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Baruffio is a blog for people who take silly things way too seriously. It’s where you can read ludicrously in-depth analyses of a single spell. It’s where the only argument against a conspiracy theory is that it’s not consistent. It’s where we’re still talking about Harry Potter, after all these years.

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Until Deathly Hallows, we all thought Expelliarmus was just a nifty spell that causes people to drop their wands and sometimes knocks them over (which is why we had all those Tower Truthers saying that Dumbledore wasn’t dead). But then it turns out that it’s totally bonkers. Apparently disarming someone actually transfers their wand’s loyalty to you.

This is totally bonkers because everybody disarms everybody at some point. So to figure out whose wand is whose and what really happened, let’s catalog every instance of disarming ever!

Before we do that, though, we need to figure out when exactly a wand changes owners.

Well, maybe not exactly.

How Expelliarmus works (maybe)

For some reason Harry has to finish He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named in the very same way that he beats You-Know-Who when he’s only a baby; namely, by having Lord Thingy’s Avada Kedavra bounce off the Chosen Boy like he’s some sort of magic mirror. In order to pull it off, Rowling drops this tidbit on us two-thirds of the way through Deathly Hallows:

“Hawthorn and unicorn hair. Ten inches precisely. Reasonably springy. This was the wand of Draco Malfoy.”

“Was?” repeated Harry. “Isn’t it still his?”

“Perhaps not. If you took it—”

”—I did—”

”—then it may be yours. Of course, the manner of taking matters.”

…

“I took this wand from Draco Malfoy by force,” said Harry. “Can I use it safely?”

“I think so. Subtle laws govern wand ownership, but the conquered wand will usually bend its will to its new master” (DH, chapter 24).

If you’re prone to fits of charitability, you might think that all this means is that, when you disarm someone else by force and take their wand, eventually the wand might “bend its will” to you.

But you would be wrong! Check out this exchange from Harry’s rap battle with Voldy:

“You still don’t get it, Riddle, do you? Possessing the wand isn’t enough! Holding it, using it, doesn’t make it really yours. Didn’t you listen to Ollivander? The wand chooses the wizard … the Elder Wand recognised a new master before Dumbledore died, someone who never even laid a hand on it. The new master removed the wand from Dumbledore against his will, never realising exactly what he had done, or that the world’s most dangerous wand had given him its allegiance …”

Voldemort’s chest rose and fell rapidly, and Harry could feel the curse coming, feel it building inside the wand pointed at his face.

“The true master of the Elder Wand was Draco Malfoy.”

Blank shock showed in Voldemort’s face for a moment, but then it was gone.

“But what does it matter?” he said softly. “Even if you are right, Potter, it makes no difference to you and me. You no longer have the phoenix wand: we duel on skill alone … and after I have killed you, I can attend to Draco Malfoy …”

“But you’re too late,” said Harry. “You’ve missed your chance. I got there first. I overpowered Draco weeks ago. I took this wand from him.”

Harry twitched the hawthorn wand, and he felt the eyes of everyone in the Hall upon it.

“So it all comes down to this, doesn’t it?” whispered Harry. “Does the wand in your hand know its last master was Disarmed? Because if it does … I am the true master of the Elder Wand” (DH, chapter 36).

You don’t even have to touch a wand to win it. And not only that, when you disarm someone you get all the wands they’ve won. That’s how Harry gets the Elder Wand by disarming Draco, even though it’s tucked away in Dumbledore’s tomb.

But at least you do have to disarm the other person by force, like Ollivander says, right? WRONG AGAIN:

And now Harry was hurrying along a dark corridor in stout little Gregorovitch’s wake as he held a lantern aloft: Gregorovitch burst into the room at the end of the passage and his lantern illuminated what looked like a workshop; wood-shavings and gold gleamed in the swinging pool of light, and there on the window ledge sat perched, like a giant bird, a young man with golden hair. In the split second that the lantern’s light illuminated him, Harry saw the delight upon his handsome face, then the intruder shot a Stunning Spell from his wand and jumped neatly backwards out of the window with a crow of laughter (DH, chapter 14).

Grindelwald wins the Elder Wand by just sneaking into Gregorovitch’s bedroom and nicking it.

Now, we could get into fussy debates over intention, and malice, and try to lay down some criteria for when nabbing someone else’s wand really counts as “disarming” them and so transfers the ownership.

