LV's Wand question

[justcarol67]

No: HPFGUIDX 162360

Annemehr wrote:
> I'm not sure who you mean as having been "just a head & a cape," but 
> neither Voldemort nor Wormtail ever were.  At Godric's Hollow, LV 
> was "ripped from his body" [GoF ch. 33] and existed, as we now know, 
> as a somewhat frayed soul bound to Earth by several Horcruxes.
> 
> JKR has always refused to answer who else may have been at GH that 
> night, so naturally we can't resist speculating.  I like to think 
> Wormtail was there, and LV intended to force him to help kill the 
> Potters just as he later forced him to help use Harry to get his body 
> back in GoF. (And I think he will end up forcing him to try to help 
> kill Harry in the next book, too.  With interesting results, I 
> expect.)
> 
> Anyway, there's no knowing for sure, but I think the simplest 
> solution to the wand question is that Wormtail was there, and picked 
> up the wand and stowed it in his own robes.  It's possible he then 
> stashed it somewhere, but I doubt it.  
> 
> We know that when an animagus transforms, their clothes and anything 
> on their person (e.g. eyeglasses) transform with them.  Sirius 
> stashed a Daily Prophet picture in his robes and then swam from 
> Azkaban to the mainland in dog form, and emerged on the shore with 
> the clipping unharmed to show to Harry months later.
> 
> So, I figure, Wormtail had LV's wand hidden in his robes when he 
> staged his own death and framed Sirius (I mean the robes he was 
> wearing, not the bloodied ones he left at the scene along with his 
> finger for the Ministry to find).  Then the wand was safely on his 
> person all the years he spent in rat form with the Weasleys, until 
> the day he met up with LV in Albania.  Safest place for it, really.

Carol responds:
I almost agree with you but not quite. The one detail we know for sure
is that Wormtail used Voldemort's wand to kill Cedric, so it must have
been Wormtail who returned Voldemort's wand to him. Vapor!mort could
not have carried it around himself when he had no body or was
possessing the bodies of animals. Since there's no evidence that James
saw anyone except Voldemort at Godric's Hollow ("He's here! Take Harry
and run!) I conjecture that Wormtail was present in rat form so James
and Lily couldn't see him. After they were dead, he could have
transformed back, grabbed the wand, and Disapparated.

I don't think, however, that he had a wand with him, either his own or
Voldemort's, when he transformed into a rat and disappeared after
killing the twelve Muggles. Otherwise, he would have had a wand with
him and been able to defend himself in the Shrieking Shack. I
conjecture that he hid Voldemort's wand and used his own to blow up
the street, then left it behind, along with his finger and a fragment
of bloody cloak, as "evidence" of his death. (No one would have
bothered to examine it using Priori Incantatem; he was the "victim.")
Voldemort's wand he must have found later and placed in his pocket,
taking it with him when he transformed into a rat again. (In this
instance, the wand would have been transfigured along with the clothes
as you suggest.)

Carol, who can't otherwise explain the absence of a wand for Peter in
the Shrieking Shack scene