Bella's wand (was CHAPDISC: DH24, The Wandmaker-Bella's wand // Longbottoms

[zanooda2]

No: HPFGUIDX 183754

--- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, "Carol" <justcarol67 at ...> wrote:
 
> But why would Bella hide her wand when she as much as admitted to
> Crucioing the Longbottoms and not only admitted to being but bragged
> about being a loyal Voldemort supporter?


zanooda:

She admitted it during trial, when her guilt was already proven (I
don't know how, considering there were no witnesses), so she had
nothing to loose. But right after the crime, knowing that the
Longbottoms were not in a condition to testify, she might have thought
that the Ministry didn't have any evidence against her. 

She might have thought that her wand with the Crucio on it was the
only thing that could incriminate her, so she decided to use some
other wand for a while, just in case. I think Bella really wanted to
avoid Azkaban - she was desperate to find her master and staying free
was crucial. 

If you remember, she already did it once - just like Lucius Malfoy,
she talked her way out of Azkaban right after LV's downfall (by
claiming Imperius, I suppose). In GoF Sirius said: "Crouch's own son
was caught with a group of Death Eaters who'd managed to talk their
way out of Azkaban. Apparently they were trying to find Voldemort and
return him power" (p.527 Am.ed.). This means the Lestranges managed to
avoid imprisonment then, so maybe Bella hoped to do it one more time :-).


> Carol wrote:

> So, assuming that the wands were presented as evidence, I can only
> conclude that for some reason, they weren't destroyed and were 
> somehow recovered in time for the escaped DEs


zanooda:

That's the point, *if* the wands were confiscated, I can't think of a
way for Bella and the others to recover them during their escape in
OotP, unless the wands were kept not at the Ministry, but in Azkaban,
which would be downright stupid. 


> Carol wrote:

> But Lucius, too, has his own wand, and he was arrested after 
> Bellatrix and the others escaped.


zanooda:

It's a little different with Lucius and other DEs arrested in the DoM,
IMO. They only escaped in the summer between HBP and DH, and by that
time the DEs infiltrated the Ministry. It was all different in OotP,
when Bella and others escaped. Maybe Lucius Imperiused some Ministry
worker to steal the confiscated wands from wherever they were kept at
the Ministry?
 

> Carol, who was in San Diego for three and a half days (Thursday
> through Sunday) if anyone wondered


zanooda, who *did* wonder :-)