But that would be boring. Let’s just assume that anyone who grabs someone else’s wand or otherwise disarms them gains ownership of every wand that person owns.

So, which wands belong to who?

Swaps that happen before Harry starts at Hogwarts

We just saw how Grindelwald steals the Elder wand from Gregorovitch. Let’s write that down:

DH, chapter 35

“I think he knew it, I think he knew what frightened me. I delayed meeting him until, finally, it would have been too shameful to resist any longer. People were dying and he seemed unstoppable, and I had to do what I could.

“Well, you know what happened next. I won the duel. I won the wand.”

OotP, chapter 28

Snape reacted so fast it was as though he had been expecting an attack: dropping his bag, he plunged his hand inside his robes and his wand was halfway into the air when James shouted, “Expelliarmus!“

Poor Snivellus can never catch a break.

DH, chapter 33

Then a blinding, jagged jet of white light flew through the air: Harry thought of lightning, but Snape had dropped to his knees and his wand had flown out of his hand.

“Don’t kill me!”

“That was not my intention.”

Any sound of Dumbledore Apparating had been drowned by the sound of the wind in the branches. He stood before Snape with his robes whipping around him, and his face was illuminated from below in the light cast by his wand.

This doesn’t sound like an Expelliarmus; Dumbledore’s too weird for any normal spells. It’s certainly some sort of disarming, but—woops—James already disarmed Snivellus. Snape doesn’t own his wand anymore.

Here’s how things stand going into the first book:

Philosopher’s Stone

PS, chapter 10

Hermione had sunk to the floor in fright; Ron pulled out his own wand—not knowing what he was going to do he heard himself cry the first spell that came into his head: “Wingardium Leviosa!“

The club flew suddenly out of the troll’s hand, rose high, high up into the air, turned slowly over—and dropped, with a sickening crack, on to its owner’s head.

Because why should we limit this to wands? How very close-minded. The wand chooses the wizard, but the club chooses the mindless death machine, too. (Ron is pretty mindless, so the club chose well here.)

Chamber of Secrets

CoS, chapter 11

Both of them swung their wands up and over their shoulders. Snape cried: “Expelliarmus!” There was a dazzling flash of scarlet light and Lockhart was blasted off his feet: he flew backwards off the stage, smashed into the wall and slid down it to sprawl on the floor.

Good for Snivellus, he owns a wand again!

CoS chapter 13

Percy said, “As a school Prefect—”, but Harry had lost his temper. He pulled out his wand and shouted, “Expelliarmus!” and just as Snape had disarmed Lockhart, so Malfoy found the diary shooting out of his hand into the air. Ron, grinning broadly, caught it.

CoS, chapter 16

Harry reached his wand just in time. Lockhart had barely raised his, when Harry bellowed, “Expelliarmus!” Lockhart was blasted backwards, falling over his trunk. His wand flew high into the air; Ron caught it, and flung it out of the open window.

Dang, Lockhart already lost his wands. Ron is actually throwing Snape’s wand out the window. No changes here.

“Get up,” said Ron sharply, pointing his wand at Lockhart.

Lockhart got to his feet—then he dived at Ron, knocking him to the ground.

Harry jumped forward, but too late. Lockhart was straightening up, panting, Ron’s wand in his hand and a gleaming smile back on his face.

Why doesn’t Harry just Expelliarmus him again here? Possibly because Harry is pathetic; but who knows, really.

CoS, chapter 18

Harry, Ron, Hermione, Fred, George and Ginny got a compartment to themselves. They made the most of the last few hours in which they were allowed to do magic before the holidays. They played Exploding Snap, set off the very last of Fred and George’s Filibuster Fireworks, and practised disarming each other by magic. Harry was getting very good at it.

Well, since we don’t know who disarms who here (THANKS, J.K.), let’s just suppose that, since “Harry was getting very good at it”, he disarmed everyone else. That makes sense, right?

Let’s review the scores:

Prisoner of Azkaban

PoA, chapter 1

I couldn’t believe it when Dad won the Daily Prophet Draw. Seven hundred galleons! Most of it’s gone on this holiday, but they’re going to buy me a new wand for next year.

Ron gets a new wand! Since it probably “chose” him at Ollivander’s, I don’t think it knows or cares that Lockhart disarmed him the previous year.

