the same inn where Peter Pettigrew appeared. Bertha recognized him and wanted to know what a supposed dead man was doing there. Wormtail invited her on an evening stroll to explain everything. Rather than Stun him or run away, Bertha followed him; he overpowered her and delivered her to Voldemort.
687* UnwittingInstigatorOfDoom: Voldemort wouldn't have been resurrected after the Triwizard Tournament if Bertha hadn't followed Peter Pettigrew and subsequently forcefully revealed Barty Crouch Jr.'s survival. Or rather, if she had the presence of mind to stun him at once rather than go on an evening stroll with him.
688* YouHaveOutlivedYourUsefulness: After Voldemort got all the information he could out of her and irreparably broke her mind, he killed her.
689[[/folder]]
690
691[[folder:Amelia Bones]]
692[[quoteright:300:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/amelia_bones.jpg]]
693-->'''Portrayed by:''' Sian Thomas
694-->'''Voiced by:''' Yolanda Vidal (Latin American Spanish), Creator/VeroniqueAugereau (European French)
695-->'''Appears in:''' ''[[Literature/HarryPotterAndTheOrderOfThePhoenix Order of the Phoenix]]''
696
697->''"Those in favour of clearing the accused of all charges? And those in favour of conviction?"''
698
699The celebrated Head of the Department of Magical Law Enforcement.
700
701Madam Bones, having a seat on the Wizengamot, presided over the disciplinary hearing of Harry Potter. She was fair, unlike Cornelius Fudge, the prosecutor, and was astounded by Harry's ability to conjure a corporeal Patronus. She voted for the clearing of all of his charges, and Harry was allowed to leave. A year after, Madam Bones was killed by Lord Voldemort himself during the summer, though she put up a good fight.
702
703Harry's classmate Susan Bones is Amelia's niece.
704----
705* ActionGirl: Not one to be taken lightly; Voldemort goes after her personally.
706* BewareTheNiceOnes: Is apparently so dangerous that ''Voldemort himself'' went after her.
707* DyingMomentOfAwesome: Voldemort came for her personally, and she went down fighting. The fact that she was able to duel Voldemort at all is quite impressive.
708* LockedRoomMystery: Played with. Voldemort murders her in a room locked from the inside, which makes it this trope to the Muggle authorities who find her body; however, the crime isn't a mystery to anyone in the Wizarding World, where a locked Muggle door really isn't much of an obstacle.
709* MinorMajorCharacter: Based on the fact that Voldemort had to put her down personally and still struggled to do so, Bones could be perfectly considered one of the strongest wizards in the entire series; barring Dumbledore, only [=McGonagall=], Slughorn and Kingsley were capable to hold their own against Voldemort, and they were teaming up three-on-one rather than duelling alone as Bones presumably did. However, she receives literally one scene in the series and is barely mentioned otherwise.
710* OffScreenMomentOfAwesome: It's implied that she gave a fight to ''Voldemort'', who had to come personally to kill her.
711* OnlySaneWoman: Of the Wizengamot when Harry was on trial.
712* RankScalesWithAsskicking: A member of the Wizengamot and a fearsome witch.
713* ReasonableAuthorityFigure: She was the head of the people who did not like Fudge bringing Harry before a full court and wished to look into why Dementors were attacking Harry.
714* WorthyOpponent: Normally, Voldemort sends his Death Eaters to kill/threaten people to make them conform or kill them. When Amelia Bones became a nuisance ''he'' went after her ''personally'', leaving himself open to being seen, and apparently she put up a fight before she went down. Evidently, Voldemort considered her dangerous enough to handle himself...
715[[/folder]]
716
717[[folder:Griselda Marchbanks]]
718-->'''Appears in:''' ''[[Literature/HarryPotterAndTheOrderOfThePhoenix Order of the Phoenix]]''
719
720->''"Hogwarts is a school, not an outpost of Cornelius Fudge's office! This is a further disgusting attempt to discredit Albus Dumbledore!"''
721
722The governor of the Wizarding Examinations Authority that runs the O.W.L., N.E.W.T. and W.O.M.B.A.T. examinations.
