Dolores Umbridge's wand was 8"[1] long, made of birchwood with a dragon heartstring core. The wand length was considered "unusually short" by wandmaker Garrick Ollivander, indicating something was lacking in the owner's personality.[2]


Umbridge 002

Dolores Umbridge holding her wand

Umbridge was capable of performing rather advanced magic with her wand, including nonverbal spells[3][4] and Conjuration,[5] for example.

This wand was destroyed during the Skirmish in the Forbidden Forest, when it was snapped cleanly in half by a Centaur's hoof in 1996, when Umbridge was carried off by a herd she offended. Harry Potter tried to retrieve it right after she dropped it, but it was snapped before he could reach it.[5]

Umbridge acquired a new wand later, and it was with this wand that she conjured her cat Patronus to ward off the Dementors in the British Ministry of Magic, as she sadistically prosecuted innocent Muggle-borns, when she was the Head of the Muggle-Born Registration Commission.[6]

However, this wand was likely taken away when she was sent to Azkaban.

Behind the scenes

  • According to Pottermore, abnormally short wands (8 inches and under) tend to belong to people who are "lacking" in personality, as there are many short witches and wizards with average sized wands.
  • This wand being made of Birch wood is a reference to the practise of birching, a corporal punishment where a victim is beat with a birch rod, clearly being symbolic of Umbridge's cruelty towards her students when she worked at Hogwarts, and use of physical torture with her Black Quill.


Notes and references
