Arabella Doreen Figg
Arabella
Doreen Figg is a Squib, living in a house on Wisteria Walk in Little Whinging,
Surrey. Mrs. Figg is an original member of The Order of the Phoenix and for
the past 15 years has been assigned the task of watching over Harry Potter,
who was growing up two streets away in Privet Drive (GF36, OP1, OP2). Harry stayed at Mrs Figg's house every year on Dudley's
birthday, where he was forced to look at pictures of every cat she'd
every owned. He hated it at her house, but this was deliberate on her part. She saw to it that he didn't
enjoy himself too much, fearing that if he seemed to like being there,
the Dursleys wouldn't send him to her anymore (OP2).
Mrs. Figg is an eccentric woman who wears tartan carpet slippers and a housecoat when out shopping for tinned cat food at the corner shop. She wore the slippers in court as well. Although she appears to talk to herself, other members of the Order are often present under invisibility cloaks, and her cats understand human speech (OP1, OP2) probably because they are part Kneazle (JKR). Arabella, in what seems to be typical of Squibs, owns several crossbred Kneazle cats which act as more than pets. She uses them as watchers, keeping an eye on things in Privet Drive.
Harry is surprised by his old babysitter
Even though Harry learned about the Wizarding World in 1991 when he
turned eleven, he didn't realize until the summer of 1995 that Mrs.
Figg, his old babysitter, was actually part of that world. One warm
evening in August, Mrs. Figg had assigned Mr. Tibbles, her cat, to
watch Harry. The cat noted that Mundungus Fletcher had abandoned his
post guarding the boy and ran to tell Mrs. Figg. In the meantime, two
Dementors attacked Harry and Dudley. Mrs Figg turned up after the attack
and hustled Harry back to the Dursleys. Along the way, she informed
Harry about her part in watching over him all those years and
ordered him to stay indoors and wait for instructions.
A few weeks later, when Harry was appearing before the Wizengamot to account for his using magic during the Dementor attack, Arabella Figg testified that as a Squib she could see Dementors although Muggles cannot (OP8).
Mrs. Figgs' cats:
- Tibbles
- Snowy
- Mr. Paws
- Tufty
Mrs. Figg in the Movies
In "Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix," the role of Mrs. Figg is played
by Kathryn Hunter (IMDb).
