| “ | Marvolo: Are you pure-blood? Ogden: That's neither here nor there. |
„ |
| ~ Ogden dismissed Marvolo's threatening question about his blood status. |
Bob Ogden is a minor character from Harry Potter franchise.
He was a British Wizardkind who worked in the Department of Magical Law Enforcement, a department of the Ministry of Magic, and led the Magical Law Enforcement Squad in the 1920s. During his fateful visit at Gaunt Shack to bring Morfin Gaunt for questioning in the light of his attack on Tom Riddle Snr, Ogden ended up having a one-sided confrontation against the pure-blood elitist and his father Marvolo in response of their uncooperative behavior and attempt murder on Merope Gaunt, a heroic deed which saw the better (albeit short-lived) change to her life but indirectly ensured the birth of the one who later became Lord Voldemort.
Description[]
| “ | Some ten feet in front of them stood a short, plump man wearing enormously thick glasses that reduced his eyes to molelike specks. He was reading a wooden signpost that was sticking out of the brambles on the left-hand side of the road. Harry knew this must be Ogden; he was the only person in sight, and he was also wearing the strange assortment of clothes so often chosen by inexperienced wizards trying to look like Muggles: in this case, a frock coat and spats over a striped one-piece bathing costume. | „ |
| ~ Description of Bob Ogden. |
Ogden was described as a short, plump man wearing enormously thick glasses that reduced his eyes to molelike specks. During his fateful visit at Gaunt Shack, he wore a frock coat and spats over a striped one-piece bathing costume — a poor choice of clothing for official from Wizarding World who wanted to be presentable towards his brethren and Muggle alike while blending in among the latter, though that didn't hinder his capacity to be competent and straight-to-the-point.
Personality[]
| “ | Mr. Gaunt, I am afraid that neither your ancestors nor mine have anything to do with the matter in hand. I am here because of Morfin, Morfin and the Muggle he accosted late last night. Our information is that Morfin performed a jinx or hex on the said Muggle causing him to erupt in highly painful hives. | „ |
| ~ Ogden maintains his ground despite Morfin and Marvolo's instability and increasingly uncooperative behavior, once again stressing that their lineage justified none of Morfin's reprehensible actions. |
Bob Ogden was a dedicated and exemplary Ministry official who took his duties seriously and maintained a professional and courteous demeanor. Though intimidated by Morfin and Marvolo's mental instability, he didn't let his fear get best of him and even stood up for Merope in response of the latter's assault on his own daughter simply because of her love for a Muggle. Such display of bravery and compassion, coupled with tolerance toward the others regardless of their lineage and social status as reflected by dismissal, if not outright disgust, toward Marvolo's belief in blood purity, painted him as a noble and heroic soul who worthy for Harry's posthumous respect.
Bob Ogden's only known character flaw is his lacking knowledge about things pertaining Muggle culture as with many pure-blood families and half-blood families. This was best reflected by his poor clothing choice which resulted Tom Riddle Snr and Cecilia made fun of him.
Biography[]
Background[]
Not much is known about his early life, only that he hailed from pure-blood or half-blood families (the fact that his knowledge pertaining Muggles in general left much to be desired as reflected by his poor disguise during the confrontation at Gaunt Shack ruled out the implication of him being a Muggle-born). Like other British Wizardkinds, he may have attended Hogwarts prior to his employment at the Department of Magical Law Enforcement by Ministry of Magic. Subsequently, Ogden eventually rose to become head of the Magical Law Enforcement Squad.
Visit at Gaunt Shack[]
Around the 1920s, Ogden worked on the case of Tom Riddle Snr's attack by Morfin Gaunt where he performed a dark charm which caused him to erupt in highly painful hives. He visited Gaunt Shack to inform Ministry's order to inform its inhabitants about the matter. Though his choice of Muggle apparel left much to be desired as it included a frock-coat and spats over a striped men's one-piece bathing suit, and hostility he received from Morfin himself who caused pus to erupt from his nose via. a dark charm to the point of stumbling back toward Tom Riddle Snr and Cecilia who passed by when he couldn't understand his Parseltongue threats, Ogden maintained his professional stance.
