Bertha Jorkins

"Listen, I knew Bertha Jorkins. She was at Hogwarts when I was, a few years above your dad and me. And she was an idiot. Very nosy, but no brains, none at all. It's not a good combination, Harry. I'd say she'd be very easy to lure into a trap."

- Sirius Black

Bertha Jorkins (mid-1950s - 1994) was a Ministry of Magic employee who worked in the Department of Magical Games and Sports before her death.

School Years
Bertha Jorkins was a few years ahead of James Potter, Sirius Black, Remus Lupin and Peter Pettigrew at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. She was a gossipy girl and not very bright. During her school years she would regularly complain about mistreatment from other students and spread rumors.

Adult Life
After graduating from Hogwarts Bertha garnered the reputation of being scatterbrained and forgetful. She went to work at the Ministry of Magic and jumped between Departments. She finally ended up in the Department of Magical Games and Sports under the head of Ludo Bagman. Bertha has the misfortune of making a visit to the estate of Barty Crouch Sr., where she discovered the Crouch family secret that they were keeping their convicted Death Eater son Barty Crouch Jr. trapped in their house under the Imperius Curse. Crouch Sr. had to place a powerful memory charm on her to alter her memory and make her forget what she had found out.

1994
She went on vacation to Albania in 1994, but she did not return when she was supposed to. Her reputation of being forgetful and not very bright made many believe she had lost track of time and was perhaps just lost. The truth of the matter was that one night in a bar, Bertha Jorkins ran into Peter Pettigrew who was able to overpower Bertha and bring her to his master Lord Voldemort who was resting in Albania. Lord Voldemort was able to break through the memory charm placed by Crouch Sr. on her and learned of the imprisonment of his follower Crouch Jr., and also learned valuable information about the Tri-Wizard Tournament which he would use to try and kill Harry Potter. Breaking through the memory charm had left Bertha severely 'damaged', and Lord Voldemort murdered her with The Killing Curse because he had no more use for her. Voldemort was able to use her death to turn his snake Nagini into a Horcrux.

Behind the scenes

 * Bertha appeared as a chubby 16-year-old in one of Albus Dumbledore's Pensieve memories. She complained about being hexed by a boy who she teased because she had caught him kissing Florence behind the Hogwarts greenhouses.
 * Bertha was one of the ghost-like apparitions that came from Voldemort's wand when he and Harry dueled at the Little Hangleton graveyard. She, along with the other apparitions, distracted Voldemort and encouraged Harry, thus enabling Harry to get to the Triwizard Cup portkey and escape back to Hogwarts.
 * Even though Bertha had a fairly large behind-the-scenes role in the book, she is never mentioned nor seen in the film.

Notes and references
Берта Джоркинс