PoA, chapter 17

It was Sirius Black.

“Expelliarmus!” he croaked, pointing Ron’s wand at them.

Harry’s and Hermione’s wands shot out of their hands, high in the air, and Black caught them.

Looks like Sirius took Ron’s wand by force, then did some badass double-disarmery.

But Black’s free hand had found Harry’s throat—

“No,” he hissed. “I’ve waited too long—”

The fingers tightened, Harry choked, his glasses askew.

Then he saw Hermione’s foot swing out of nowhere. Black let go of Harry with a grunt of pain. Ron had thrown himself on Black’s wand hand and Harry heard a faint clatter—

Ron proves himself not entirely useless!

“Expelliarmus!” Lupin shouted.

Harry’s wand flew once more out of his hand; so did the two Hermione was holding.

Hermione was holding her and Ron’s wands, but she didn’t take them by force from Ron; he still owns them (and Harry’s wand), and Lupin doesn’t disarm him, so I don’t think Lupin wins anything here. He wins whatever wands are Hermione’s and Harry’s, which are none.

PoA, chapter 19

Harry made up his mind in a split second. Before Snape could take even one step towards him, he had raised his wand.

“Expelliarmus!” he yelled—except that his wasn’t the only voice that shouted. There was a blast that made the door rattle on its hinges; Snape was lifted off his feet and slammed into the wall, then slid down it to the floor, a trickle of blood oozing from under his hair. He had been knocked out

Harry looked around. Both Ron and Hermione had tried to disarm Snape at exactly the same moment. Snape’s wand soared in a high arc and landed on the bed next to Crookshanks.

Shit. Exactly the same moment?

The boring interpretation is that since no one person disarmed Snape, nobody wins his wands. But that’s not our only option: look where the wand lands!

PoA, chapter 20

Pettigrew had dived for Lupin’s dropped wand. Ron, unsteady on his bandaged leg, fell. There was a bang, a burst of light—and Ron lay motionless on the ground. Another bang—Crookshanks flew into the air and back to the earth in a heap.

“Expelliarmus!” Harry yelled, pointing his own wand at Pettigrew; Lupin’s wand flew high into the air and out of sight.

Goblet of Fire

GoF, chapter 4

Harry didn’t want to miss the fun, but Uncle Vernon’s second ornament narrowly missed his left ear, and on balance he thought it best to leave the situation to Mr Weasley. He stepped into the fire, looking over his shoulder as he said, “The Burrow!”; his last fleeting glimpse of the living room was of Mr Weasley blasting a third ornament out of Uncle Vernon’s hand with his wand, Aunt Petunia screaming and lying on top of Dudley, and Dudley’s tongue lolling around like a great slimy python.

This year, the Dursleys are going to have a pretty barren Christmas tree, because …

GoF, chapter 35

I was starting to fight my father’s Imperius Curse. There were times when I was almost myself again. There were brief periods when I seemed outside his control. It happened, there, in the Top Box. It was like waking from a deep sleep. I found myself out in public, in the middle of the match, and I saw a wand sticking out of a boy’s pocket in front of me. I had not been allowed a wand since before Azkaban. I stole it. Winky didn’t know. Winky is frightened of heights. She had her face hidden.”

GoF, chapter 31

But it was no use—the spider was either so large, or so magical, that the spells were doing no more than aggravating it—Harry had one horrifying glimpse of eight shining black eyes, and razor-sharp pincers, before it was upon him.

He was lifted into the air in its front legs; struggling madly, he tried to kick it; his leg connected with the pincers, and next moment he was in excruciating pain—he could hear Cedric yelling “Stupefy!” too, but his spell had no more effect than Harry’s—Harry raised his wand as the spider opened its pincers once more, and shouted,

“Expelliarmus!“

It worked—the Disarming spell made the spider drop him, but that meant that Harry fell twelve feet onto his already injured leg, which crumpled beneath him.

After disarming the spider, Harry no longer feels alienated from his own body. He finds that he is more comfortable in his own skin and in fact has better motor control too. (Now you might say, “Alex, that’s ridiculous.” Yes. But how else could he survive the graveyard?)

