Re: Umbridge's Selwyn Connections (WAS: CHAPDISC: DH - Ch. 21 – The Tale of the

[Carol]

No: HPFGUIDX 183089

Goddlefrood:
> >
> > Umbridge claims relation to the Selwyns when we meet her in the
MoM earlier in DH, one of the Death Eaters at the Lovegood house is a
Selwyn, hence the link. Her nephew? Brother-in-law? Something
> > else?
> >
> > Sickening though it is to think that the toad might have been married.
> 
> Potioncat:
> I don't think she's currently married. Her simpering on about Fudge
indicated an interest that was more than political. The Selwyn
connection was brought up to support her own Blood status, and I'm
certain there are some Muggle connections a bit too close to home. So
I suspect the Selwyns are on her mother's side--or else her father's
maternal side. They must be close enough for favors, at any rate.

> Debbie:
> Umbridge related to the Selwyns?  I thought she was lying through
her teeth because, as Potioncat says, her Muggle connections are a bit
too close to home.  Her response to Hermione/Mafalda is full of lies
-- the locket is not a family heirloom, and the S does not stand for
Selwyn, just as her interrogation of Mary Cattermole, which
immediately precedes it, is full of accusations Umbridge knows full
well are not true. So why should the Selwyn connection be true?
> 
> I think the most likely inference is that Umbridge purchased this
old relic in a pawnshop and made up a story to go with it that panders
to those currently in power.  She may have even deliberately sought to
purchase something she could use to build a story around.  Note that
she says she's related to the Selwyns; if the relationship was close
enough for her to know the Selwyns I think it's more likely she would
have claimed that she *is* a member of the Selwyn family.
> 
> It's not so different from her behaviour in OOP, where she referred
to Fudge as "Cornelius", implying a relationship closer than just his
undersecretary.
> 


Carol responds:
Although I can't disprove what you're saying here, I see the situation
differently. I don't think that even Umbridge would dare to boast
openly of a connection with the Selwyns, one of whom is a DE, if it
weren't true, nor would she have any kind of connection with Lucius
Malfoy, as she clearly does in OoP (which implies that she's a former
Slytherin given the students she recruits for the Inquisitorial Squad)
if she were Muggle-born. I think we're deliberately shown Selwyn twice
(in "The Seven Potters" and "The Deathly Hallows," IIRC) if we weren't
supposed to notice him and connect the two when Umbridge herself
brings up the connection. (BTW, she didn't get the locket in a pawn
shop; she took it from Mundungus as an alternative to sending him to
prison. I think she saw that it was Slytherinish, not to mention
valuable, and I think that the "S" being for Selwyn must have popped
into her mind at the time as a plausible explanation for her wearing
an initial that was not her own. Her fellow MoM officials, including
the DE Yaxley (the brutal-faced DE from the tower in HBP who is trying
in the first chapter of DH to impress LV and oust Snape from the
position of right-hand man), who is sitting right next to Umbridge
when they interrogate Mary Cattermole, seem not to question the Selwyn
connection.

How did Umbridge get Mad-eye Moody's eye if she didn't have a rather
close connection to a DE, the logical candidate being Selwyn? I don't
think it was Yaxley; he'd have taken it for his *own* office. And it
can't be the wandless Lucius, now completely powerless and out of
favor with LV and the MoM.

As for Umabridge's reference to Fudge as "Cornelius" ("What Cornelius
doesn't know won't hurt him"), she's about to go behind her boss's
back to use the Cruciatus Curse on Harry. In any case, as the Senior
Undersecretary to the Minister, not to mention the High Inquisitor and
the Headmistress of Hogwarts (at least in the Ministry's eyes), she's
a very powerful official who would naturally see herself as Fudge's
near-equal. (Besides, IMO, she's been pulling strings behind his back
for some time, not only sending those Dementors without authorization
but apparently stirring up Fudge's fear of Dumbledore's supposed
intention to seize power, fanning the flames of his panic and making
sure that he believes DD to be a liar and Harry to be deluded and
unstable. We know as far back as OoP that she has connections with
Lucius Malfoy, and either he or Selwyn may well have told her that LV
has been resurrected, in which case her indoctrination of the students
(LV's return is a "lie") and her failure to teach them practical DADA
is both what it appears to be in OoP (a bid for Ministry power at
Dumbledore's expense) and undermining of the school by someone in
league with the Death Eaters.)

I don't suspect her of having any sort of crush on "Cornelius" or him
of liking her in any sort of romantic way. (Gag!) I suspect her and
her ally, Lucius Malfoy of manipulating Fudge in OoP, one through
bribes and the other through psychology. I'm not sure that he ever saw
through her, or that Rufus Scrimgeour did, until it was too late and
the MoM had been infiltrated by DEs (at which point, Scrimgeour had
only a short time to live).

As for how Selwyn might be related to Umbridge, I'm sure that she's
not married, but I suppose that he could be her brother-in-law (her
sister's husband). More likely, since we don't hear of any sister, 
he's a cousin on her mother's side.

I hate to say it, but it's like a certain Half-blood *Prince* playing
up his mother's side of the family, if only to himself.

Carol, who suspects that Umbridge was yet another Half-blood Slytherin
with a Witch mother and Muggle father and that her mother's maiden
name was Selwyn