20 best movie villains of all time

Dolores Umbridge (Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix)

Dolores Umbridge might be the biggest villain in the entire Harry Potter franchise, second only to the Dark Lord himself. She uses her position of power to silence people trying to make a difference and those who are spreading the truth about Voldemort’s return. She never shows any remorse for her actions, and she’s ruthless to everyone she comes in contact with, from the students to the other teachers and even Dumbledore.

Dolores Umbridge worked for the Ministry of Magic and is introduced in Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix. She’s short, stout, and is extremely fake in her demeanor. She is said to look like a toad, but has a love for frilly, girly things like anything fluffy and pink, kittens, and sweets. But she is far from a sweet, old woman. She talks down to everyone, and she is always sure that she is right and everyone else is below her.

The Ministry sends her off to Hogwarts to take over the Defense Against the Dark Arts professor position to ensure that students are only learning defensive magical theory. She never gives the student practical lessons where they can try out the defensive spells out of fear that Dumbledore is training his students like an army to overthrow the Ministry.

Umbridge is eventually appointed the first “High Inquisitor” of Hogwarts, meaning she has power over the students, teachers, and curriculum, which obviously leads to trouble. She tries to fire Professor Trelawney, she butts heads with McGonagall, and she later deposes Dumbledore when he admits to forming an army in an effort to protect Harry from getting expelled.

Harry and Umbridge immediately clash too, even though she’s cruel to all her students. As a punishment, she has Harry write lines with a quill that uses Harry’s own blood as it carves out the word onto his hand, making him forever scarred with the phrase “I must not tell lies.” She uses cruel spells to torture students to make them tell the truth and even gives them truth serum to get information from them.

The scariest thing about Umbridge as a villain is that she is a person in a position of power — and she has the entire government on her side. Sounds a bit familiar these days, doesn’t it?