Locket and Umbridge

[Matt]

No: HPFGUIDX 173285

--- "Jenni Merrifield" <jenniferm at ...> wrote:
> 5. DISAPPOINTMENTS:
> 
> a. The fact that Umbridge was the ministry worker who 
> took the locket from Mundungus felt a little bit too 
> tidy and contrived.

I had the opposite reaction on that one, because I took Umbridge's
possession of the locket as a potential explanation for a mysterious
loose end from book 6.  Early in HBP, if you will recall, when Harry
does his first week of detentions, Umbridge touches Harry's hand and
his scar hurts as if he were close to Voldemort.  At the time he
worries that Voldemort could be possessing her.  

The implication I took, knowing that she ended up with the locket, was
that she might have acquired it early in book 6, so that by the time
of the detention scene it had begun to possess her, in the subtle way
that it does with the trio in book 7.  In that case, some of
Umbridge's over-the-top evil (beyond the bureaucratic power-mongering)
might be directly attributable to Voldemort, and not just to the
environment that he was creating.

I'd be interested whether anyone else had similar thoughts.

-- Matt