Righties and lefties in Potterverse

[alshainofthenorth]

No: HPFGUIDX 83714

Hiya,

apologies if this has come up before. Yahoo's groupsearch refuses to
cooperate. :-(

Anyway, yesterday I was listening to PoA read by Stephen Fry during an
11-hour ferry voyage between Finland and Sweden (audiobooks are your
friends during dull journeys) and realised something I ought to have
realised way earlier. There's some canon evidence for Remus being a
lefty in chapter "The Servant of Lord Voldemort" (yes, I'm a southpaw
myself, which is why I find the question interesting). When Pettigrew
is chained to Remus and Ron, his left arm is chained to Remus' right
and his right arm to Ron's left. Yet Remus keeps him covered with his
wand, which might suggest that his wand hand is the left one. Or can
you get wands for the ambidextrous at Ollivander's? (In some twisted
way it makes sense that the percentage of lefties would be higher
among Dark creatures -- using the left hand was seen as the mark of
the Devil.)

Others have suggested that Pettigrew might be a lefty as well, since
he cut off his right index finger (PoA) and his right hand (GoF). It
makes sense that he'd use his dominant hand for something like that, no? 

Also, what would happen if a lefty tries to use a right-hand wand (or
if you use your wand with your non-dominant hand)? Would it be akin to
using a pair of right-hand scissors (uncomfortable, but manageable), a
right-hand serrated knife (visible differences in the final results),
or a chainsaw (you risk cutting your arm off)?

Alshain