morgan

Onto Harry repeating Umbridge's violence, perhaps the most prominent instance is when he's being kept in the dark over the summer locked up at Privet Drive and so he orders Hedwig to peck Ron, Hermione, and Sirius until they write longer answers to his letters. Ron and Hermione's hands bear the scars of this - a direct parallel to Umbridge using the Blood Quill on Harry:

Harry’s third detention passed in the same way as the previous two, except that after two hours the words “I must not tell lies” did not fade from the back of Harry’s hand, but remained scratched there, oozing droplets of blood. (OoTP) “She’s been in a right state,” said Ron. “Pecked us half to death when she brought your last letters, look at this —” He showed Harry the index finger of his right hand, which sported a half-healed but clearly deep cut. (OoTP) “He seemed to think it was best,” said Hermione rather breathlessly. “Dumbledore, I mean.” “Right,” said Harry. He noticed that her hands too bore the marks of Hedwig’s beak and found that he was not at all sorry. (OoTP)

Interestingly, both Snape and Bellatrix also echo Umbridge's violence. Harry parallels Umbridge and Snape when he gets the urge to shake Hermione, while shouting at her as he's getting in her face, as Snape did to him and Umbridge did to Marietta:

It was scary: Snape’s lips were shaking, his face was white, his teeth were bared. “Amusing man, your father, wasn’t he?” said Snape, shaking Harry so hard that his glasses slipped down his nose. (OoTP) Professor Umbridge seized Marietta, pulled her around to face her, and began shaking her very hard. (OoTP) “They’re not normal dreams!” Harry shouted in her face, standing up and taking a step closer to her in turn. He wanted to shake her. “How d’you explain Ron’s dad then, what was all that about, how come I knew what had happened to him?” (OoTP)

Hermione is also often scared of Harry’s anger, in this scene and elsewhere, including in DH where she’s afraid Harry will curse her very soon after Harry witnesses the memory of Voldemort using the Killing Curse on Lily and Harry (“Hermione looked frightened that he might curse her with her own wand."), implying Harry as capable of the same violence against his "sister" as Voldemort committed against his "brother".

Snape attacking Harry after Harry views Snape's Worst Memory is another instance of Snape paralleling Umbridge:

Harry got to his feet, glaring at the pair of them. He had never seen Umbridge looking so happy. She seized his arm in a vicelike grip and turned, beaming broadly, to Malfoy. [...] They reached the polished door with the griffin knocker, but Umbridge did not bother to knock, she strode straight inside, still holding tight to Harry. [...] Harry pulled himself free of Umbridge’s grasp as the door swung shut behind them. (OoTP) But whether James really did take off Snape’s pants, Harry never found out. A hand had closed tight over his upper arm, closed with a pincerlike grip. Wincing, Harry looked around to see who had hold of him, and saw, with a thrill of horror, a fully grown, adult-sized Snape standing right beside him, white with rage. Harry felt himself rising into the air. The summer’s day evaporated around him, he was floating upward through icy blackness, Snape’s hand still tight upon his upper arm. Then, with a swooping feeling as though he had turned head over heels in midair, his feet hit the stone floor of Snape’s dungeon [...] “So,” said Snape, gripping Harry’s arm so tightly Harry’s hand was starting to feel numb. “So... been enjoying yourself, Potter?” (OoTP)

Then, something Bellatrix parallels later, we have Umbridge dragging Harry out of the Floo by his hair and at another point trying to grab Sirius's hair through the Floo. This connects to the thread of Harry and Sirius being victimized in all the same ways in OoTP, which also appears in the scene I mention later with Macnair strangling Harry. I’ve talked more fully about this thread in this meta about Harry and Sirius parallels.

But before he could utter a single curse or insult, Harry felt a great pain at the top of his head. He inhaled a lot of ash and, choking, found himself being dragged backward through the flames until, with a horrible abruptness, he was staring up into the wide, pallid face of Professor Umbridge, who had dragged him backward out of the fire by the hair and was now bending his neck back as far as it would go as though she was going to slit his throat. “You think,” she whispered, bending Harry’s neck back even farther, so that he was looking up at the ceiling above him, ” “I want to know why you are in my office,” said Umbridge, shaking the fist clutching his hair so that he staggered. “No one —” said Harry, trying to pull away from her. He felt several hairs part company with his scalp. (OoTP) “Sirius?” said Harry anxiously. But he had vanished. Harry gaped at the flames for a moment, then turned to look at Ron and Hermione. “Why did he — ?” Hermione gave a horrified gasp and leapt to her feet, still staring at the fire. A hand had appeared amongst the flames, groping as though to catch hold of something; a stubby, short-fingered hand covered in ugly old-fashioned rings... The three of them ran for it; at the door of the boys’ dormitory Harry looked back. Umbridge’s hand was still making snatching movements amongst the flames, as though she knew exactly where Sirius’s hair had been moments before and was determined to seize it. (OoTP)