723----
724* MaliciousSlander: The subject of it for speaking out against Umbridge being made a Hogwarts professor, when the ''Daily Prophet'' publishes an article accusing her of having ties to subversive goblin groups.
725* MiniatureSeniorCitizens: She's described as tiny. No wonder, since she's at least in her 120s during Harry's fifth year.
726* NoIndoorVoice: She's gone a bit deaf during her old age and tends to shout when speaking.
727* ReasonableAuthorityFigure: One of the few Ministry employees who can see through Fudge's increasingly transparent attempts to discredit Harry and Dumbledore.
728* ResignInProtest: Along with Tiberius Ogden, she resigns from the Wizengamot in protest of Umbridge's appointment to Hogwarts.
729* SternTeacher: According to Neville, she has a personality similar to his grandmother and isn't the type of person to give Neville or Draco high marks just because she knows their respective families.
730* WizardsLiveLonger: She is up there with Bathilda as one of the naturally oldest characters in the series. Given that she gave Dumbledore his exams as a kid, this puts her in at least her 120s (probably much older as she already had an important position at the time) but she's still kicking it as of the mid-90s.
731[[/folder]]
732
733[[folder:Dirk Cresswell]]
734-->'''Appears in''' ''[[Literature/HarryPotterAndTheDeathlyHallows Deathly Hallows]]''
735The Muggle-born head of the Goblin liaison office.
736----
737* ArbitraryScepticism: Downplayed, but he continues to hold at least a little belief for some of the ''Daily Prophet'''s lies that [[spoiler:Snape didn't kill Dumbledore]] even while on the run from Voldemort and having a good idea that it's been corrupted. [[note]] Considering that Dirk was a year behind Snape at Hogwarts it's possible that he simply knew and/or liked him during his school days and that is part of why he felt that way. [[/note]]
738* ChekhovsGunman: His name is first mentioned in ''Half-Blood Prince'' as one of Slughorn's ex-students.
739* CunningLinguist: He's able to speak Gobbledegook.
740* DisappearedDad: To his sons, having to go on the run, [[spoiler:then being killed.]]
741* FireForgedFriends: With his fellow fugitives Ted Tonks, Dean Thomas, Griphook and Gornuk.
742* GreatEscape: While being taken to Azkaban he snatches his guard (Dawlish's) wand, stuns him and escapes on the man's broomstick. [[WorfHadTheFlu Although Dawlish was recovering from the Confundus Charm at the time.]]
743* InterGenerationalFriendship: A former Slug Club student who is still in contact with Horace Slughorn and tells him what's going on at work. While on the run he also gets along well with the teenaged Dean Thomas.
744* KilledOffscreen: [[spoiler:He is killed by Snatchers in March 1998, shortly before Harry, Ron and Hermione are captured]].
745* WrongGenreSavvy: He speculates that the Death Eaters have already killed Harry and just covered it up to avoid making him an InspirationalMartyr, which is completely wrong, but not that far-fetched of a theory, and feels like something that could be true if they were in a more convoluted story about the fight against a more subtle and successful dictatorship.
746[[/folder]]
747
748[[folder:Perkins]]
749--> '''Appears in''': ''[[Literature/HarryPotterAndTheOrderOfThePhoenix The Order of the Phoenix]]'', ''[[Literature/HarryPotterAndTheDeathlyHallows The Deathly Hallows]]''
750
751Arthur Weasely's sole assistant in the Misuse of Muggle Artifacts Office.
752----
753* OlderSidekick: He is a loyal friend and subordinate of Arthur Weasely and looks a few decades older than his superior.
754* SpannerInTheWorks: In one of his two in-person scenes in the series, he hurries into Arthur's office with a warning that Fudge has changed the date of Harry's disciplinary hearing. If not for that warning, Harry wouldn't have been able to show up and plead his case and would have been expelled from Hogwarts, just like Fudge wanted.
755* UnseenNoMore: He is repeatedly mentioned in books 2 and 4 before having cameos in books 5 and 7.
756[[/folder]]
757
758!!1920s
759
760[[folder:Leta Lestrange]]
761-->See Characters/FantasticBeastsOthers.
