OOP: Is Umbridge a Squib?

[mt3t3l1]

No: HPFGUIDX 67506

Thanks, Fred, for considering my points. Here are some responses: 
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"...which squib in the entire series has ONLY pictures of cats around 
them?"

Until we learned more in OOP, Arabella Figg.

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"When Umbridge teaches Defense of the Dark Arts, she makes sure 
that no spells are actually performed. This makes sense if she 
herself is unable to perform spells."

"It also makes sense as seeing Fudge does not want any of the 
students that DD teaches to be able to fight well enough to threaten 
him. After all, Fudge does think DD is after him abnd his position at 
the MoM."

I can accept both explanations as plausible. Can you see where the 
second one is obvious enough to be a JKR red herring? After all, all 
but the first years will already have had practical training in DADA. 
One year of pure theory in the DADA class will not make Fudge safe. 
And what kind of wizard is afraid of an army of students? 

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"...it seems quite simple enough to me that she likes to deligate 
authority rather than take up her most valuable time doing such 
trivial things."

Even when there is nobody to delegate to, like when she needs 
a "lumos" charm in the Forbidden Forest?

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"It appears that Umbridge was able to use a stunning charm to set off 
Fred and George's fireworks."

"Then she can do magic. As a squib, how would she be able to?"

As I looked at the passage more closely, all I could say for sure was 
that she could shoot red sparks out of her wand. Perhaps that was 
enough to set off the fireworks. 

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"Hagrid's door had burst open and by the light flooding out of the 
cabin they saw him quite clearly, a massive figure roaring and 
brandishing his fist, surrounded by six people, ALL OF WHOM, judging 
by the tiny threads of red light they were casting in his direction, 
seemed to be attempting to Stun him."

The key here is "SEEMED to be attempting." JKR doesn't say six tiny 
threads. Yet, when she describes the stunning of McGonagall, she 
specifies (twice, yet) that McGonagall received four stunners 
straight in the chest. Why the specificity and why the repetition? 
This sounds like a deliberate clue that we are supposed to pick up on.

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"Umbridge did know how to use Veritaserum, she just did not care if 
she killed Harry with an overedose, she just wanted to know who he 
was talking to. This does not make her a squib or someone who forgets 
her potion lessons, but someone that does ANYTHING to get what she 
wants."

I'll grant you that part of it, if you'll grant me that she had no 
idea how Veritaserum is made.

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"There is a character who does manage in desperate circumstances to 
do magic quite late in life, but that is very rare in the world I am 
writing about."

"You already have admitted she has preformed other spells when she 
was not "in desperate circumstances", so what is your rational for 
bringing up the "in desperate circumstances" part? Unless you are 
suggesting that the fire works Fred and George set off were life 
threatening in some way to her, are you?"

I'm not suggesting that the fireworks were life-threatening. I *am* 
suggesting that a Squib may be able to shoot sparks out of a wand, 
especially since that comports with what a squib is in a fireworks 
context, and we know that JKR does not use terminology in a random 
way.

If Umbridge is not the character who manages to do magic quite late 
in life, who is?

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