Similarly, in Malfoy Manor, Bellatrix drags Hermione by the hair like Umbridge does to Harry and Sirius, and holds a knife to her throat echoing Umbridge "bending his [Harry's] neck back as far as it would go as though she was going to slit his throat":

She threw Greyback’s wand back to him, then took a short silver knife from under her robes. She cut Hermione free from the other prisoners, then dragged her by the hair into the middle of the room (DH) Bellatrix was supporting Hermione, who seemed to be unconscious, and was holding her short silver knife to Hermione’s throat. (DH) “I said, drop them!” she screeched, pressing the blade into Hermione’s throat: Harry saw beads of blood appear there. (DH)

Bellatrix is also shown repeating Voldemort’s violence, similar to Harry - i.e. she kicks an unconscious Griphook aside just like Voldemort kicks the goblin's corpse aside in Gringotts:

But he must know, he must be sure… He paced the room, kicking aside the goblin’s corpse as he passed, and the pictures blurred and burned in his boiling brain: the lake, the shack, and Hogwarts — (DH) “Good,” she said, and with a casual flick of her wand she slashed another deep cut into the goblin’s face, and he dropped with a yell at her feet. She kicked him aside. (DH)

These could be read as Snape and Bellatrix having experienced the same violence by their abusive family (and/or by Voldemort) and are repeating it onto others, like Harry in a way.

2.0 Strangulation

Then we have strangulation, which comes up quite frequently in the books. This meta by @ashesandhackles pointed out that grabbing people by the throat is something Harry does often:

Uncle Vernon had to wrestle Dudley to the ground to get the letter from him, which was made difficult by the fact that Harry had grabbed Uncle Vernon around the neck from behind. (PS) Harry then did something that was both very brave and very stupid: He took a great running jump and managed to fasten his arms around the troll’s neck from behind. (PS)

As I explain below, Vernon is shown strangling Harry in OoTP, but given how casually Vernon does this, we can assume that it wasn't a one-off and that it's happened before. So it's likely something Harry picked up in childhood from Vernon's abuse.

The first on-screen instance of Harry being strangled in canon is by Quirrelmort, which Lily's blood magic protects him from.

At once, a needle-sharp pain seared across Harry’s scar; his head felt as though it was about to split in two; he yelled, struggling with all his might, and to his surprise, Quirrell let go of him. The pain in his head lessened — he looked around wildly to see where Quirrell had gone, and saw him hunched in pain, looking at his fingers — they were blistering before his eyes. “Seize him! SEIZE HIM!” shrieked Voldemort again, and Quirrell lunged, knocking Harry clean off his feet, landing on top of him, both hands around Harry’s neck — Harry’s scar was almost blinding him with pain, yet he could see Quirrell howling in agony. “Master, I cannot hold him — my hands — my hands!” And Quirrell, though pinning Harry to the ground with his knees, let go of his neck and stared, bewildered, at his own palms — Harry could see they looked burned, raw, red, and shiny. (PS)

In OoTP, Harry is strangled three separate times. First, as mentioned, by Vernon:

[...] he had barely staggered upright again when two large purple hands reached through the open window and closed tightly around his throat. “Put — it — away!” Uncle Vernon snarled into Harry’s ear. “Now! Before — anyone — sees!” “Get — off — me!” Harry gasped; for a few seconds they struggled, Harry pulling at his uncle’s sausage-like fingers with his left hand, […] Then, as the pain in the top of Harry’s head gave a particularly nasty throb, Uncle Vernon yelped and released Harry as though he had received an electric shock — some invisible force seemed to have surged through his nephew, making him impossible to hold. (OoTP)

There is an intentional comparison here to both the language of Lily's blood magic making Quirrelmort release Harry and to Voldemort in the graveyard - Harry's head starts throbbing, like the pain of his scar, and Vernon snarling into Harry's ear echoes Voldemort doing the same:

Harry felt the cold tip of the long white finger touch him, and thought his head would burst with the pain. Voldemort laughed softly in his ear, (GoF)

(This parallel is reiterated with Macnair below, and Ron in the DoM in a scene where he starts to echo Voldemort in the graveyard - “Harry,” said Ron, pulling Harry’s ear down to his mouth and still giggling weakly, “you know who this girl is, Harry? She’s Loony...". More on this in future metas.)

