Empty Vessels, Dolores Umbridge, PG-13

[lazy_neutrino]

Title: Empty Vessels
Author: lazy_neutrino
Fandom: Harry Potter
Rating: PG-13
Warnings: cruelty to a cat
Prompt: 53) Moral cowardice that keeps us from speaking our minds is as dangerous to this country as irresponsible talk. The right way is not always the popular and easy way. Standing for right when it is unpopular is a true test of moral character. --

Comments

[lareinenoire]

Oh, this is utterly creepy -- really, as any story about Umbridge should be. The vivid detail of that poor kitten and the origin of that awful cat plate collection is just shudder-inducing. I do love how deliberate Umbridge is here, how perfectly in order and in control, just as she is in canon. This in particular:

An iced biscuit, perhaps? Not yet, she told herself. It was so easy for a witch alone to let herself go and slip into indiscipline. An iced biscuit when the letter had been sent, but not before.

This is so perfectly Umbridge.

[lazy_neutrino]

Thank you! I find her a really horrific character.

[a_t_rain]

Poor kitten! Somehow, it makes sense that this would be where those plates came from -- and the letter is wonderfully unctuous, as it should be.

[lazy_neutrino]

The story came from the plates, to be honest - a throwaway comment 'But how did the kittens get into the plates?' and there was the whole ghastly thing.

[a_respite]

This was excellent. And so very, very creepy indeed. Hair on the back of my neck stands up reading it.

[lazy_neutrino]

Thank you!

[gehayi]

Poor kitten! Of course that's where the plates come from, and of course that's Umbridge's solution to adulthood and independence--make sure that neither ever happen

[kellychambliss]

Fine story! You've captured Dolores as perfectly as she captured the poor kitten. Such a clever and believable and chilling explanation of the source of the kitten plates. And I love the callousness of your "flipped" in the final paragraph and the spot-on voice of the letter.

You remind me very effectively of the educational horrors in Dickens -- as that character from Hard Times (Mr. M'Choakumchild?) says to the children, "Never wonder!"

Sadly, the Doloreses of the world are far too common -- much more so than the raving evil madness of Voldemort. The Umbridges are far more insidious and dangerous because they can be so plausible and because they believe their own justifications so thoroughly. (And as gehayi says, the rest of the wizarding world isn't blameless, either.)

In time it would adjust.

Ouch!