The Hogwarts Headmasters and Headmistress

A. Dilys Derwent

Dilys Derwent is a fictional character in the Harry Potter series. Derwent was a healer at St Mungo's Hospital for Magical Maladies and Injuries from 1722-1741, and headmistress at Hogwarts from 1741-1768. Dumbledore describes Derwent and another former headmaster, referred to only as Everard, as "two of Hogwarts's most celebrated heads" in Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix. She has a portrait hanging in St Mungo's as well as Dumbledore's office and can travel freely between them.

Dilys and Everard are engaged in the search for Arthur Weasley by Dumbledore because they are famous enough to have portraits in other buildings: St Mungo's and the Ministry of Magic, respectively.


B. Armando Dippet

Armando Dippet was the Headmaster of Hogwarts during the time that a young Lord Voldemort, Tom Riddle, who was a student, opened the Chamber of Secrets. This caused a student, Myrtle, to die during Dippet's Headship.

Dippet refused to let Tom stay at the school during the summer holidays. This was seen by Harry Potter through a memory in Tom Riddle's diary. Dippet ceased being Hogwarts Headmaster in 1955; it is unknown if he resigned or died. Dippet then became a portrait in the Headmaster's office, which allowed him to regularly discuss matters with other former Headmaster portraits and the current Head. He was suceeded by Albus Dumbledore, the Transfiguration teacher.


C. Albus Dumbledore

Albus Percival Wulfric Brian Dumbledore is a character in J.K. Rowling's Harry Potter series - the headmaster of Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry and one of the most powerful wizards in the world. Being benevolent, slightly eccentric, and powerful, he resembles an archetypal good wizard in the style of Merlin or Gandalf. He is often sympathetic to Harry Potter's difficulties, and, as such, occasionally allows the young wizard more leeway than he would with others. He is also the only wizard Lord Voldemort ever feared.

The name Albus is from the Latin word albus ("white"), a frequently used symbol for good; "Dumbledore," which means "bumblebee," was picked by the author because she imagines him humming while strolling along the halls of Hogwarts.

In the movie versions of Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone (2001) and Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets (2002), Dumbledore was played by Richard Harris, who died in 2002 of Hodgkin's disease. In Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban (2004) and Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire (2005), Dumbledore is played by Michael Gambon.


Early life and career

Comparatively little is revealed about Dumbledore's early history or family. At the time of the series, he is (according to an interview by Rowling) about 150 years old, meaning he entered Hogwarts around 1851, being sorted into Gryffindor House. His brother, Aberforth, was prosecuted for "practising inappropriate charms on a goat," may be illiterate, and (as confirmed by Rowling) is the bartender at the Hog's Head Inn in Hogsmeade. Dumbledore's extraordinary magical talents were apparent from an early age, as later described by the elderly Griselda Marchbanks, Head of the Wizarding Examinations Authority, who had personally examined the school-age Dumbledore for his NEWT exams in Charms and Transfiguration. Marchbanks recalled that the young Dumbledore had "done things with a wand I'd never seen before."

Some time after his graduation from Hogwarts, he returned to the faculty as Professor of Transfiguration, and in this capacity also served in recruiting students for the school. He identified Tom Marvolo Riddle and offered him a place at Hogwarts, glimpsing the true nature of the boy who was to become Lord Voldemort. His keen observations of Riddle's student years led Dumbledore to influence Hogwarts' headmaster, Armando Dippet, not to offer Riddle a faculty position.

In 1945 Dumbledore defeated the dark wizard Grindelwald. As J.K. Rowling confirmed, Grindelwald and his followers are meant to be the magical-world analogues of Adolf Hitler and the Nazis.

Dumbledore also held the posts of Chief Warlock of the Wizengamot, and Supreme Mugwump in International Conference of Wizards. He was a Grand Sorcerer, and was awarded the Order of Merlin, First Class. He was removed from the aforementioned posts during his conflict with the Ministry of Magic under Minister of Magic Cornelius Fudge about the return of Voldemort and subsequent requisite actions; he was reinstated however when the ministry was forced to see their own error.


Dumbledore and the Rise of Voldemort

It was to Dumbledore that Sibyll Trelawney, subsequently appointed as professor of Divination, revealed the prophecy regarding Voldemort's fall.

Dumbledore was instrumental in the struggle against his former student, working tirelessly against him with the Order of the Phoenix. When Harry's parents, James and Lily Potter, were killed by Voldemort, it was Dumbledore's decision to place the now-orphaned Harry in the safekeeping of Vernon and Petunia Dursley, knowing that Harry would be protected by the special magic caused by his mother's sacrifice.

Throughout the series Dumbledore is portrayed as a wizard with modern/reformist ideas about pure-bloodedness and the rights of Muggles, part-humans, and non-humans. Dumbledore does not give importance to the so-called "purity of blood" and believes that an individual's choices reflect his character rather than his birth, blood, or family, saying "it matters not what someone is born, but what they grow to be." Voldemort angrily refers to Dumbledore as "champion of commoners, muggles and mudbloods.". Unlike most wizards, Dumbledore is not afraid of speaking Lord Voldemort's name.

