Irma Pince
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| Harry Potter character | |
|---|---|
| Madam Irma Pince | |
| Gender | Female |
| Hair colour | Grey |
| Allegiance | Hogwarts |
| Actor | Sally Motemore |
| First appearance | Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone |
Madam Irma Pince is the Hogwarts librarian in the Harry Potter books and was played by Sally Mortemore in Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets. In the books, she is compared to an "underfed vulture" and tries to protect her books from students by placing odd jinxes on them.
When Harry, Ron and Hermione were trying to identify Nicolas Flamel in Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone, Madam Pince was an obstacle. However, she could do nothing to prevent them from removing a book from the library's Restricted Section in Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets, since they had a signed note from Gilderoy Lockhart. In Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, Pince enchants Harry and Ginny's possessions in order to chase them out of the library, as a punishment for bringing in chocolate.
In Quidditch Through the Ages, which is supposedly published for Muggles using the Hogwarts Library's copy as a reference, Madam Pince is mentioned in Albus Dumbledore's foreword. She is described as extremely reluctant to let one of the books in her care be made available to Muggles, to the point that Dumbledore had to "pry each of her fingers individually from the spine" of the book. Madam Pince herself gives a written warning, threatening the readers that the consequences of mistreating the book will be "as horrible as it is in my power to make them".
Madam Pince's role in the second film amounted to several appearances, but no speaking parts, although there is evidence to suggest that speaking parts were filmed and subsequently cut.
In the sixth book, while Harry and Hermione are in the Library, Madam Pince chases them out, after seeing Harry's scribbled-in textbook. Harry suggests that she was offended by his remarks regarding Hogwarts caretaker Argus Filch, with whom he claims that Madam Pince is romantically involved. Surprisingly he may be right about this---the two were seen together at Dumbledore's funeral at the end of the book.
"Pince" is French for "pinch", perhaps a reference to her pinched features, or perhaps short for pince-nez, a style of spectacles without earpieces popular in the 19th century and often associated with old-fashioned bookish types.
