It's not like there is only one single wand that will work well for a wizard. Even if a wizard loses their first wand they can still get another wand that works for them just as well, it's just a matter of going to a shop and buying one.

 

Still makes you wonder how shoddy security they must have on those wands they have taken from the prisoners. How did Lucius and Bellatrix (and all the other prisoned and escaped Death Eaters) get their wands back before the fall of the Ministry in DH? Or were the wands just given to whatever family they had left?

 

Is there any evidence to suggest they were the same wands?

Unrelated to the conversation, but is this precisely true? We know of at least one squib who is apparently unaffected by the muggle repelling charms on Hogwarts.

 

I can't remember the conclusions right now, but we did have a thread discussing this at one point.

 

Only for Bellatrix's.

 

Bellatrix may have gotten her original wand back once the Ministry was taken over.

 

Except she fought with that same wand in OotP.

Notice the line:

In OotP, the Ministry hadn't been taken over.

 

There's no way Hermione could actually know that to be fair. She may have just assumed that Bellatrix's current wand was the same one she had before.

 

Actually we can be fairly certain of that fact as Ollivander recognises it as Bellatrix's wand. An argument can be made that he made it after her escape from Azkaban but its unlikely as once again she did have her wand during OotP.

The only explanation in the inconsistency regarding wand-snapping can be attributed to it being limited to those who don't complete their education due to factors of indiscipline. Voluntary drop-outs probably are spared the fate as seen in Fred and George's case. Or maybe it just requires you to have attained your OWLs.

The system does seem flawed as apparently mass-murderers' wands escape that fate, but at least it seems consistent.

 

We can be certain that it's Bellatrix's wand, but we can't be certain when she got it back. It could have been a fuckup on JKR's part, or Hermione was guessing and Bellatrix got it back after the Ministry fell.

 

I'm pretty sure that the Kiss is supposed to be something that is an absolute last resort punishment, supposed to be for the very worst of the worst. I mean Sirius supposedly killed like 13 people in broad daylight and that wasn't enough to earn the Kiss initially. It wasn't until after he escaped that they were going to kiss him.

So Bellatrix wouldn't have gotten kissed because they didn't see her crimes as being enough. Did she only go to jail for torturing the Longbottoms? If mass murder wasn't enough for the Kiss then that wouldn't be.

 

Peter Pettigrew was a wizard.

 

If a wizard's wand gets snapped, living without it would suck. Even as a punishment, removing a wizard's wand is a dick move, and we know wizards like Hagrid get mocked for having a non-functioning wand - or students like Ron get teased by their dorm-mates for not being able to control theirs properly. Didn't Ron's wand start leaking sparks at some point against his will?

But is there anything actually stopping a wizard in this situation from going out and paying to take a new wand? Are they allowed to play with another wizard's wand, even if they don't have one themselves? Would their new wand, if they did get one, be hard to use?

Hagrid obviously never gets a new wand - but we do know he preserves the shattered remains of his old one for sentimental reasons. He seems to want to keep this a secret, but happily shows young Harry where he keeps his wand when they first meet, which as we know was the start of a beautiful friendship. And Dumbledore appears to both know and condone Hagrid's illicit use of his mutilated wand.

The problem as I see it is that Hogwarts isn't the only place that a young man can learn to whip his wand in. It seems unfair that if a boy cocks up and displeases a member of staff with the way he uses his wand that he'd be shunned from the rest of society entirely. Can't a guy just transfer schools without having anyone lay a hand on his wand?

 

To me it just seems like there's no point to snapping her wand. Escaping from Azkaban was supposed to be inescapable, and she had a life sentence. I simply can't see any reason to snap the wand, but I also can't see any reason for them to keep the wand around, rather then just throwing it into the ocean or something.

 

IIRC, the only people we ever see the Dementor's Kiss used against is Sirius (who escaped Azkaban) and Crouch Jr (who also escaped Azkaban). This makes me think that the Dementor's Kiss, while it happened due to Dementor's getting hungry for new souls, seems to be used against those who escaped Azkaban. After all, if Azkaban won't hold them then the Dementor's Kiss is the only way to deal with them from the view of the Ministry. Usually those in Azkaban are expected to remain there until the day they die in most cases we've seen (e.g. for using Unforgivable Curses on human beings, murder, etc) so had Sirius/Crouch Jr not escaped then they would have stayed there until they died.

I think OWLs and NEWTs can be seen as comparable to GSCEs and A-Levels given that school in the UK is compulsory until the age of 16 (GSCEs obtained) and how the number of NEWTs taken are completely optional (e.g. Neville taking 3 NEWT subjects, Harry and Ron taking 5, and Hermione taking 7). Doing A-Levels isn't compulsory (though this would change if a future prime minister makes school compulsory until the age of 18) so one could quit their education without having done A-Levels.

In the case of Fred and George, they chose to quite Hogwarts and also got their OWLs already so both things make it unlikely they would get their wand snapped. Meanwhile the only students that I remember getting expelled from Hogwarts were Hagrid (in his third year before his OWLs) and Newt Scamander, which suggests that Newt might have got expelled in his sixth or seventh year. If we counted non-Hogwarts students such as Grindelwald, then Rita's Life and Lies of Albus Dumbledore thing within Book 7 said that Grindelwald was expelled at the age of 16 which would have made him a sixth year had he attended Hogwarts (though he'd be a sixth year if he attended Durmstrang).

That would explain why Harry is worried about his wand getting snapped: he didn't pass his OWLs yet so he fears his wand being snapped. Though I think the Ministry just picks and chooses who it snaps wands of. Hagrid was a half-Giant so that might have been a reason his wand was snapped since the wizarding world (for good reason) is prejudiced against Giants and half-Giants.

 

The facts of the matter is that a student gets their wand snapped by being expelled early and which brings the Ministry in to do said wand snapping. This means they have two chances for an appeal, because firstly, no teacher has the right to expel a student, that lies with the Headmaster (at least in Hogwarts case, no idea about overseas), and if the student feels he's being unfairly expelled, he can probably appeal to the School Board or the Ministry (although I feel the School Board is probably a part of the Ministry). Hagrid was unlucky in that both the Headmaster at the time and the Ministry were convinced he was guilty.

On other matters, my explanation for life time members of the Azkaban club keeping their wands is simple. Given the fact there's at least one spell to check out a wands history, that makes them evidence, and even when people are in prison, retrials can happen, which means disposing of what can be considered fairly damning evidence is foolish.

The other point I'd like to address is giving these life time prisoners the Dementor's Kiss. The Kiss is probably seen as less of a punishment in a way than life in Azkaban. The prison is (supposedly) inescapable. Which means not only are you dealing with the terrible fact that you're a prisoner, you've got the terrifying exposure to Dementors (quite possibly nearly 24/7). And you will deal with this until you die in your cell. Getting kissed leaves you a soulless husk yes, but at least its over. Torment for the rest of your life at the hands of creatures that thrive by sucking out your happiness and inducing misery is a loooong painful existence and I imagine post-war no one was feeling too merciful towards those who did manage to get convncted. The only reason to apply the Kiss is if someone isn't capable of being held in Azkaban, and outside of Sirius (and other unregistered animagi with small enough forms) the only way out is if you've got Voldemort staging a break out, and that means getting the Kiss applied to anyone is more his purview than the Ministry's at that point.