GoF, chapter 34

Voldemort was ready. As Harry shouted “Expelliarmus!”, Voldemort cried “Avada Kedavra!“

A jet of green light issued from Voldemort’s wand just as a jet of red light blasted from Harry’s—they met in mid-air—and suddenly Harry’s wand was vibrating as though an electric charge was surging through it; his hand had seized up around it; he couldn’t have released it if he’d wanted to—and a narrow beam of light was now connecting the two wands, neither red nor green, but bright, deep gold—and Harry, following the beam with his astonished gaze, saw that Voldemort’s long white fingers, too, were gripping a wand that was shaking and vibrating.

Nobody gets disarmed here, we just get some Priori Incantatem nonsense. So there are no changes of wand ownership during this geist ex whatthefuck.

Not enough changes here to do a whole recap of who-owns-what. Let’s move on.

Order of the Phoenix

OotP, chapter 18

The room was suddenly full of shouts of Expelliarmus. Wands flew in all directions; missed spells hit books on shelves and sent them flying into the air.

Oh, shit.

Harry was too quick for Neville, whose wand went spinning out of his hand, hit the ceiling in a shower of sparks and landed with a clatter on top of a bookshelf, from which Harry retrieved it with a Summoning Charm.

“Expelliarmus!” said Neville, and Harry, caught unawares, felt his wand fly out of his hand.

Something very odd was happening to Zacharias Smith. Every time he opened his mouth to disarm Anthony Goldstein, his own wand would fly out of his hand, yet Anthony did not seem to be making a sound. Harry did not have to look far to solve the mystery: Fred and George were several feet from Smith and taking it in turns to point their wands at his back.

…

Ginny was teamed with Michael Corner; she was doing very well, whereas Michael was either very bad or unwilling to jinx her. Ernie Macmillan was flourishing his wand unnecessarily, giving his partner time to get in under his guard; the Creevey brothers were enthusiastic but erratic and mainly responsible for all the books leaping off the shelves around them; Luna Lovegood was similarly patchy, occasionally sending Justin Finch-Fletchley’s wand spinning out of his hand, at other times merely causing his hair to stand on end.

…

“Well, my dad is very supportive of any anti-Ministry action!” said Luna Lovegood proudly from just behind Harry; evidently she had been eavesdropping on his conversation while Justin Finch-Fletchley attempted to disentangle himself from the robes that had flown up over his head.

“That was really, really good, Harry,” said Hermione, when finally it was just her, Harry and Ron who were left.

“Yeah, it was!” said Ron enthusiastically, as they slipped out of the door and watched it melt back into stone behind them. “Did you see me disarm Hermione, Harry?”

Maybe Hermione’s inexplicable attraction to Ron (the boy so solid he cannot apparate half an inch across a room and who nobody likes) is due to the fact that he’s always got her wand.

OotP, chapter 32

“Take his wand,” she barked at someone he could not see, and he felt a hand grope inside the chest pocket of his robes and remove the wand. “Hers, too.”

Harry heard a scuffle over by the door and knew that Hermione had also just had her wand wrested from her.

“I want to know why you are in my office,” said Umbridge, shaking the fist clutching his hair so that he staggered.

Here it’s Malfoy disarming Harry and Millicent Bulstrode taking Hermione’s wand. (It’s always Millicent who gets Hermione. I wonder if Hermione smells like Millicent’s cat because of the Polyjuice episode and that makes Millicent inexplicably attracted to Hermione. Huh.)

Anyway, Harry still doesn’t own a wand. Too bad Draco didn’t relieve Harry of his homework planner, too; then Draco would get his books back!

Hermione doesn’t have shit either. No changes!

There was a commotion outside and several large Slytherins entered, each gripping Ron, Ginny, Luna and—to Harry’s bewilderment—Neville, who was trapped in a stranglehold by Crabbe and looked in imminent danger of suffocation. All four of them had been gagged.

Not only gagged but also, presumably, disarmed. The tricky thing here is figuring out who disarmed who. Warrington is holding Ron and Crabbe has Neville, so they probably also took their wands, but the other Slytherins are unnamed.

OotP, chapter 33

“How did you get away?” asked Harry in amazement, taking his wand from Ron.

“Couple of Stunners, a Disarming Charm, Neville brought off a really nice little Impediment Jinx,” said Ron airily, now handing back Hermione’s wand, too. “But Ginny was best, she got Malfoy—Bat-Bogey Hex—it was superb, his whole face was covered in the great flapping things.

