Wand Snapping

[Margaret Dean]

No: HPFGUIDX 28683

caliburncy at yahoo.com wrote:

> --- In HPforGrownups at y..., cynthiaanncoe at h... wrote:
> > So what good does it do to snap a wizard's wand in half if he can
> > buy another at Ollivanders?  Maybe the official "snapping" of the
> > wand permanently disrupts the energy bond, the connection with the
> > wizard that Harry feels when his fingers get warm.  So every other
> > wand at Ollivanders knows that a wizard with a snapped wand doesn't
> > have the proper "energy" field to be allowed to select another.
> 
> Although a far less fun and imaginative theory then yours (BTW, has
> anyone told you how creative you are with this?), isn't it equally
> possible that the expectation is just that Ollivander *himself* or
> any other wandmaker will refuse sale to an ex-Azkabanian or
> especially Azkaban escapee?  After all, this is roughly how we poor
> Muggles handle gun control.  And considering the high number of
> European wizard prisons (one), it seems that a 'background check'
> could be done pretty much from memory.  Ollivander et al might just
> be expected (explicitly told or tacitly understood) by the MoM to
> know who Sirius is and not sell to him.  Of course, we already know
> that either Gringotts has apparently not heeded any warning they may
> have been given or Sirius somehow duped them, so a similar hole in
> the (clearly fallible) system might be possible with wands as well.

I tend to think that Gringotts simply doesn't care.  After all,
Ollivander's (and other wandmakers, presumably) are run by
wizards and come under the authority of the MOM, whereas
Gringotts is run by goblins and as far as I can make out is the
functional equivalent of the notorious Swiss bank account.  If
it's your money and/or you have the properly authorized key, you
can access your vault, no questions asked.  This is how the
goblins operate and since they have control of the money (and
possibly, no one wants to start another Goblin Rebellion), the
wizarding world lets them do it their way.


--Margaret Dean
  <margdean at erols.com>