Skip to main content

harry potter - How do the Azkaban escapees get their wands back?


Sirius Black and a few Death Eaters escape Azkaban and seem to operate after that with their wands intact.


How come?



If a mere expulsion from Hogwarts entails wand destruction (as happened with Hagrid), shouldn't an Azkaban sentence entail the same?


And even if we imagine that the perceived impossibility of escape from Azkaban made it seem unnecessary to destroy the wand, this would apply to Sirius but not to Death Eaters.


PS: Two comments suggested that the escapees acquired new wands. It would be nice to have a more definitive answer than just a suggestion or a list of possibilities. Thanks.


PPS: Returning the personal property to a released prisoner is one thing, but the wand is a different matter: this is usually the tool of the crime, and I don't see how it can be argued that it should be returned and not destroyed. Again, Hagrid had his wand destroyed and he was not even sentenced to Azkaban.


PPPS: Maybe wand destruction is only done for non-fully-qualified wizards?



Answer



Not all sentences to Azkaban are life sentences. Igor was released for selling out other Death Eaters. Hagrid was released after it was proven that he wasn't involved in the Chamber of Secrets incidents. Sturgis Podmore served six months for breaking into the Ministry of Magic. Morfin Gaunt originally served 3 years, but was later framed for murder and sentenced to life. Presumably, all of these people received their wands back upon release (except for Hagrid, who didn't officially have a wand).


It is not uncommon for prisons to keep the things a prisoner had on them when they were captured, and then to return them to them upon their release (or hold items of value for the prisoner). Even those serving life sentence may have personal property that is stored until the time of their death. It is then typically released to next of kin. Since Voldemort orchestrated the breakout of Azkaban prison and had the compliance of the Dementors, if their wands were on the premises, they would be available to them.


Bellatrix Lestrange definitely got back her original wand. As Hermione says:




"But that’s my point! This is the wand that tortured Neville's mum and dad, and who knows how many other people? This is the wand that killed Sirius! I miss my wand." - Deathly Hallows



The events of Neville's mum and dad were before she was locked away.


Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

harry potter - Do the Kwikspell courses work?

In Harry Potter we are introduced to Kwikspell course in The Chamber of Secrets (and never hear about it again). We see Filch taking courses, presumably by mail. The descriptions of Kwikspell make me think it is for people who are weak in magic (kind of like how Neville was supposed to be when he was younger), but had magic in them nonetheless. However, Ron's comments later in the chapter make it sound like it is mainly for Squibs to learn magic. However, it is strongly implied through out all the books that Squibs are essentially Muggles, and will never be able to do magic. How then is a Kwikspell course supposed to work? Do we have any information to know if it works at all? Is it a scam? An answer from any level of canon is welcome. Answer Kwikspell courses are (probably) useful to some wizards, but not to squibs. The Kwikspell course literature comes with two testimonials. Madam Z. Nettles of Topsham writes: ‘I had no memory for incantations and my potions were a family joke...
Post a Comment
Read more

futurama - How much time is lost in 'Time Keeps on Slippin''

In time Keeps on Slippin' , Farnsworth creates a basketball team which he matures by abusing Chronitons. This leads to time skipping forward by random, but ever increasing amounts. How much time was skipped in this way? Answer Unfortunately, I don't think a good estimate can be made for this, for two reasons: Many of the time skips move forward by an indeterminate amount of time. At one point, the Professor mentions localized regions of space skipping forward much more than others. We then see two young boys on the street below complaining about having to pay social security, only to suddenly become senior citizens and start complaining about wanting their money. Thus, each individual could have experienced a different amount of time skippage.
Post a Comment
Read more

languages - Do we ever see written English in the Star Wars films?

In Empire Strikes Back , we see a transcription of what R2's beeps and bloops mean, but it's not English (sorry for the low quality, it's from the 2004 DVDs): I'd assume it's what Basic looks like when written, but is there some point in the the Star Wars films we see written English instead? (This sort of spun off from a discussion in How do people understand astromech droids? .) Answer At one point there was English but it has been phased out in subsequent versions of the films. Chris Gould at DVD Active did a comparison of all versions of each of the Star Wars films, and in his comparison of Episode 4 , there are a couple of screenshots showing how the power gauge for the Death Star tractor beam was changed. I imagine there are probably more to be found in his other comparisons but I haven't got around to reading those yet.
Post a Comment
Read more

star wars - What "exactly" happens when someone turns to the Dark Side?

When I saw the original Star Wars saga as a kid, the concept of the Dark Side imprinted in me was quite simple. You did a bad thing, so you're a bad person so you go to the Dark Side and keep doing bad things. Now, obviously this doesn't hold true in reality. In my mind it is perfectly reasonable for Luke to kill the Emperor and Vader and then just flee the Death Star and rejoin the Alliance. After all they are at war, those are enemy officers that have captured him and are taunting him by threatening with death of all loved ones and the whole operation was intended to kill the Emperor anyway. The same would hold true for Anakin. He could have killed Mace Windu to save the Chancellor and Padme but that doesn't mean he's going to then go mad and kill all Jedis including children. It doesn't add up from a merely psychological point of view. He had a set of objectives and that made him want to keep the Chancellor alive (quite valid by the way, Mace Windu is quite clums...
Post a Comment
Read more