The Professors of Hogwarts were an eclectic bunch.
While some of them were full-on evil and tried to murder or torture the students, like Dolores Umbridge or the Carrows, others were more morally ambiguous. In fact, most of them seem to veer on the “neutral” territory, focused only on their subjects or their students, never willingly taking sides, until the situation called for it.
Below are the Dungeons & Dragons Alignments of some of the most popular Professors who’ve taught at Hogwarts.
Quirinius Quirrel- Lawful Neutral
Professor Quirrell initially seemed the most innocent of the lot. He was soft-spoken, scared of the students and the last person to get mixed up with something nefarious. Yet, he turned out to have Voldemort hiding at the back of his head.
He wasn’t evil per se. He’d been to Albania and Voldemort found him and it didn’t take long to convince him to join the Dark side. And Quirrell was loyal to him till the very end, believing that Voldemort’s views on power were right.
Horace Slughorn- True Neutral
Horace Slughorn never liked taking sides.
When Dumbledore sent Harry to recruit him, he vehemently expressed his desire to not join the Order of the Phoenix. And although it was he who gave Voldemort the information he needed about Horcruxes, he never went forward to Dumbledore with that information.
He became the head of Slytherin after Snape killed Dumbledore and became Headmaster and although he fought in the Battle of Hogwarts, he always preferred to keep a distance.
Gilderoy Lockhart- Chaotic Neutral
Gilderoy Lockhart cared only for himself. He didn’t mind violating the established rules in order to get what he wanted. In fact, he built his reputation based on the daring deeds of others, by performing Memory Charms on them and stealing their credit.
He didn’t even care about saving Ginny or killing the basilisk that roamed Hogwarts. All he cared about was his own life, and he tried to use whatever opportunity there was to promote his own career.
Dolores Umbridge- Lawful Evil
Dolores Umbridge was one the best portraits of an “evil” character we’d seen in a while.
Although she worked mostly in accordance with the Ministry, she was someone who relished doing evil things. Such as the detentions in which she made Harry write “I must not tell lies” using his own blood on his skin, despite being aware of the fact that he was telling the truth.
And sometimes, she even went behind the Ministry’s back, such as the time she sent Dementors to get Harry Potter over the summer.
Remus Lupin- Neutral Good
We knew Remus Lupin was going to be one of the “good” guys the moment we first met him on the train, and he saved Harry from a Dementor attack. He was one of the few who actually cared about his students, helping them get over their fears and learn proper defenses against dark magical creatures.
And he was also willing to take the law into his own hands when he found out that it was Peter and not Sirius who had betrayed the Potters.
Filius Flitwick- Lawful Neutral
We don’t actually see much of Flitwick in the books. From what we know, he’s tiny, lets the students talk in class and isn’t harsh on them when they mess up. But we don’t seem him enthusiastically take part in things that do not concern him directly.
He’s hardly there at the time of major conflicts, except in the last book, where he joined most of the other Professors to protect Hogwarts from Voldemort.
Pomona Sprout- Lawful Neutral
Pomona Sprout is similar to Flitwick too, in a way. Despite being Hogwarts Professors and Heads of Houses, we do not see them join the Order of Phoenix. They don’t seem too interested in taking part in school politics, or in the conflicts that plagued the wizarding world, without being expressly asked to do so.
Sprout, for instance, helped with the mandrakes that produced the antidote to help cure the Petrified students, but other than that she mostly keeps to herself with her Herbology interests.
Minerva McGonagall- Neutral Good
Minerva McGonagall always had a strong preference for law and order. She was strict but fair, deducting points from her own House at times, if the students broke the rules. And although she wanted Gryffindor to win the House Cup, she never had that outward bias for students that Snape did.
But when push came to shove, she was willing to take risks.
She resisted Umbridge in whatever way she could and when the Weasley twins and Peeves wrecked the school with their joke-shop inventions, she even told Peeves the right way to unscrew a chandelier.
Severus Snape- True Neutral
Snape’s alignment is mighty difficult to pinpoint.
To start off, he joined the Death Eaters, despite Lily not wanting him to, and despite knowing that they were evil. And he was pretty much okay with all the despicable things they did, ’til Lily’s life was at stake and she died.
Guilt at her death made him join Dumbledore, and until the very end, he remained loyal to him. He did not particularly care for the well-being of his students and bullied them pretty often. It was his bond to Lily and later to Dumbledore that drove him, rather than a preference for good or evil.
Albus Dumbledore- Chaotic Good
Dumbledore had always worked for the greater good, even though his methods were not always the best. He believed that Harry had to die to defeat Voldemort, as he was the final Horcrux. And so to quote Snape, he raised Harry like a “pig for slaughter”.
In fact, Dumbledore was so motivated to serve the greater good, that he often used people, placing them at the right place, without caring for their individual needs or aspirations. For instance, he knew just how much danger he was putting Snape in, but that didn’t matter, as long as it helped in the overall plan to vanquish the Dark Lord.