This directly parallels the description of the dementor reaching for Harry a scene later, who also tries to strangle him:

A pair of gray, slimy, scabbed hands slid from inside the dementor’s robes, reaching for him [...] But there was no happiness in him... The dementor’s icy fingers were closing on his throat (OoTP)

Both Umbridge and Voldemort are connected to this in a way because Umbridge is the one who sent the dementors, and close to the dementor Harry hears Voldemort's voice about to kill him in the graveyard (having replaced his previous dementor memory of Lily's murder).

The third time Harry is strangled in OoTP is by Macnair during the DoM battle, again the descriptions echoing the previous two moments (arms reaching for him, Macnair growling in Harry's ear, etc):

[...] a thick arm came out of nowhere, seized Harry around the neck and pulled him upright, so that his toes were barely touching the floor. “Give it to me,” growled a voice in his ear, “give me the prophecy —” The man was pressing so tightly on Harry’s windpipe that he could not breathe — […] nobody seemed to realize that Harry was dying... He turned his wand backward toward the man’s side, but had no breath to utter an incantation […] [...] Neville had come lunging out of nowhere: Unable to articulate a spell, he had jabbed Hermione’s wand hard into the eyehole of the Death Eater’s mask. The man relinquished Harry at once with a howl of pain […] The Death Eater keeled over backward and his mask slipped off. It was Macnair, Buckbeak’s would-be killer, one of his eyes now swollen and bloodshot. (OoTP)

Macnair is Buckbeak's would-be killer... and Sirius's would-be executioner, victimizing Harry just like he victimized Sirius, coming close to killing them both:

“Macnair and Fudge would’ve come too,” said Harry bitterly. “I bet you anything Fudge would’ve told Macnair to murder Sirius on the spot...” (PoA) [...] “How — how — ?” said Black weakly, staring at the hippogriff. “Get on — there’s not much time,” said Harry, gripping Buckbeak firmly on either side of his sleek neck to hold him steady. “You’ve got to get out of here — the dementors are coming — Macnair’s gone to get them.” (PoA)

Interestingly, Neville saves Harry from Macnair by stabbing Macnair in the eyes - an action that appears at several points elsewhere (Harry stabbing the basilisk in the eyes, Ron stabbing locket!Riddle in his eyes, etc.), including Sirius telling Harry to use the Conjunctivitis Curse against the dragon in GoF because a dragon's eyes are its weakest point.

Harry's repetition of this violence in OoTP consists of him getting the urge to strangle Umbridge:

She laughed. Harry felt a strong urge to swing around and seize her by the throat, but resisted. (OoTP)

2.1 The violence against Merope

The motif of strangulation continues in HBP and DH. I've talked in this meta about how the violence against Merope is haunting the narrative and how the Slytherin locket protections represent a step-by-step re-enactment of Merope's suffering under her abusive family.

There is an intentional thread of how Voldemort is similar to Marvolo and Morfin, and how he repeats the violence his male family members committed against his mother onto his own victims, including onto Harry, who he is framed as a mixture of symbolic father and brother to, giving it the specific significance of familial violence that exists with Merope's treatment. This is also evident in his relationship with Bellatrix, I point out a couple instances in this meta.

And in HBP - the book in which Harry’s parallels to Tom Riddle are highlighted the most - Harry also echoes the violence of Tom's male family members.

Harry strangles Mundungus for stealing Black heirlooms, paralleling Marvolo strangling and nearly killing Merope:

“Is it true?” said Gaunt in a deadly voice, advancing a step or two toward the terrified girl. “My daughter — pure-blooded descendant of Salazar Slytherin — hankering after a filthy, dirt-veined Muggle?” Merope shook her head frantically, pressing herself into the wall, apparently unable to speak. “But I got him, Father!” cackled Morfin. “I got him as he went by and he didn’t look so pretty with hives all over him, did he, Merope?” “You disgusting little Squib, you filthy little blood traitor!” roared Gaunt, losing control, and his hands closed around his daughter’s throat. Both Harry and Ogden yelled “No!” at the same time; Ogden raised his wand and cried, “Relashio!” Gaunt was thrown backward, away from his daughter; he tripped over a chair and fell flat on his back. (HBP)