Dumbledore makes the important discovery that Voldemort is trying to achieve immortality through the use of Horcruxes, one of which was Tom Riddle's diary, destroyed by Harry in Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets. Dumbledore himself destroys a second Horcrux, and is killed after being weakened by attempting to find a third.


Dismissal from Hogwarts

Dumbledore was twice dismissed from his position as Headmaster, the first time during Harry's second year at Hogwarts, when Lucius Malfoy persuaded the school's twelve governors to remove him in the wake of attacks by a basilisk on people in the school. He was subsequently reinstated, after Harry killed the basilisk and Lucius was found to have started the attacks.

In Harry's fifth year, Dolores Umbridge was appointed by the Minister of Magic, Cornelius Fudge, to oversee activities at Hogwarts, after Dumbledore and Harry tried to convince the wizarding world that Voldemort had returned. Harry and other students organised a club called "Dumbledore's Army" to learn defensive magic. Umbridge discovered the club and used it as an excuse to dismiss Dumbledore as headmaster. Dumbledore was reinstated after Voldemort launched an attack on the ministry of magic.


D. Everard

Former headmaster of Hogwarts whose portrait now hangs in the headmaster's office. Everard is particularly famous and as a result his portrait hangs in many famous wizarding institutions, including the Ministry of Magic. Everard is a sallow-faced wizard with short black bangs.

E. Fortescue

Red-nosed, corpulent Wizard. Fortescue was at one time a Headmaster of Hogwarts. His portrait hangs in the Headmaster's office.

F. Phineas Nigellus

Phineas Nigellus Black, more commonly known as Phineas Nigellus, is a fictional character in the Harry Potter series. Great-great-grandfather of Sirius Black, Nigellus is considered to be the least popular headmaster Hogwarts has ever had. Nigellus' portrait hangs in the headmaster's office along with the portraits of the other ex-headmasters and headmistresses.

Like the other portraits, Nigellus helps the current headmaster. He does not enjoy doing this. He does not get along well with his great-great-grandson, young people or most people for that matter; however, he did seem somewhat upset to find out Sirius, the last male Black, was dead, for either purely dynastic or emotional reasons. He, along with Ginny Weasley, is unusual in being a character who openly criticises Harry Potter's often selfish behaviour in Order of the Phoenix.

"Nigellus" means "little Black", in Latin, so "Nigellus Black" makes little sense unless either Phineas Latinized his name or the Nigellus family Anglicised theirs fairly recently.

J.K. Rowling's choice for his first name is also a meaningful one. In the bible Phinehas, grandson of Aaron, is a high priest who kills two lovers because they belong to different ethnical groups. His example has been used to justify attacks on interracial couples over the centuries. This corresponds to the Black family motto.


E. Dolores Umbridge

Dolores Jane Umbridge is a fictional character in the Harry Potter series of novels by J.K. Rowling.

Umbridge is a short, squat woman resembling a large toad. She often wears a black velvet bow in her hair that reminds Harry of a fly about to be caught. She has a high, girly voice that Harry describes as sounding like poisoned honey. The name Dolores has the Spanish word dolor, or pain, as its root, and the name Umbridge is pronounced the same as umbrage, meaning resentment or pique at an often imagined insult. Another similar sounding word which fits in well with Umbridge's position is umpirage, derived from umpire, denoting someone who arbitrates between two parties or an official who enforces rules in a sports game (i.e. a referee).

When Umbridge first appears in the books in Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix she holds the position of Senior Undersecretary to Minister of Magic Cornelius Fudge, and acts as one of Harry's interrogators in the Wizengamot, a wizard's court, when he is tried on charges of breaking the ban on underage sorcery. (It is later revealed that Umbridge herself ordered the Dementors to attack Harry, causing him to use magic for self-protection.)

Umbridge is installed at Hogwarts as the new Defence Against the Dark Arts professor by order of the Ministry of Magic, teaching according to the Ministry's highly restricted and pared-down curriculum.

Her power gradually increases as she is soon appointed the first ever "Hogwarts High Inquisitor", in which position she is given extraordinary powers over the students, teachers and curriculum. Umbridge creates an Inquisitorial Squad, which rewards some students for reporting on others and sanctions them to act as enforcers of Umbridge's rules. She uses a very cruel and unusual punishment on Harry, forcing him to write magically with his own blood from the back of his hand. She probably got the idea for this didactic torture from the story "In the Penal Colony" by Franz Kafka.

After Dumbledore leaves Hogwarts, Umbridge is placed there as Headmistress. However, the Headmaster's office refuses to open for her, and her time as Headmistress is characterized by both active and passive rebellion on behalf of most of the student body and the professors alike.

Umbridge is severely injured and traumatised at the end of Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, when she is tricked into entering the Forbidden Forest where she insults a group of Centaurs, calling them "filthy half-breeds", and is nearly killed. Very soon afterwards, Dumbledore is reinstated in his position as Headmaster and Umbridge is seen fleeing the school, pursued by Peeves the Poltergeist.

In Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince it is revealed that Umbridge still holds a position at the Ministry of Magic under the new Minister for Magic Rufus Scrimgeour, but the nature of the position is not revealed.


F. Minerva McGonagall

Headmistress Minerva McGonagall (born October 4, ca. 1925)[1] is a fictional character in the Harry Potter series of novels by J. K. Rowling. McGonagall is played by Maggie Smith in the films.

She is the Headmistress, Head of Gryffindor House, and Transfiguration teacher at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, where she began teaching in December, 1956. McGonagall considers Transfiguration to be the most complex and difficult branch of magic. She became Acting Headmistress of Hogwarts after Albus Dumbledore was killed by fellow Professor Severus Snape. She is unlikely to continue teaching.

Stern, snappy, and reserved, Professor McGonagall has nonetheless shown herself to have the best interests of the students of Hogwarts, of her wards in Gryffindor, and especially of Harry himself in mind. McGonagall is also one of Albus Dumbledore's staunchest supporters and a member of the Order of the Phoenix. She is the first magical character and Animagus we are introduced to in the series.

McGonagall has black hair drawn into a tight bun. She wears emerald green robes, and always a very prim expression. She is, according to Rowling, a "sprightly" 70 years old. She wears square glasses with markings on them that are the same as the ones around her eyes when she is a tabby cat. She also has a fondness for tartan patterns, apparently derived from a Scottish heritage; even her dressing gown is tartan.

Her name derives from two sources: one is Minerva, the Roman goddess of wisdom (a name that suits Minerva very well). Her surname comes from that of a 19th century Dundee eccentric, William Topaz McGonagall[2]. He is often regarded as the worst poet in the history of the English language.

We first meet Minerva McGonagall in the opening chapter of the Philosopher's Stone, The Boy Who Lived, when she meets Albus Dumbledore at Number four Privet Drive. She is immediately shown to be an Animagus, a witch or wizard who has the ability to turn into an animal without the aid of a wand, and as such she waits on a brick wall all day in the form of a tabby cat. In this chapter, Professor McGonagall's complete personality is summarised: her caring side (she is worried when Dumbledore reveals he plans to leave Harry Potter, fresh from Lord Voldemort's attack on him, with the Dursley family, his only living relatives), her snappy, brusque side (she criticises a number of people, including Hagrid), and ultimately, her intelligence (to become an Animagus is very difficult, and can sometimes take years to master the magic).

McGonagall is the member of staff who performs the Sorting Ceremony at Hogwarts. She demands complete respect from all of her students.

McGonagall is very keen on Quidditch, and, as Head of Gryffindor House, she takes an interest in the house Quidditch team's progress. In Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone, she recommends Harry as Seeker after seeing him skillfully fly on a broom, despite the fact that, as a first year, he would not normally be allowed the position.

McGonagall, despite being a strict disciplinarian, often assists Harry in an indirect way. She has often hinted at certain things for Harry's benefit. One example at this is when she warned Harry in his fifth year that the Ministry of Magic was monitoring communication in and out of Hogwarts. She was also the member of the Hogwarts staff who most obviously disliked Dolores Umbridge, yet were not afraid of her. All of Umbridge's attempts to interfere with Minerva's business, whether career counseling or regular classes, would be promptly dismissed with a stern remark.

She was also friendly to Peeves at that point, overheard telling the poltergeist at Hogwarts that "It unscrews the other way" upon observing him attempting to unscrew and destroy a chandelier in a bigger plan to thwart Professor Umbridge's dictatorship at Hogwarts. She also lent him her walking stick, which he used to beat Umbridge with as she left Hogwarts.

Professor McGonagall is a member of the Order of the Phoenix, as is revealed in Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix. She warns Harry not to provoke Dolores Umbridge, as she works for the Ministry of Magic. In that book, she also attempts to keep Umbridge and her minions from taking Hagrid away forcefully, and pays for her attempt when she gets hit by four Stunning Spells. She is taken from the school to St Mungo's. However, after the battle in the Department of Mysteries, she returns to the school safe and well, returned to her usual brisk self.

After the death of Albus Dumbledore at the hands of Severus Snape in Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, Professor McGonagall becomes acting Headmistress of Hogwarts due to her position as Deputy Headmistress. Whether she becomes regular Headmistress will only become apparent when the 7th volume is published. If indeed McGonagall does continue her likely reign as headmistress, then she will need to appoint a new head of Gryffindor house, a new deputy, and a new Transfiguration teacher, as well as a new head of Slytherin House and the positions of Defence Against the Dark Arts teacher and (presumably) Potions teacher, as Professor Slughorn told Harry in Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince that he would only be staying in Hogwarts for one year.

Wizard Profile:

About me!

Recent Spells:

Four Houses of Hogwarts
Heads of Houses
Lord Voldemort
Harry's Parents and their Best Friends
Places in Harry Potter
Quidditch
About Harry Potter

Wizard Web:

Harry James Potter