J.K. Rowling treated her Harry Potter fans with a new essay that offers insight into the odious Ministry of Magic employee-turned-Hogwarts professor Dolores Jane Umbridge.

J.K. Rowling On Dolores Umbridge

Rowling’s, story, which can be read in its entirety on her fansite Pottermore.com, details how Dolores rose from being a child of uninspiring parents to the heights of the Ministry of Magic. Dolores did not grow into a merciless woman in her later years; she was always duplicitous with her evil saved for those she felt most deserving.

“Even at seventeen, Dolores was judgmental, prejudiced and sadistic, although her conscientious attitude, her saccharine manner towards her superiors, and the ruthlessness and stealth with which she took credit for other people's work soon gained her advancement,” wrote Rowling.

Embarrassed about having a muggle-born mother and a father who had worked as a janitor for the Ministry of Magic, Dolores lied to her colleagues about her parentage. While she succeeded in bullying people into believing her made-up ancestry, Dolores was less successful in convincing a man to marry her. Her toxic personality, which included a loathing for muggles that the most anti-muggle wizard found disturbing, scared viable suitors and friends away.

“As she grew older and harder, and rose higher within the Ministry, Dolores's taste in little girlish accessories grew more and more pronounced,” according to Rowling. “Her office became a place of frills and furbelows, and she liked anything decorated with kittens (though found the real thing inconveniently messy).”

After Dolores' stint as the Inquisitor at Hogwarts in which she let the reins loose on her sadistic nature, she eventually returned to work at the Ministry under Rufus Scrimgeour. Because Scrimgeour employed her, Harry Potter was wary of the minister and as Rowling points out, “Dolores is the only person, other than Lord Voldemort, to leave a permanent physical scar on Harry, having forced him to cut the words 'I must not tell lies' on the back of his own hand during detention.”

After the death of Lord Voldemort, Dolores finally faced justice and was convicted for her crimes against muggle-borns, which included torture and murder.

In addition to the story, Rowling also offered some insight on the creation of the character of Dolores Umbridge, who was inspired by judgemental and bigoted teachers Rowling had that had a love for all things twee, and kitten knick knacks.

As for the character's name: “'Dolores' means sorrow, something she undoubtedly inflicts on all around her. 'Umbridge' is a play on 'umbrage' from the British expression 'to take umbrage', meaning offence. Dolores is offended by any challenge to her limited world-view; I felt her surname conveyed the pettiness and rigidity of her character. It is harder to explain 'Jane'; it simply felt rather smug and neat between her other two names.”