Harry had pinned Mundungus against the wall of the pub by the throat. Holding him fast with one hand, he pulled out his wand. “Harry!” squealed Hermione. “You took that from Sirius’s house,” said Harry, who was almost nose to nose with Mundungus and was breathing in an unpleasant smell of old tobacco and spirits. “That had the Black family crest on it.” “I — no — what — ?” spluttered Mundungus, who was slowly turning purple. “What did you do, go back the night he died and strip the place?” snarled Harry. “I — no —” “Give it to me!” “Harry, you mustn’t!” shrieked Hermione, as Mundungus started to turn blue. [...] There was a bang, and Harry felt his hands fly off Mundungus’s throat. Gasping and spluttering, Mundungus seized his fallen case, then — CRACK — he Disapparated. Harry swore at the top of his voice, spinning on the spot to see where Mundungus had gone. “COME BACK, YOU THIEVING — !” (HBP)

It is implied that Marvolo strangling Merope here was a murder attempt, and is only prevented by Ogden who is Head of MLE throwing him off - and Harry strangles Mundungus until he turns blue and purple and shows no sign of stopping, and has to be thrown off by Tonks who is an Auror.

Harry's rage that Mundungus "nicked Sirius's stuff" also parallels Marvolo's general attitude towards his heirlooms, and Morfin's rage at Merope running off with the locket. (“Ar, he left her, and serve her right, marrying filth!” said Morfin, spitting on the floor again. “Robbed us, mind, before she ran off! Where’s the locket, eh, where’s Slytherin’s locket?”)

But of course, since Harry is a foil, Harry’s rage has nothing to do with caring about the heirlooms themselves (he even forgets that he owned them in the first place, Hermione has to remind him) - it's a violent manifestation of his grief for Sirius.

Similar parallels are drawn around Marvolo strangling Merope with the locket and the Tom Riddle in the locket horcrux strangling Harry and trying to drown him in a lake (calling back to the locket cave lake and the Drink of Despair etc):

With a howl of rage, Gaunt ran toward his daughter. For a split second, Harry thought he was going to throttle her as his hand flew to her throat; next moment, he was dragging her toward Ogden by a gold chain around her neck. “See this?” he bellowed at Ogden, shaking a heavy gold locket at him, while Merope spluttered and gasped for breath. “Mr. Gaunt, your daughter!” said Ogden in alarm, but Gaunt had already released Merope; she staggered away from him, back to her corner, massaging her neck and gulping for air. (HBP) Then something closed tight around his neck. He thought of water weeds […] It was not weed: The chain of the Horcrux had tightened and was slowly constricting his windpipe. Harry kicked out wildly, trying to push himself back to the surface, but merely propelled himself into the rocky side of the pool. Thrashing, suffocating, he scrabbled at the strangling chain, his frozen fingers unable to loosen it, and now little lights were popping inside his head, and he was going to drown, there was nothing left, nothing he could do, and the arms that closed around his chest were surely Death’s... [...] All he could do was raise a shaking hand to his throat and feel the place where the locket had cut tightly into his flesh. (DH)

Interestingly, just like locket!Riddle tries to drown Harry, in GoF Harry wishes for the infant-like Voldemort to drown in the cauldron when he's about to be resurrected in the graveyard:

Let it drown, Harry thought, his scar burning almost past endurance, please... let it drown... [...] Let it have drowned, Harry thought, let it have gone wrong... [...] It’s gone wrong, he thought... it’s drowned... please... please let it be dead... (GoF)

Back to the locket, it's very specifically at the exact moment that they're talking about Harry's similarities with Voldemort that Harry gets the urge to strangle Ron with the locket, just like Marvolo did to Merope and Tom Riddle did to him:

“YOU-KNOW-WHO, then!” Harry shouted, goaded past endurance. “If there was one place that was really important to You-Know-Who, it was Hogwarts!” “Oh, come on,” scoffed Ron. “His school?” “Yeah, his school! It was his first real home, the place that meant he was special; it meant everything to him, and even after he left —” “This is You-Know-Who we’re talking about, right? Not you?” inquired Ron. He was tugging at the chain of the Horcrux around his neck: Harry was visited by a desire to seize it and throttle him. (DH)

The scene where Harry and Ron destroy the locket is particularly full of Harry reflecting Voldemort, but I'll get to that in a future meta.

3.0 Conclusion

To conclude, of course not every character who commits violence has necessarily experienced it themselves and/or in the same way, but in some cases analyzing specific violent actions that characters implied to be abuse victims commit could be an interesting way to extrapolate how they might have once been victimized.