'You know your place in the sky, you hold your course and your aim… and each in your season, returns and returns, and is always the same!'
Alain Boublil and Claude-Michel Schonberg – Stars, from the musical Les Misérables
Everyone at the Ministry of Magic liked to think of the Senior Undersecretary to the Minister for Magic as a toad, and an evil one at that.
However, the Senior Undersecretary begged to differ. You see, Dolores Umbridge had always liked order in things. Even as a young witch, she would organise her books in alphabetical order by author surname, her robes would be folded neatly in her wardrobe, she would always know exactly where she had put her wand. It made her feel very secure.
She did not like things to change. If she had misplaced her quill, instead of simply reaching for another, she would search until she had found the offending writing implement. If there was a spelling error in her assignment work, she would start over. If even one of her immaculate curls was out of place, she would not leave the dormitory until each one was perfectly arranged. (This had caused her lateness for several classes, including Transfiguration. She had incurred detentions for each one. She had never quite forgiven Minerva McGonagall for that.)
Her adult life had also been ruled by order and structure. She was not ignorant; she knew of the dangers which were posed by He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named and his Death Eaters. There were reports of murders every other day, after all. This was why she wanted control. Amidst uncertainty, she only wanted things to remain constant. This made her more able to crawl into her safe haven and to ignore the war raging outside her office door.
But in the end, even she could not deny that things were changing, and tides turning. The thought of being swept away terrified her.
Yes, she may have been an evil toad, but she had only been that way to shield herself from the world and from fear and from change.
She was Senior Undersecretary to the Minister for Magic, but she was also only human. Dolores Umbridge would often wonder why no-one understood that.