Ginny probably disarmed Malfoy, but otherwise we don’t have much to help us figure out who disarmed who, or how they got their wands back from the Slytherins in the first place.

It would be nice to just say that each of our Heroes snatched their wand from the person holding them—their physical injuries support this, maybe—but even then, who got Millicent? The person who disarmed Millicent was whoever cast the Disarming Charm (Expelliarmus, obvs), so it likely wasn’t Neville or Ginny. Given Luna’s relative ineptitude with the spell, there’s a fair chance it wasn’t her. So let’s say Ron disarmed Millicent.

OotP, chapter 35

Harry launched himself across the floor and grabbed the Death Eater around the knees, causing him to topple and his aim to go awry. Neville overturned a desk in his anxiety to help; and pointing his wand wildly at the struggling pair, he cried:

“EXPELLIARMUS!“

Both Harry’s and the Death Eater’s wands flew out of their hands and soared back towards the entrance to the Hall of Prophecy; both scrambled to their feet and charged after them, the Death Eater in front, Harry hot on his heels, and Neville bringing up the rear, plainly horrorstruck by what he had done.

Harry fell to his knees beside her as Neville crawled rapidly towards her from under the desk, his wand held up in front of him. The Death Eater kicked out hard at Neville’s head as he emerged—his foot broke Neville’s wand in two and connected with his face.

This probably counts as a disarming. Neville’s wands must have finally realized how inept he is.

Half-Blood Prince

HBP, chapter 7

“Yes, I thought Gran would be angry about all the publicity,” said Neville, “but she was really pleased. Says I’m starting to live up to my dad at long last. She bought me a new wand, look!”

He pulled it out and showed it to Harry.

“Cherry and unicorn hair,” he said proudly. “We think it was one of the last Ollivander ever sold, he vanished next day—oi, come back here, Trevor!”

HBP, chapter 27

Harry hurried over to the door leading to the spiral staircase, but his hand had only just closed upon the iron ring of the door when he heard running footsteps on the other side. He looked round at Dumbledore, who gestured to him to retreat. Harry backed away, drawing his wand as he did so.

The door burst open and somebody erupted through it and shouted “Expelliarmus!“

Harry’s body became instantly rigid and immobile, and he felt himself fall back against the Tower wall, propped like an unsteady statue, unable to move or speak. He could not understand how it had happened—Expelliarmus was not a Freezing Charm—

Then, by the light of the Mark, he saw Dumbledore’s wand flying in an arc over the edge of the ramparts and understood … Dumbledore had wordlessly immobilised Harry, and the second he had taken to perform the spell had cost him the chance of defending himself.

Oooh, this is the important one.

HBP, chapter 28

“No, Potter!” screamed Snape. There was a loud BANG and Harry was soaring backwards, hitting the ground hard again, and this time his wand flew out of his hand. He could hear Hagrid yelling and Fang howling as Snape closed in and looked down on him where he lay, wandless and defenceless as Dumbledore had been.

La la la, Harry doesn’t have a wand. But here we can at least appreciate how J.K. uses all caps to great effect.

I’m not going to repeat everyone’s wand ownership status again because not much changed and this damn thing is getting so long. But we’re almost done!

Deathly Hallows

DH, chapter 4

Harry sent Stunning Spell after Stunning Spell back at their pursuers, barely holding them off. He shot another blocking jinx at them: the closest Death Eater swerved to avoid it and his hood slipped, and by the red light of his next Stunning Spell, Harry saw the strangely blank face of Stanley Shunpike—Stan—

“Expelliarmus!” Harry yelled.

As the pain from Harry’s scar forced his eyes shut, his wand acted of its own accord. He felt it drag his hand round like some great magnet, saw a spurt of golden fire through his half-closed eyelids, heard a crack and a scream of fury. The remaining Death Eater yelled; Voldemort screamed, “No!”

This is for sure a disarming. But Voldy’s using Lucius Malfoy’s wand, so does Harry own that wand now? I don’t think so, because Lucius wasn’t really disarmed. He was coerced to give Voldemort his wand, sure, but that probably doesn’t count.

DH, chapter 11

Mundungus scrambled up and pulled out his wand; Hermione, however, was too quick for him.

“Expelliarmus!“

Mundungus’s wand soared into the air and Hermione caught it.

