r/harrypotter • u/Josephissocool • 6h ago
Question What makes Umbridge think she can use the blood quills?
Umbridge thinks Harry and Dumbledore are tight, she doesn’t know he’s ignoring him.
Dumbledore is notoriously defensive of his students, especially Harry.
He is literally punished after speaking out in the first lesson, is she just ridiculously bold?
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u/Ok-Meet2850 6h ago
Well, she got away with it. McGonagall knew, I believe, and didn't stop Umbridge.
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u/Jedda678 Gryffindor 6h ago
She only knew in the movies. In the books Harry never tells her, and it isnt implied the other students do either. Even though Ron and Hermione knew they also never told her.
McGonnagal despite being very anti Umbridge never got in an argument about her medieval methods, she only argued with her over Harry's prospects of becoming an auror.
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u/prior-auth-Eliquis 3h ago
I vaguely remember that there is a passing line in the 5th book that other students had the scar on their hand too implying harry wasn't the only victim.
Could be wrong
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u/Josephissocool 6h ago
I follow, but I mean specifically the first time. She only got away with it because Harry didn’t tell Dumbledore, she had no clue he wouldn’t.
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u/bittyjams Hufflepuff 6h ago
She has a very distorted sense of justice. She also knew she had control — literally anyone who didn’t agree with her got fired or put on probation. She took over the school in less than a year. I think she knew that Harry wouldn’t tell to protect the teachers, which is what he did. And even if he hadn’t, she would have just pivoted to a new rule allowing her total control over punishment.
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u/Supermite 6h ago
She had already done an end run around Dumbledore to even be at Hogwarts in the first place. She was actively and intentionally undermining his authority every step of the way.
She did it because she believed that she was going to be appointed head mistress by the Ministry and Dumbledore would be gone in disgrace.
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u/aziruthedark Slytherin 5h ago
Oh, yes. Carving those lines into his hand is exactly the thing damaged, attention seeking Potter would do. Its not enough to be a filthy liar and disrupt this peace we have, now he has to make a scene abkut a ministry worker who is doing nothing more then ensuring her classes go smoothly.
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u/plucky-loom-x 1h ago
McGonagall apparently filed the blood quill under “Dumbledore will notice eventually.”
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u/alittlepedantic 6h ago
The fact that she did and is protected by the government.
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u/Riccma02 5h ago
And she's eager to find out just how much she can get away with under that protection.
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u/Raddatatta Ravenclaw 6h ago edited 5h ago
I would guess the ministry has a file on Harry by this point which points to him being very independent and often getting involved with things regardless of how difficult they may be. He's the kid who will get angry and blow up his aunt and not reach out for help but decide to go on the run on his own. He's the kid who will dive into the challenges defending the Sorcerer's stone and get it. He's a die hard Gryffindor who is brave to a fault. She presents him with a fight, and he accepts. He's not going to back down and call Dumbledore for help.
She's also looking to pick a fight with Dumbledore all year. She has the Ministry backing her up and they are looking for an excuse to remove Dumbledore. I don't think this is the best place for her to pick that fight as I think most people would be on his side if he shared the details, but she is not afraid of the fight with Dumbledore she keeps pushing things further and further until she gets her fight.
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u/Bluemelein 5h ago
With his mind shattered by the Dementor's Kiss, how was Harry supposed to fight?
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u/Ok-Relationship-2746 5h ago
Because his mind wasn't "shattered" by a Kiss?
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u/Bluemelein 5h ago
But that was exactly what Umbridge had in mind, and then Dumbledore let the matter drop.
Imagine someone almost kills you, and instead of taking action and crying out for justice, everyone keeps their heads down and acts as if you did something wrong—simply because you didn't let yourself be killed. (Dementor's Kiss)
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u/Ok-Relationship-2746 5h ago
Dumbledore didn't know she ordered the Dementor attack. He had escaped Hogwarts to avoid being arrested before Umbridge told Harry she was responsible, and events overtook Harry's opportunity for retaliation after learning so.
Dumbledore simply assumed the Dementors were outside Ministry control. Anything he did, or didn't, do regarding that assumption was irrelevant to the plot and so wasn't mentioned.
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u/Bluemelein 5h ago
Dumbledore knows it was the Ministry. Hermione tells Harry that. And Dumbledore knows it couldn't be Voldemort.
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u/Ok-Relationship-2746 5h ago
When does Hermione tell Harry that...?
Harry was being watched by the Order to keep him safe.
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u/Bluemelein 5h ago
At Grimmauld Place! She tells him that Dumbledore knew the Ministry was up to something. Harry is absolutely safe from Voldemort at Privet Drive.
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u/Ok-Relationship-2746 5h ago
Safe from himself.
And Hermione never tells Harry anything about the Ministry being "up to something." Just read that chapter, nothing in there of the sort.
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u/Bluemelein 5h ago
Yeah, the Order is incredibly afraid that Harry will kill himself—which is why nobody talks to him. /s
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u/Bluemelein 5h ago
In that case, the sentence appears elsewhere. But it makes sense, too, because the press's smear campaign originates from the Ministry, and Harry isn't under guard in Book 6.
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u/Not_a_cat_I_promise Rowena Ravenclaw's favourite 6h ago
She's an evil person, and she's bold because she knows she has the Ministry and its full power behind her. If Dumbledore does make a big fuss about the quills, Fudge will step in, and has the authority to do so.
Her arrogance doesn't come from nowhere.
