Umbridge: A mean, spiteful, cruel, cold and calculating woman. Was she really that much of a ministry lackey or could she have been swayed to join Voldemort and the Death Eaters?

Thanks to much to mmesnape for this wonderful discussion topic. Now, let's hear your thoughts!

Have fun, but remember to follow SS rules.

I think she can't, even if she's so evil and cunning. She's not cold hearted enough to kill an innocent victim. But she can be their lackey-remember DH?

Hmmm.I'm not sure she could be evil enough to kill without a backward glance.She is certainly into mild forms of torture,like with Harry's hand and the quill,but I think becoming a Death Eater might be a step too far,even for her.
Plus the fact...I don't see someone who loves pink and fluffy cats that much being able to cope with all the black clothes required of a DE.
Having said that she does like having power over people...would she have been able to put up with the strict orders given out by Voldemort? I dont know...

That's not much help to the discussion is it?! Sorry

Ok I CAN SOOOOOOOOO
TOTALLY SEE UMBRIDGE KILLING A PERSON...
SHE IS JUST SSOOOOOOO EVIL!!!!!
I LOVE HER!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
HONESTLY AND TRULEY I WOULD THINK THAT
IF VOLDEMORT WANTED HER TO BE A DEATHEATER SHE WOULD SAY YES!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I actually believe that she would kill for her cause. Remember when she sent the Dementor after Harry in Little Whinging? She wanted to 'eliminate' him so her superiors would stop complaining about him. But she didn't know that Harry could produce a Patronus, she was certain that he would get 'kissed' and that would be the end of Harry's 'Voldemort is back' rhetoric. And how about the attack she organized against Hagrid? Her posse turned on McGonagall and it sent her to St-Mungo's for a long while. How about her hatred of 'half-breeds'? Legislation against werewolves, wanting merepeople to be 'tagged', treating Centaurs as if they were mindless animals. Or the 'Muggleborn Registration act'? She was lording over these people and didn't care what happened to them, did she. Even using Dementors (again) to defend her skin while her court was in session. And the people who were accused (probably falsely too), were rendered defenseless by the removal of their wands.

In her quest for power, her prejudices made her as evil as Voldemort to a certain extent. She had no qualms about torturing people to further her cause, and manipulate her way to a position where she could affect legislative changes that would make her vision of wizard society a possibility, if not, a probability if she wouldn't have been stopped by the Order.

That said, if Voldemort would have made some kind of offer that would effectively give her the power that she craved, she might have gone to the dark side in the wink of an eye.

I think that Umbridge would kill. I see some of the same things in her as I see in Bella. I think she is basically from that same kind of makeup - cruel and calculating.

Darn it, all that I was typing just got lost.


I don't think Umbridge could have been convined to join Voldemort. Although they had the same motives, their means were different. While they both wanted control of the wizarding world, Umbridge's means were enforcing rules and regulations while Voldemort's was blackmailing and sneaking around.

She worked very hard to control the wizarding world through the Ministry of Magic, and I think she wanted to be MoM someday. She was not going to give that up easily. In her eyes, the Ministry was the sole ruler, the legal ruler. She was no better than Voldemort, but she was in an actual position of power: the Ministry. So, she probably saw herself as better off than Voldemort and his vagabands.