Although the Harry Potter series centers around the main battle between Harry Potter and Voldemort, Harry makes plenty of additional enemies along the way. Hogwarts may be the safest place for Harry to stay, but he can’t escape some of his enemies if they reside within school walls. Harry does his best to avoid professors and students that don’t like him, but they always find a way to antagonize Harry. At school, Harry deals with Draco Malfoy, a spoiled bully who tricks and hurts people to get what he wants. In addition, Harry also deals with Prof. Dolores Umbridge, a strict tyrant whose main goal is to strip power away from Harry. Both characters fixate on Harry because he is a half-blood, an inherent characteristic that is beyond his control. They also fixate on him since he represents the anti-bigoted views of the wizarding world. However, their professional status at Hogwarts affects how they can manipulate Harry’s experience. As a professor, Umbridge has authority over Harry as a professor and as a member of the Ministry of Magic, and she abuses this power to punish Harry. As a student, Draco has immeasurable wealth and some influence within the school, and he uses it to bully Harry. He later associates himself with Death Eaters to avoid punishment from Voldemort and his father, Lucius Malfoy. However, despite Draco’s association with the Dark Lord, Prof. Umbridge’s actions prove that she is more heartless compared to Draco. 

Draco’s character development somewhat resembles an upside-down bell curve, hitting rock bottom before ultimately redeeming himself at the end of the series. Throughout the series, Draco descends further into darkness, graduating from a Hogwarts bully to a Death Eater underling. Moments after his introduction into the series, Draco reflects the negative aspects of his character by calling Ron and his family poor. From there, he revealed his bigotry by calling Hermione a “mudblood,” a disrespectful term for a muggle-born wizard-like herself. These moments represent Lucius Malfoy’s influence on Draco’s upbringing since Lucius shares the same views toward muggles and the less fortunate. In The Half-Blood Prince Draco takes it a step further by attacking Harry at Hogsmeade Station. To make matters worse, Draco endangers Hogwarts students in his efforts to kill Dumbledore and prove his loyalty to Voldemort.

However, Lucius Malfoy’s influence runs short towards the end of the book when he finally gets an opportunity to kill Dumbledore. However, Draco fails to complete his task, just as Voldemort predicted. At this moment, Draco realizes that he doesn’t have what it takes to be a Death Eater, and he follows Voldemort’s orders out of fear. This demonstrates that despite his upbringing, Draco understands and believes in the differences between right and wrong. He may dislike muggles, but he understands that Voldemort’s plan takes it too far. In The Deathly Hallows, Draco redeems himself by refusing to identify Harry or Hermione in Malfoy Manor. In the series epilogue, Malfoy and Harry bury the hatchet. Lucius taught Draco to hate muggles as a young and impressionable boy, and Draco used this motivation to worsen Harry’s life at Hogwarts. However, this hatred doesn’t motivate him to join the Death Eaters. Instead, fear motivates Malfoy to join them, and Draco became a villain by force, not by choice. However, this motivation is not strong enough to overcome his inherent moral code, which he uses to momentarily spare Dumbledore and help Harry later on. This moral code also helps Draco see the error of his ways, which is why he willingly makes peace with Harry. 

Unlike Draco, the villain by force, JK Rowling presents Prof. Umbridge as a villain in disguise. The Ministry of Magic assigned Prof. Umbridge to teach defense against the dark arts and strip power away from Harry and Prof. Dumbledore. Hogwarts professors should care about their students’ safety, education, and well-being, but Prof. Umbridge fails to do so. She refuses to teach any of the students about defense against the dark arts, putting their safety against Death Eaters in jeopardy. Rather than protect muggle or half-blood students, Prof. Umbridge used unorthodox tactics to punish these undeserving students. She even went far enough to send Dementors after Harry so he could get expelled from Hogwarts. Prof. Umbridge also acts on her bigoted beliefs outside of Hogwarts, especially when she becomes the head of the Muggle-born Registration Commission. Despite working for the Ministry of Magic and for Hogwarts, Prof. Umbridge makes it clear that she only cares about abusing her authority against muggles and half-bloods. She doesn’t care about the Ministry of Magic or what it stands for, as shown by the moment Voldemort seized control over the Ministry. Rather than stand in the Ministry’s defense, she turns a blind eye because she maintains her authority. To top it all off, Prof. Umbridge even thinks she is above the ministry when she almost uses an unforgivable curse on Harry. 

Prof. Umbridge and Draco both use their hatred toward non-pureblood wizards to make Harry’s life at Hogwarts miserable. However, as Draco abandons this motivation, Prof. Umbridge embraces it. Unlike Draco, Prof. Umbridge has no moral code, which explains why she’s more willing to break the law and physically harm students. She shares the same core values with Voldemort, and she would be just like him if she was willing to kill. Ironically, despite acting as a stickler for the rules, Prof. Umbridge breaks plenty of rules for her personal benefit. Despite immense pressure from Lucius Malfoy and Lord Voldemort, Draco overcame his own bigotry to make peace with Harry.