Wands and wandless magic

[cynthiaanncoe at home.com]

No: HPFGUIDX 24788

--- In HPforGrownups at y..., catherine at c... wrote:
> --- In HPforGrownups at y..., "Jim Ferer" <jferer at y...> wrote:
> > Cynthia:"A couple of wand questions:
> > 
> >  First, where is Pettigrew's wand?  I personally think it got 
blown 
> > up or lost) when he blew up the street.  That explains why 
> Pettigrew 
> > is using Voldemort's wand all the time (except for the time he 
used 
> > Lupin's wand to stun Ron and Crookshanks)."
> > 
> > Good question. Your explanation might well be the right one, but 
it 
> > could be that Pettrigrew had to hide it when he assumed rat form 
> and 
> > has lost it or been unable to return to it in all this time.  He 
> > spent years with the Weasley family, you know.
> 
> A couple of questions.  Do we know for certain that Pettigrew 
doesn't 
> have his wand?  In PoA, he dives for Lupin's wand, but that could 
> just have been because it was easier to get at than his own, which 
> could have been secreted in a pocket in his robes somewhere.
> 
> I haven't the time to trawl through all the references in GoF, but 
I 
> am not sure if there is evidence that Pettigrew doesn't have a wand 
> here, either.  I know he uses Voldemort's to kill Cedric, but it is 
> possible that this was for plot development, seeing as Cedric had 
to 
> come out of Voldemort's wand during Priori Incantatem, so he would 
be 
> able to ask Harry to take his body back to his parents.
> 
> Pettigrew could obviously have had his wand with him throughout the 
> duration of his life as a rat - he would not have thrown it away, 
and 
> would have had it when he transformed and blew up the street during 
> his confrontation with Sirius.  I have always assumed that Animagi 
do 
> keep their wands when they transform by putting them in their robes 
> for safe keeping - afterall, their robes transform as part of 
> themselves - they don't transform back stark naked, do they?
> 
> It also seems unlikely that Pettigrew lost his wand during his 
> Weasley pet period, because as far as we know, he remained in rat 
> form the whole time.   
> 
> I am also wandering how he overpowered Bertha Jorkins - with or 
> without wand?  Did he steal her's and use it against her?
> 
> Another explanation is that Voldemort, in order to humiliate 
> Pettigrew and keep him in line, has confiscated it.  This seems 
quite 
> probable to me - ensuring that Pettigrew can only do magic in order 
> to help/serve Voldemort, and not for any other purpose.
> 
> Catherine

Catherine, I don't think it is possible that Pettigrew has a wand in 
the shrieking shack.  If so, Lupin and Sirius would have been aware 
of this possibility and immediately disarmed Pettigrew with 
Expelliarmus.

I haven't reviewed all of the discussions about whether Animagi take 
their wands with them, and I don't recall much in the books about it 
either way.  We don't know if McGonnagle has a wand when she 
transforms from a cat early in Book 1.  Sirius doesn't have a wand 
because he's been in Azkaban, and he doesn't have one in Book 4 
because he can't just go to Diagon Alley and buy one.  Maybe a wand 
is a magical item that can't transform with the animagi.

But we know a wizard does magic poorly with another wizard's wand, we 
know Pettigrew is "talentless and can use all the help he can get" so 
would be more effective using his own wand, we know P can't just walk 
into a shop and buy another one, so I figure Pettigrew is using V's 
wand because P's wand was blown up when P dropped it to transform and 
he hasn't obtained a new one -- yet.

Cindy