Hermione is Umbridge

[Kia]

No: HPFGUIDX 92978

A while ago I run across an old interview of JKR (I run across 
only one, but she said it twice 
(http://www.the-leaky-cauldron.org/quickquotes/articles/2000/100
0-nbc-couric.htm  
http://www.the-leaky-cauldron.org/quickquotes/articles/1999/109
9-pressclubtransc.html )) in which Ms Rowling stated (jokingly I 
presumed): If she had known how problematic the 
pronounciation of Hermione would be, she would have called 
her Jane. (paraphrasing.)

I went... "Jane"?? (and instead of thinking "Jane Austen" - which 
is the closest guess one would wager with Rowling and her 
Austen idolisation) I went "Didn't I hear that name in OotP?" And 
of course it is in OotP: it is our least favourite character's name: 
Dolores Jane Umbridge (not Rowling's though - Isn't that 
strange that she likes Vernon less than Umbridge?)


So I pondered how Rowling could even consider giving her most 
sadistic character Hermione's alternative name and I pondered 
and mulled over and meditated... until I realised that nothing is 
more uninteresting than a speculation based on something that 
is said jokingly and I abandoned my line of thought.


But then - to my delight - our dearest Joanne answered a 
question after Ron, Ginny and Hermione's middle names with: 
"Middle names: Ginny is Molly, of course, Hermione 'Jane' and 
Ron, poor boy, is Bilius." (Link: 
http://www.the-leaky-cauldron.org/JKRWorldBookDay2004.html)


I leave Bilius and Molly to other people for now and concentrate 
on the fact that Umbridge and Hermione share the same middle 
name. Jane. 

Both Hermione and Umbridge like rules. They like to enforce 
them. They like having the power to enforce them be it through 
prefecture or being a High Inquisitor. They like to break them, if 
they deem it necessary, being by trying the Cruciatus on 
students or leading teachers to an almost certain death. Both 
have a sadistic or at least cruel streak - Umbridge and her quill, 
Hermione and her parchment. Both are not above blackmail. 
Both are not above abusing their power. Both do what they deem 
necessary to do to keep the world the way they want it. Both are 
ruthless. Both are followers - to a degree at least. 

They carry each other's middle name deservedly. The real 
difference between them besides looks, age, conscience and 
other "unimportant" details (Yes, I am sarcastic.) is that they are 
on opposing sides and Hermione's side is the one, we 
sympathise with.

If Pansy Parkinson or even Cho Chang had been responsible for 
"The Marietta Incident", we would have hated Pansy or Cho for it. 
Fandom would have them tarred and feathered. 
But as this is darling Hermione, we are talking about and 
Marietta would have gotten our heroes in much trouble.... we are 
not thinking in tar and feathers and I suspect Rowling doesn't 
want us to.


So how is Hermione Umbridge?

Uhm, I think this might be a bit of an unpopular answer but I don't 
think Umbridge is evil. No, she ain't gonna be redeemed either, 
but she isn't Voldemort. She is the representation of "Law and 
Order" gone wrong. Umbridge is bureaucracy without a 
conscience, laws without the sense for exceptions, justice 
without the concept of mercy, punishment without forgiveness. 
(Sorry for the flowery metaphors, I was listening to a Bjork song 
while writing this.) That is evil on a completely different level. It's 
evil, but it's also very normal, very human in its inhumanness. It's 
something you encounter much more often in the real world than 
Voldemorts. I am rambling, sorry.

Anyway it's cruel and sadistic and wrong, but it's hard to call it evil 
in the same way one would call Voldemort evil. It's not the same 
thing, at least not in Harry Potter. Evil is Voldemort. Umbridge is 
ruthlessness. Umbridge is sadism. Umbridge is cruelty. 
Umbridge is the lack of compassion. Umbridge is selfishness. 
Umbridge is hunger for power. Umbridge is everything we 
identify as evil or ingredient for evil, but she isn't Voldemort. The 
difference between her and Voldemort is the intention. Umbridge 
believes that she can do good, that she is doing good, that what 
she does is constructive, that she is the epitome of morality. 
What stops Umbridge from being evil and what keeps her 
human is her belief that she does good. Her morality is totally 
screwed up, but if you screw up your eyes and read OotP 
upside-down, you might realise how - from her point of view - 
she is doing the right thing and nothing but the right thing. And 
you might also see how she believes that the means justify the 
ends.

And now if get your eyes and your book back to normal, read 
Hermione and you'll see that she also believes that she is doing 
the right thing and that the means justify the ends. She isn't 
using the Cruciatus -- yet, but I do not doubt for a second that if it 
was doable for Hermione to do so and it appeared necessary to 
her, she would use it in a heart beat.

Umbridge is exactly how Hermione could be. 


And might will be.



Kia