762[[/folder]]
763
764[[folder:Theseus Scamander]]
765-->See Characters/FantasticBeastsOthers.
766[[/folder]]
767
768[[folder:Torquil Travers]]
769-->See Characters/FantasticBeastsOthers.
770[[/folder]]
771
772[[folder:Bob Ogden]]
773-->'''Appears in:''' ''[[Literature/HarryPotterAndTheHalfBloodPrince Half-Blood Prince]]''
774
775A Ministry of Magic employee, Ogden worked in the Department of Magical Law Enforcement. He went to the Gaunt family to inform the Gaunts of Morfin's trial hearing arrangement for his criminal offence, before the events led to him fleeing the house of the Gaunt family and returning with reinforcements to arrest Morfin and his father, Marvolo. Dumbledore tracked Ogden down and convinced Ogden to give him his memory of the aforementioned encounter, which he then kept with him before [[PensieveFlashback showing it to Harry]].
776----
777* AdaptedOut: He doesn't appear in the film adaptation of ''Half-Blood Prince''.
778* AmbiguouslyRelated: He may be related to Tiberius Ogden, a Wizengamot elder, or the makers of Ogden's Old Firewhiskey.
779* AsskickingLeadsToLeadership: He was leader of the Magical Law Enforcement Squad, and more than capable of defending himself against wizard criminals.
780* BigNo: Shouts one at the same time as Harry when he sees Marvolo trying to attack his daughter.
781* BunnyEarsLawyer: Since he doesn't know how to dress to blend among Muggles, he looks silly at first, but Harry immediately respects him when he sees how dismissive he is of blood status and is shown to be a good policeman.
782* ConsummateProfessional: Remained calm, polite, and patient when dealing with the Gaunt family, despite them being extremely rude to him and Morfin shooting a jinx at him that made yellow pus spew out of his nose.
783* HeroicBystander: Attacks Marvolo when the latter is about to attack his daughter with the intent to kill.
784* NervesOfSteel: Showed no fear when facing the clearly mad and dangerous Morfin Gaunt.
785* NoGoodDeedGoesUnpunished: His arresting Marvolo and Morfin eventually leads to [[BigBad Voldemort's]] birth.
786* PosthumousCharacter: He has already died of natural causes by the time Dumbledore tells Harry about him. He appears in his own memory of his visit to the Gaunt shack.
787* ReasonableAuthorityFigure: From what we see of his memories he was a fair, professional agent of the Ministry who calmly dealt with Marvolo's inane ranting, and he intervened to save Merope's life.
788* RummageSaleReject: His attempt to dress as a Muggle consisted of wearing a frock coat and spats over a one-piece bathing suit.
789* ScrewThisImOuttaHere: {{Reconstructed}}. Seeing the male Gaunt family members having their heads too far up their ass to understand the litigations the son was facing, Odgen rose to leave, but not before warning them one last time that Morfin is required and expected to attend his later hearing date or face even further legal proceedings. When Ogden defended Morfin's sister Merope from their father, this caused Morfin to attack him and force Ogden to flee for his life, though he returns soon after with Ministry reinforcements to subdue the crazed father and son.
790* SmallRoleBigImpact: He's introduced in the sixth book and only appeared in it (in a PensieveFlashback, to boot), but his meeting with the Gaunt family and subsequent arrest of Marvolo and Morfin help set the story in motion.
791* UnwittingInstigatorOfDoom: When Ogden freed Merope from the clutches of her abusive father and brother, the first thing she did was drug and rape Tom Riddle Sr. and [[ChildByRape sire]] ''[[BigBad Lord Voldemort]]'' with him.
792* WhiteSheep: His unfamiliarity with Muggle clothing and the presence of other wizards named Ogden suggests that he was a pureblood, but he never showed any prejudice against non-purebloods and refused to let the Gaunt family's pureblood status dissuade him from his mission of bringing them to justice. In any case, if he ''was'' a pureblood, he didn't seem to think it made him above others; when Marvolo Gaunt asked him if he was one (while making his own opinion of non-purebloods very clear), Ogden answered sternly, "That's neither here nor there."
793
794[[/folder]]
795

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