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Multiple webpages claim that after the events of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, Dolores Umbridge was sent to the prison Azkaban with a life-long sentence. In what interview did J. K. Rowling claim this?

(The sentence isn't surprising, given how she's prosecuted Muggle-born wizards in the Ministry.)

b_jonas
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3 Answers3

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During a Bloomsbury written chat on July 30th, 2007:

What is toadface Umbridge doing now?

JKR: Glad to see you like her as much as I do! She was arrested, interrogated and imprisoned for crimes against Muggleborns.

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Orlahm
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    Did she tell lies to get out of it? I smell Irony! – Steven Wood Apr 08 '14 at 13:27
  • @StevenWood I don't think so. If you read the whole transcript, you'll find that she tends to make rather short answers with some comments when the question allows it. If you are talking about Umbridge, I wasn't there to see her threatened by the magical cops. Yet I love the idea of a lamp in her face and the cop saying "We've got ways of making women talk"... – Orlahm Apr 08 '14 at 13:56
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    Perhaps they could have used a certain quill and told her to write "I must not murder muggles" :-) (also I think you mean "Ve Haff Vays of Making you Talk!") – Steven Wood Apr 08 '14 at 14:20
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    @Vrashnak - ways of making "women" talk, really? The implications of your comment are kind of ugly, I don't think Rowling was talking about a Gestapo-style interrogation or that she would "love" such an idea. – Hypnosifl Apr 08 '14 at 14:23
  • @StevenWood I firstly wrote the comment that way, but then I thought that it's not because this line is said with a tough accent in French that it is in other languages. Concerning the quill, I wonder if you can re-enchant it in order to wound other parts of the body. That'd be great (well, you understood what I meant). – Orlahm Apr 08 '14 at 14:23
  • @Hypnosifl I wanted to quote the line right, but it was "men" and not women, and Umbridge technically speaking being a woman... Talking about those type of considerations, there's this question http://scifi.stackexchange.com/questions/15382/what-happened-to-umbridge-when-she-was-carried-into-the-forest-by-the-centaurs?rq=1 that comes with quite the same thing. – Orlahm Apr 08 '14 at 14:26
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    @Vrashnak - OK, I didn't realize you were quoting a movie line, I had only heard the line "we have ways of making you talk" which is apparently a misquote of that movie, though along with the other examples at http://www.totalfilm.com/features/the-20-most-misquoted-movie-lines it seems to be one of those misquotes that's become more popular than the original. As for the centaurs, if Rowling really intended to imply Umbridge got raped (with the main characters making jokes about it) that would be an ugly implication too, though I'm not totally sold that this was she meant. – Hypnosifl Apr 08 '14 at 15:00
  • @Hypnosifl don't worry, you are not the first one who doesn't know the original movie. My father was a big fan of this one, that's why I know about it. – Orlahm Apr 08 '14 at 15:02
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    "We have ways of making you talk" is a correct quote, but from Hogan's Heroes, where Col Hogan responds that Col. Klink has been watching too many movies. So, maybe a real quote of a character misquoting? I've never thought of the original movie, always Hogan's Heroes when hearing that line. – PoloHoleSet Aug 01 '16 at 21:34
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In addition, this information was confirmed by Umbridge's story on Pottermore posted in 2014:

With the fall of Lord Voldemort, Dolores Umbridge was put on trial for her enthusiastic co-operation with his regime, and convicted of the torture, imprisonment and deaths of several people (some of the innocent Muggle-borns she sentenced to Azkaban did not survive their ordeal).

lfurini
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DVK-on-Ahch-To
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In The Cursed Child's alternate universe however,

DOLORES UMBRIDGE: Miss? I’m Professor Umbridge, the headmistress of your school, I’m no “Miss.”

We see she doesn't have quite the sticky fate her real world counterpart came to.

Himarm
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    Note this question has others being closed as dupes asking generally what happens to Umbridge after deathly hollows, so slightly side topic on this question, but answers multiple duplicates. – Himarm Aug 01 '16 at 20:02