Voldemort's Wand

[Carol Bainbridge]

No: HPFGUIDX 47339

Okay, I'm still working on my theory (or whatever you want to call it) that 
Snape and Lucius were at the Potters the night they were 
killed.  Voldemort's wand was a problem, but that's always been a 
problem.  Well, I came up with an explanation that might work.

Lucius is the one who picks up Voldemort's wand after the curse 
backfires.   He takes it back to his secret room under his manor, where he 
has other things belonging to Voldemort, like Riddle's diary.  Now we know 
in CoS that Lucius goes to Knockturn Alley to sell some of these items 
because he doesn't want to be caught holding them.  Now he may not have 
sold it that day Harry sees him selling stuff, but we do know that Lucius 
is selling stuff he shouldn't have.  We know someone else goes to Knockturn 
Alley too.  Hagrid.  As someone suggested previously, it seems odd that 
Hagrid needed to go to KA to get slug repellent since good witches and 
wizards are just as likely to get slugs as the bad ones are.  The 
implication is that Hagrid just might be doing something else there.

Again, it might not have happened on the same day Harry saw Hagrid in KA, 
but I'm thinking that Hagrid goes to KA to get things -- like critters -- 
he's not really supposed to have.  What if Hagrid bought that wand?  He 
wouldn't know that it was Voldemort's wand.  How could he?  And it's such a 
Hagrid thing to do: "I'm not going to use it; I just want a wand.  It can't 
hurt anything if I buy a nice wand just to look at."  He can't very well go 
to Olivander's for a wand because he's not supposed to have one and 
Olivander knows it.  We know Hagrid buys illegal things -- the dragon egg, 
for instance -- so it's not really a stretch to imagine him buying an 
illegal wand in the only place he could buy one -- Knockturn Alley.

So Hagrid keeps the wand in his hut.  Who do we know might recognize that 
wand, was in Hagrid's hut for an extended period of time, and had contact 
with Voldemort?  Pettigrew.  Peter, the rat, recognizes that wand and when 
he escapes from the clutches of Harry, Lupin, and Black, he hides out for a 
while and at some point comes back for the wand, which he then takes to 
Voldemort.  Even if Hagrid notices the wand has gone missing, he can't very 
well report it because he isn't supposed to have it to begin with!

JKR has hinted more than once that Hagrid is careless.  And we've seen 
evidence of his carelessness.  I don't think buying a wand in Knockturn 
Alley would be out of character at all, and it does explain how Voldemort 
got his wand back.

Carol Bainbridge
(kaityf at jorsm.com)

http://www.lcag.org