harry potter - Did Dolores Umbridge Have Any Association with Voldemort (or Death Eaters) before His Return?

I noticed that Dolores Umbridge was born during the first Wizarding War, so it's very likely she wasn't a Death Eater then (but she is pretty evil -- who knows?). After that Voldemort was not around in a way that could affect many people, and most wouldn't know he was planning to rise again.

During that time, and up through Voldemort's return (in Goblet of Fire), did Umbridge have any connection with the Death Eaters or with Voldemort? Was she doing what she did on her own, or was it because of an association with Voldemort or his allies?

Answer

Dolores Umbridge was definitely not a good person. However, as Sirius points out, "the world isn't split into good people and Death Eaters". Remember that he also says that he doesn't believe Umbridge to be a Death Eater, but that she's evil enough (or something like that). I think there are two strong reasons to believe that:

• Umbridge was proud to do everything according to the law, except when she tried to use an unforgivable curse on Harry, and she was quite mad at the moment and justified herself by saying that the Ministry wouldn't have to know. That said, I think she enjoyed punishing anybody and everybody who deserved it (according to her book), as long as it was within the law.


• Also, she was all for the government: the official version of a story is always the true version, the Ministry is always right, the government does not make mistakes, kids always lie, etc.

Put these two facts together and you have what happened when Voldemort took over the Ministry: as soon as it was allowed to punish people for being muggle-born, she started doing it--and enjoyed it. The same happened with the educational decrees when she was at Hogwarts.

If the Death Eaters would have been established as an official, government-approved movement, she would probably have joined it the first day it was legal to do so.