Rowling's a slippery wench, or The Search for Voldemort's Wand

[jazzman4 at earthlink.net]

No: HPFGUIDX 2403

I've just re-read "Flesh, Blood and Bone," "The Death Eaters," and 
"Priori Incantatem" (chapters thirty-two through thirty-four, for 
those of you playing along at home), and I can't find anything more 
than circumstantial evidence to support my contention that the Priori 
Incantatem effect in Harry and Voldemort's duel was not the same 
phenomenon described by Dumbledore.  Dang it.

Well, I'm going to present what I've got anyway.

As you may recall, I've been espousing a theory for the last few
days, 
to the effect that it was Harry's innate power that caused the 
regurgitation of spells from Voldemort's wand, rather than the fact 
that two "brother" wands were being forced to duel (as described by 
Albus).  This theory has not been accorded the universal acclaim and 
acceptance that I've grown used to receiving whenever I bother to 
post. ;-)  Perhaps I should just try an Imperius curse on y'all. 
Double ;-)

Anyway, we see Wormtail using a wand a great deal from the time the 
Portkey arrives in the graveyard until Voldemort steps out of the 
cauldron.  He kills Cedric.  He conjures bonds onto Harry.  He lights 
a fire.  He disinters some bone dust from Tom Riddle's grave.  One 
presumes that he does some fancy wand twiddling while reciting his 
incantations, but this is not essential for establishing that
Wormtail is in possession of a wand.  Slippery Ms. Rowling never 
specifically shows us Wormtail with a wand again, so I can anticipate 
the argument that the same wand might have been Voldemort's.  I
agree, 
it MIGHT have been.  But the wand Voldemort duelled against Harry
with 
was the one he pulled out of a deep pocket of the robes Wormtail 
dressed him in.

Why would poor one-handed Peter Pettigrew go to the trouble of
putting the wand deep into the pocket of the robes he was about to 
place upon his resurrected master?  The text doesn't say he didn't, 
but neither does it say he did.  For that matter, HOW would he 
accomplish such a feat?  Once again, the text is silent on this
point, 
but I do note that the little wuss is in such agony over the loss of 
his appendage that he never makes a single move that has not been 
commanded by the Dark Lord.  I can't see him mustering the initiative 
to take the wand he's been using all night (which he knows Voldemort 
is going to be calling for), and shove it into the pocket of the 
robes.

If it can be established that Wormtail was not using the wand that 
Voldemort duelled against Harry with, then several other facts become 
apparent, chiefly this: Cedric Diggory's ghost had no business being 
Priori Incantatemed (to coin a phrase) from any wand but Wormtail's.  
Even if Voldemort has somehow had his original wand restored to him 
(by some mechanism I haven't been able to figure out), the presence
of Cedric's ghost in the detritus of the duel argues strongly against 
this being the Priori Incantatem effect as described in Chapter 
thirty-six.  Harry's power is perhaps causing the effect against 
Voldemort's master plan.

Of course, it could all turn out to be a meaningless oversight on J. 
K. Rowling's part...