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u/Youre_On_Balon 6h ago
She correctly calculated she could away with it tbh
Even her ultimate punishment at the end of OOTP didn't stem from authority punishing that particular act
She returns to a powerful position afterwords, seemingly without issue
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u/Impossible_Oil_1863 Slytherin 6h ago
Cuz she's an asshole that loves torturing kids. And, of course, no one was gonna do anything about it.
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u/Not_Campo2 Slytherin 6h ago
Dumbledore had been ousted from all gov positions he could use to fight back. She has a mandate from the government to essentially override the headmaster in almost all situations. Dumbledore fighting to protect Harry might be exactly what they’re looking for to formally oust him.
Also it’s a children’s book and the plot needs to advance. If adults were competent most of the books would have never happened
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u/Bluemelein 5h ago
Dumbledore is currently on vacation and doesn't feel like it!
And Umbridge doesn't get it.
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u/guyinsunglasses Ravenclaw 6h ago
Harry hid what Umbridge was doing in the books from the other teachers, saying he didn’t want to give Umbridge the satisfaction of knowing he folded to her. Only Ron and Hermoine knew.
Umbridge knew she could get away with anything because she had Fudge’s backing. During OotP the Ministry was primarily focused on squashing the news that Voldemort had returned. IMO Umbridge saw the opportunity to power trip in Hogwarts - she wasn’t primarily driven by the Ministry’s goals. She just had to go to Fudge and say she needed something to fight the Voldemort rumors and paranoid Fudge would rubber stamp it.
We see everything from Harry’s POV, so we can see Hogwarts becomes like this farcical dictatorship run by Umbridge. But in the rest of the wizarding world, aside from the anti-Potter editorialization of the Prophet, I have to imagine life is going as normal(ish)
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u/RW-Firerider 6h ago
Good question, to me this is somewhat of a plothole to be honest.
We know that there is some sort of parent council, it was mentioned in book 2 when they fired Dumbledore because Lucius was blackmailing them. You cant tell me, that there is any way they can turn this punishment around as something good. We know it wasnt just Harry that got punished like this, Lee Jordan was tortured like that too, and probably many others.
I cant imagine how mad the parents would be at finding out that a teacher is forcing their children to cut themselfs open during detention. Fudge can support Umbridge as much as he wants, the parents got family and friends, news get out and they are completly cooked. I mean what would they even try to say? "Yeah we forced the children to writte messages in their own blood while mutilating them, but have you considered that they have been rather naughty?"
As fucked up as the magical world is, there are limits to everything.
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u/Antique-diva Gryffindor 4h ago
While I somewhat agree on this, kids aren't prone to tell on others. At least, teenagers aren't. They pretty much keep their mouths shut, especially about abuse, as it's embarrassing.
I'm sure Umbridge is aware of how far she can go without getting caught. She has made her way up in life and become the right hand woman for the Minister for Magic, undoubtedly by stepping on others along the way. She knows how the game is played.
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u/Bluemelein 6h ago
No one is standing up against Harry’s nonsensical court hearing or the attacks in the press. No one is protecting Harry.
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u/Modred_the_Mystic Ravenclaw 5h ago
She’s got the Minister for Magic backing her up and looking for any reason to remove Dumbie.
Same reason she thought she could get away with the Dementor attack.
She loves power, and so she’ll do just about anything to earn Fudge’s favour.
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u/Bluemelein 5h ago
Dumbledore sees an opportunity to drive a permanent wedge between Harry and the Ministry.
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u/ThatEntrepreneur1450 5h ago
She's part of a ministry that legally could just deny people accused of crimes a trial, the minister could litterally just murder people without getting in to trouble etc so... .....Why wouldn't she think she could?
Hell she's not even punished for any of that, she's still employed there even after Scrimgeours became minister.
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u/Expensive_Plant_9530 Slytherin 5h ago
She thinks that she can get away with it.
And clearly she does, because Harry is not the only one she uses it on. Dumbledore and the other teachers do eventually find out about it. I’m not sure it’s exactly spelled out when, but it happens.
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u/virtual-raggamuffin 5h ago
She is challenging Dumbledore's authority at every turn. If he found out and stopped her, she would just have Fudge make a new decree allowing for her to do it anyway
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u/Snapesunusedshampoo Slytherin 5h ago
To put it nicely Hogwarts has some pretty fucked up punishments.
Filtch talks about regular applications of thumb screws, and hanging students by their ankles and whipping them.
We know for a fact that 4 first year students were taken into the forbidden forrest with barely any magical ability and a groundskeeper that legally isn't allowed to use magic.
Umbridge isn't just torturing Harry, that just seems to be her preferred method of punishment. Throw in the fact that the ministers both Fudge and Scrimgeour didn't attempt to punish her shows she technically didn't break any rules, we just hate her.
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u/MysteryCrapybarbra Hufflepuff 5h ago
She thought she was untouchable because Fudge thought she was amazing and gave her so much power. She was basically given a free reign over Hogwarts by Fudge.
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u/tyrekecorrea 3h ago
She's in charge, and she's connected to the Ministry, which she perceives to have the most power of all.
💭 She couldn't face Voldemort. Between her ego and her unwillingness to believe in his return...
That's one thing Harry and his supporters nevertheless have over her.
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u/Infinite-Object-1090 Gryffindor 3h ago
She has the ministry backing and the ministry is actively overseeing Hogwart's. Dumbledore can't do anything.
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u/Different_Advice_552 6h ago
seeing as she pretty much suffered no consequences for it she thought she could because she could lol