Just then, Marvolo, Morfin's father, showed up and seemingly more cooperative regarding Morfin's serious breach of wizarding law as he begrudgingly welcomed Ogden to his residence, leading to the Ministry official's encounter with Merope Gaunt whose sad disposition greatly contrasted her brother and father's violent nature. Despite his best efforts, Ogden's attempt to inform Morfin's arrest warrant only made things worse as both Morfin and Marvolo proved to be too violent to reason with; not only father and son revealed to dismiss the Owls who inform them of Morfin's would-be Ministry hearing on purpose, but Marvolo also ranted about how Gaunts should not be summoned by anyone owing to their "superior" status despite their current state of being spelled otherwise. Ogden remained indifferent to both rants and matter regarding blood status (he coldly dismissed Marvolo's question about his earlier), justifying his right as Head of the Magical Law Enforcement Squad to uphold the law before preparing to make his leave and informing Marvolo of the time and date of the hearing and Morfin's expectancy to attend it.
That said, aggression ultimately proved to be his best and only option in dealing Morfin and his deranged father in the end, as Ogden soon witnessed a heated conversation between Gaunts in Parseltongue culminating to Marvolo attempting to strangle Merope to death upon learning her still infatuated toward Tom Riddle Snr, the root of the case he worked on in the first place. Ogden casted Revulsion Jinx to save Merope and blasted Marvolo in the process, angering Morfin that he indiscriminately casted hexes at him in retaliation. Severely outmatched in such one-sided confrontation, the Ministry official was forced to retreat. As he did, he got hit by Tom Riddle Snr's horse carriage before quickly recovered and Apparated back to the Ministry. Fifteen minutes later, Ogden returned with reinforcements, overpowering the Gaunts in a difficult and heated fight, and subsequently turning them over to the Wizengamot.
Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince[]
Ogden passed away of natural causes prior to Harry's sixth year at Hogwarts, but not before being visited by Dumbledore who persuaded him to confide his recollections of his encounter with the Gaunt family to him. It was Dumbledore's investigation on Lord Voldemort's background had led him to learn about the aforementioned case of Tom Riddle Snr's attack by Morfin Gaunt long ago. Said memories would be later be stored in Dumbledore's Pensieve and showed to Harry during their private lessons which intended to learn more about The Dark Lord's past and importantly, his weaknesses.
Trivia[]
- Although his actions, particularly dismissal toward blood status, earned him posthumous respect from Harry, he had unknowingly played a part in the birth of Lord Voldemort. Had he not returned with reinforcements in the confrontation against the increasingly violent Gaunts, Merope wouldn't depart and make her move on Tom Riddle Snr leading to them siring Lord Voldemort.
- It must be stressed that Ogden only carried out his duty as a law enforcement agent and that he reacted to a violation of wizard law committed by Morfin Gaunt, the real mastermind behind the chain reaction.
- Also, neither him nor Morfin would indeed play their part in the birth of Lord Voldemort had Merope chose to live and raise her and Tom Riddle Snr's son herself or at least ensuring him raised in more loving environment.
- Though unconfirmed, Ogden made some arrangements to ensure Merope could fend for herself with her tormentors gone from her life at last, further allowing her magical capabilities to be flourished from there on and attained everything she needed to bewitch Tom Riddle Snr to be her unwilling husband.
- It is also possible that Ogden is related to former-Wizengamot member Tiberius Ogden and even inventor — or a relative thereof — of "Ogden's Old Firewhiskey", though neither of these was confirmed.
- Although Marvolo apparently didn't know about Ogden's actual blood status nor care about it while addressing him as Mudblood, he may be right about Ogden being both half-blood and blood traitor all along owing to his dismissal regarding Pure-blood supremacy Marvolo and Merope believed in (Rowling has confirmed Mudblood being an insult usually reserved for a wizard or witch of entirely Muggle birth, Muggle-borns and half-bloods alike).
- Because of pacing issues and time constraints, Bob Ogden and the Gaunts' tale was omitted in film adaptation of Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince.
Gallery[]
External Links[]
- Bob Ogden on the Harry Potter Wiki
