It didn’t need to possess Umbridge. A Voldemort horcrux influences you to be more like Voldemort, or do to things in favor of Voldemort. Umbridge was already doing precisely what Voldemort wanted, so the best thing for the horcrux to do was to STFU and let her continue.
Yes, I think ‘mind control’ is wrong here. It’s very similar to the One Ring, which occasionally does seem to deliberately slip off someone’s finger etc. but mostly just projects a certain feeling. I never felt the horcrux was plotting against them.
As to Harry the Horcrux, I don’t think accidental Horcruxes are crazy because the magic is implied not to be sophisticated so much as primal and brutal. At a narrative level, it fits very well. He isn’t accidentally casting a Horcrux spell, a Horcrux is accidentally being formed from the combination of a spare bit of soul and a well-suited container.
Hm. I had forgotten the locket’s paranoia-inducing field. Revising my confidence downward.
Except, wait, Umbridge wasn’t possessed. (Googles...)
So, uh… I’ve got nothing.
It didn’t need to possess Umbridge. A Voldemort horcrux influences you to be more like Voldemort, or do to things in favor of Voldemort. Umbridge was already doing precisely what Voldemort wanted, so the best thing for the horcrux to do was to STFU and let her continue.
Yes, I think ‘mind control’ is wrong here. It’s very similar to the One Ring, which occasionally does seem to deliberately slip off someone’s finger etc. but mostly just projects a certain feeling. I never felt the horcrux was plotting against them.
As to Harry the Horcrux, I don’t think accidental Horcruxes are crazy because the magic is implied not to be sophisticated so much as primal and brutal. At a narrative level, it fits very well. He isn’t accidentally casting a Horcrux spell, a Horcrux is accidentally being formed from the combination of a spare bit of soul and a well-suited container.