DH, chapter 21

Xenophilius licked his lips.

“They took my Luna,” he whispered. “Because of what I’ve been writing. They took my Luna and I don’t know where she is, what they’ve done to her. But they might give her back to me if I—if I—”

As we learn later, Luna lost her wand when she got pulled off the Hogwarts Express. Presumably a Death Eater took it.

DH, chapter 23

“Get up, vermin.”

Unknown hands dragged Harry roughly off the ground. Before he could stop them, someone had rummaged through his pockets and removed the blackthorn wand.

…

“Get—off—her!” Ron shouted. There was the unmistakable sound of knuckles hitting flesh: Ron grunted in pain and Hermione screamed, “No! Leave him alone, leave him alone!”

“Your boyfriend’s going to have worse than that done to him if he’s on my list,” said the horribly familiar, rasping voice. “Delicious girl … what a treat … I do enjoy the softness of the skin …”

…

“Anyone still got a wand?”

“No,” said Ron and Hermione from either side of him.

Well, crap. We’ve got even less to go on here than in Umbridge’s office. Greyback is the head of this band of Snatchers, so it might be reasonable to assume that he’s just giving orders and not actually disarming anyone.

We learn a few pages later that Harry was disarmed by Scabior:

“I know ‘e’s swollen, ma’am, but it’s ‘im!” piped up Scabior. “If you look a bit closer, you’ll see ‘is scar. And this ‘ere, see the girl? The Mudblood who’s been travelling around with ‘im, ma’am. There’s no doubt it’s ‘im, and we’ve got ‘is wand as well! ‘Ere, ma’am—”

Harry saw Narcissa Malfoy scrutinising his swollen face. Scabior thrust the blackthorn wand at her. She raised her eyebrows (DH 311).

So I think all we can say is this:

There was a bang and a flash of red light: Harry knew that the Snatcher had been Stunned. There was a roar of anger from his fellows: Scabior drew his wand. “What d’you think you’re playing at, woman?” “Stupefy,” she screamed, “stupefy!“

They were no match for her, even though there were four of them against one of her: she was a witch, as Harry knew, with prodigious skill and no conscience. They fell where they stood, all except Greyback, who had been forced into a kneeling position, his arms outstretched. Out of the corners of his eyes, Harry saw Bellatrix bearing down upon the werewolf, the sword of Gryffindor gripped tightly in her hand, her face waxen.

“Where did you get this sword?” she whispered to Greyback as she pulled his wand out of his unresisting grip.

It’s really too bad that Greyback didn’t disarm Harry et al., instead of Scabior and the other shitheart Snatchers. Too bad Bellatrix didn’t disarm instead of stun them. Then she would have everything. Oh well; the truth is sacred.

“And we’ll have that,” whispered Ron, tugging Wormtail’s wand from his other hand.

Ollivander says this should work, but Barty Crouch Jr. owns Pettigrew’s wand, so Ron’s out of luck. No changes.

Ron had burst into the drawing room; Bellatrix looked round, shocked; she turned her wand to face Ron instead—

“Expelliarmus!” he roared, pointing Wormtail’s wand at Bellatrix, and hers flew into the air and was caught by Harry, who had sprinted after Ron.

Ronnie the Bear shows his quality!

(Yeah, I know what you’re thinking: Harry caught the wand, so are we sure he doesn’t own it? Pretty sure. If Filch had caught the Elder wand as it fell from the tower when Dumbledore was disarmed, would he have been the true owner of the Elder Wand?)

The chandelier crashed to the floor in an explosion of crystal and chains, falling on top of Hermione and the goblin, who still clutched the sword of Gryffindor. Glittering shards of crystal flew in all directions: Draco doubled over, his hands covering his bloody face.

As Ron ran to pull Hermione out of the wreckage, Harry took his chance; he leapt over an armchair and wrested the three wands from Draco’s grip, pointed all of them at Greyback and yelled: “Stupefy!” The werewolf was lifted off his feet by the triple spell, flew up to the ceiling and then smashed to the ground.

Well, damn, it looks like J.K. Rowling’s wacky scheme might work! Draco was holding his, Bellatrix’s, and Pettigrew’s wands.

“Kill him, Cissy!” shrieked Bellatrix, but there was another loud crack, and Narcissa’s wand, too, flew into the air and landed on the other side of the room.

