Skip to main content

harry potter - Whose wand did Bellatrix use at the Battle of Hogwarts?


In Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, Bellatrix was relieved of her wand by Dobby at Malfoy Manor. The wand was in Hermione's possession when Harry and Co. infiltrated Gringotts. Later, Bellatrix obviously participates in the Battle of Hogwarts. So whose wand is she using? I am assuming she was unable to buy a new wand, as Ollivander's shop was closed and Ollivander escaped Malfoy Manor with the rest of them.


She could have asked to borrow one, like Voldemort borrowed Lucius'



(which was destroyed by Harry's wand on the night Mad-Eye Moody was killed).



Draco also needed a wand, so he borrowed his mother's (in the movie at least; I don't recall what the book states). So Bellatrix wouldn't have been able to borrow her sister's wand. So whose wand did she use?



At the risk of asking two questions in one post, would the borrowed wand in any way reduce her effectiveness in dueling?



Answer




Bellatrix did get a wand after hers was stolen. It's unclear how exactly she got it, but it isn't mentioned as being anyone else's wand, like Narcissa's or Draco's. In the movie, we see her new wand, and it doesn't look anything like any of the Death Eaters' wands.


enter image description here


There are several ways she could have sourced herself a new wand.




  • She could have taken one from a victim of the Death Eaters (like Charity Burbage).





  • She could have taken one from a lower-ranking Death Eater, it would be more important that she had one than them.




  • Ollivander made Pettigrew a new wand, it's possible he was also forced to make spare wands as well, even if not specifically for her.




Another thing to remember is that once Ollivander was kidnapped, his shop was left empty. Even after he was freed from the Death Eaters, he was in hiding, and would have still left his shop empty. The Death Eaters could easily have looted it somehow for wands.


In addition, Harry mentioned that they left two wands at Malfoy Manor.




“We left your wand and the blackthorn wand at the Malfoys’, Hermione.” Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, Chapter 24 (The Wandmaker)



It's likely that using a different wand affected her dueling skills to some extent.


Dueling with an unsuitable wand certainly can have negative effects.


Harry wasn't able to use a Snatcher's blackthorn wand nearly as well as his own. He described it as making even his simple, minor spells less powerful and effective.



“Sorry – reducio.’


The spider did not shrink. Harry looked down at the blackthorn wand. Every minor spell he had cast with it so far that day had seemed less powerful than those he had produced with his phoenix wand. The new one felt intrusively unfamiliar, like having somebody else’s hand sewn to the end of his arm.” Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, Chapter 20 (Xenophilius Lovegood)



In addition, Hermione was barely able to stand having Bellatrix's wand, since it felt like a part of her.




“Hermione looked frightened that the wand might sting or bite her as she picked it up.


‘I hate this thing,’ she said in a low voice. ‘I really hate it. It feels all wrong, it doesn’t work properly for me … it’s like a bit of her.” Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, Chapter 26 (Gringotts)



Bellatrix could have also felt like the wand was a part of her, and for her that would be a benefit since it was so attuned to her. Ollivander says the relationship between a wizard and their wand is very important.



“The best results, however, must always come where there is the strongest affinity between wizard and wand. These connections are complex. An initial attraction, and then a mutual quest for experience, the wand learning from the wizard, the wizard from the wand.” Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, Chapter 24 (The Wandmaker)



Simply by having and using her wand for so long, Bellatrix's wand would have been more attuned and connected to her than a new one, even one perfectly suited to her, because she's had hers for longer and it's had time to "learn" from her.


Comments

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...

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.

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.

Was the "pure soul" of Harry's what had really hurt Voldemort?

In the Order of the Phoenix, Voldemort possesses Harry, and it hurts. Greatly. I think that Dumbledore explained that it was because Voldemort's rotten soul was incapable of assimilating Harry's pure soul, that Voldemort didn't understand the love and friendship etc that Harry has in his heart. But, I think it was a lie. Remember that in Deathly Hallows, while looking for information regarding Horcruxes, it is discovered that it is in fact possible to merge a soul fragment back, but that the process was extremely painful. Now then, if Voldemort tried to possess Harry, and Harry had a fragment of Voldemort's soul, I think that it could have been the true cause of Voldemort's pain: the fact of having his soul so close of another fragment. I think that Dumbledore knew that fact, but had to lie to Harry because it was inappropriate to let him know that he had one of Voldemort's soul fragments at the moment. Is that right? Or was it truly the pure soul of Harry's...