Skip to main content

harry potter - Can a Squib Own a Wand?




KWIKSPELL
A Correspondence Course in
Beginners’ Magic

Intrigued, Harry flicked the envelope open and pulled out the sheaf of parchment inside. More curly silver writing on the front page said:

Feel out of step in the world of modern magic? Find yourself making excuses not to perform simple spells? Ever been taunted for your woeful wandwork?

There is an answer!

Why on earth did Filch want a Kwikspell course? Did this mean he wasn’t a proper wizard? Harry was just reading ‘Lesson One: Holding Your Wand (Some Useful Tips)’ when shuffling footsteps outside told him Filch was coming back....

Chamber of Secrets - pages 97-98 - British Hardcover



In Is It Genetically Possible for a Squib to Produce Magical Offspring, the two answers given agree that it would be possible for Squibs to produce magical offspring. Going off this premise, a Squib would have to be harboring magical genes (they would be recessive, I believe?). Would a wand be able to sense these magical latent genes and "choose" a Squib, even if the Squib could never perform purposeful magic with the wand? Is there anything in the law that states a Squib cannot own a wand, even if it seems silly or stupid that they would want to?


Can a Squib own a wand?


04.26.12 - I'm still looking for answers to compare on this question. Please feel free to leave an answer. :)



Answer



Anyone could possess a wand, whether Muggle, Squib or Wizard. While it's a magical object, it's clearly visible, and generally wands have no enchantment that would keep a Muggle from picking one up (and as Squibs, while having no ability to exert magical power, do seem to have some capacity to sense magic, such enchantments may not even work on a Squib anyway). The question is whether the Ministry would allow a non-Wizard to own a wand. There are many magical creatures of (near-) human intelligence and of varying magical power which are forbidden by wizards from possessing wands.



Specifically regarding Squibs, I would think it's a question of necessity. A wand that can sense no magical power in a person simply will not choose that person. If a wand cared about recessive genes that never manifested, it could choose the Muggle parent of a Wizard. With the Statute of Secrecy, and the fact that Squibs are usually encouraged to integrate fully into the Muggle world, I would think that even if Ollivander or Gregorovitch would let a Squib walk in and purchase a wand they could do nothing with, the Ministry would have something to say about a person living wholly in the Muggle world having such an object, and the risk of exposure that could cause.


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

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...
Post a Comment
Read more