“You dirty little monkey!” bawled Bellatrix. “How dare you take a witch’s wand, how dare you defy your masters?”

DH, chapter 26

Mr Ollivander had sent Luna a new wand that morning. She was out on the back lawn at that moment, testing its capabilities in the late afternoon sun. Dean, who had lost his wand to the Snatchers, was watching rather gloomily.

DH, chapter 31

“It’s that Mudblood! Avada Kedavra!“

Harry saw Hermione dive aside and his fury that Crabbe had aimed to kill wiped all else from his mind. He shot a Stunning Spell at Crabbe, who lurched out of the way, knocking Malfoy’s wand out of his hand; it rolled out of sight beneath a mountain of broken furniture and boxes

“Don’t kill him! DON’T KILL HIM!” Malfoy yelled at Crabbe and Goyle, who were both aiming at Harry: their split second’s hesitation was all Harry needed.

“Expelliarmus!“

Goyle’s wand flew out of his hand and disappeared into the bulwark of objects beside him; Goyle leapt foolishly on the spot, trying to retrieve it; Malfoy jumped out of range of Hermione’s second Stunning Spell and Ron, appearing suddenly at the end of the aisle, shot a full Body-Bind Curse at Crabbe, which narrowly missed.

Draco didn’t really own his mother’s wand, and he certainly doesn’t own his own, so Crabbe doesn’t get anything out of disarming his boss. But he’s about to die, so that’s really the least of his worries.

DH, chapter 32

“Kill.”

There was a terrible scream. Harry saw Snape’s face losing the little colour it had left, it whitened as his black eyes widened, as the snake’s fangs pierced his neck, as he failed to push the enchanted cage off himself, as his knees gave way, and he fell to the floor.

“I regret it,” said Voldemort coldly.

He turned away; there was no sadness in him, no remorse. It was time to leave this shack and take charge, with a wand that would now do his full bidding.

Hahahaha, Snape hasn’t owned a wand since the last time he was in the Shrieking Shack, way back in the third book.

This isn’t a real disarming. But if we can trust Voldemort, the ownership of the Wand of Destiny can be transferred through killing: “The Elder Wand belongs to the wizard who killed its last owner” (DH 441). Perhaps this quality is exclusive to the Elder Wand. If Snape had any non-Elder wands, Voldemort might not have won them here.

But no changes occur, because neither of these jerks have wands.

DH, chapter 36

But Voldemort broke off: Harry heard a scuffle and a shout, then another bang, a flash of light and a grunt of pain; he opened his eyes an infinitesimal amount. Someone had broken free of the crowd and charged at Voldemort: Harry saw the figure hit the ground, Disarmed, Voldemort throwing the challenger’s wand aside and laughing.

“And who is this?” he said, in his soft snake’s hiss. “Who has volunteered to demonstrate what happens to those who continue to fight when the battle is lost?”

Bellatrix gave a delighted laugh.

“It is Neville Longbottom, my Lord! The boy who has been giving the Carrows so much trouble! The son of the Aurors, remember?”

Don’t throw Neville’s wand away! It’s all you’ve got!

A red-gold glow burst suddenly across the enchanted sky above them, as an edge of dazzling sun appeared over the sill of the nearest window. The light hit both of their faces at the same time, so that Voldemort’s was suddenly a flaming blur. Harry heard the high voice shriek as he, too, yelled his best hope to the heavens, pointing Draco’s wand:

“Avada Kedavra!“

“Expelliarmus!“

The bang was like a cannon-blast and the golden flames that erupted between them, at the dead centre of the circle they had been treading, marked the point where the spells collided. Harry saw Voldemort’s green jet meet his own spell, saw the Elder Wand fly high, dark against the sunrise, spinning across the enchanted ceiling like the head of Nagini, spinning through the air towards the master it would not kill, who had come to take full possession of it at last. And Harry, with the unerring skill of the Seeker, caught the wand in his free hand as Voldemort fell backwards, arms splayed, the slit pupils of the scarlet eyes rolling upwards.

Looks like Harry is the master of the Elder Wand, after all. But this whole thing still doesn’t make any sense, and Harry really shouldn’t have thrown away the Elder Wand afterward since he doesn’t own his anymore.

Oh well.

The final tally