What does a wizard do if he loses his wand?

Question

Since you don't have a wand, you can't use the Accio spell to find it. But of course you could just get a buddy to say "Accio Harry's Wand" but would that work? If you could just summon your wand via Accio spell, then why couldn't Draco have gotten his wand back lick-itty-split when Harry Potter had it?

In short, how does a wizard get their wand back if they lose it?

I would imagine they go looking for it. Also, you can use things that aren't wands to perform wanded magic. — Valorum, Feb 10 '15 at 15:36
Hi, and welcome to SciFi.se! I cleaned up your question a bit since as it was, it was very conversational. This site is a question/answer site, and not a forum, so questions need to be written with the idea of getting a single answer in mind. If you want to know more, check out the help section, specifically the section on asking questions: http://scifi.stackexchange.com/help/asking — Zibbobz, Feb 10 '15 at 15:37
Related, possible dupe: What are the rules and limits of accio spell?. Specifically, Slytherincess' answer discusses the fact that some items are immune to "accio". Whether or not wands qualify is unclear. — phantom42, Feb 10 '15 at 15:37
Are you basically asking whether or not a wizard can perform wandless spells, and just using getting the wand back as an arbitrary example? Because, as far as retrieving a wand goes, wizards can still move around with their legs and pick things up with their arms. — Misha R, Mar 22 '18 at 07:43

score 18 · Answer 1 · edited Apr 13 '17 at 12:43

Offhand, I can think of a few things a wizard could do if they lost their wand.

You could cast a lumos spell. In Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, Harry casts the spell (and causes the tip of his wand to light up) despite not being in contact with the wand.

‘DUDLEY, KEEP YOUR MOUTH SHUT! WHATEVER YOU DO, KEEP YOUR MOUTH SHUT! Wand!’ Harry muttered frantically, his hands flying over the ground like spiders. ‘Where’s – wand – come on – lumos!’

He said the spell automatically, desperate for light to help him in his search – and to his disbelieving relief, light flared inches from his right hand – the wand-tip had ignited. Harry snatched it up, scrambled to his feet and turned around.

You could use something else as a focus. Simply picking a spruce or twig from a bush should be sufficient to accomplish a simple spell like Accio'ing a small object. In the movie canon, Moody uses his walking stick.

You could buy/borrow a new wand and perform the accio spell.
You could beg/borrow a time-turner, return to the moment when you lost the wand and then retrieve it.
You could use a pensieve to examine your memory and determine when you lost the wand.
Harry Potter, Tom Riddle and Minerva McGonagall all show an ability to control animals wandlessly. Presumably you could hypnotise or enchant them to do the searching for you, while you made yourself a martini.
It may be possible to perform acts of summoning wandlessly. According to Pottermore, baby Minerva managed this on several occasions;

Isobel later told her daughter that she had displayed small, but unmistakable, signs of magic from her earliest hours. Toys that had been left on upper shelves were found in her cot. The family cat appeared to do her bidding before she could talk.

A warning to casual reader - avoid thinking about the possibility that your future self snatched the wand before you could find it. — Deltharis, Feb 11 '15 at 14:59
@Bobthezealot - I suppose you could substitute butterbeer or fire-whiskey if you were looking for complete in-universe accuracy — Valorum, Feb 11 '15 at 23:34
Why not command two animals - one to find the wand and the other to make the alcoholic beverage of your choice? — maguirenumber6, Mar 27 '16 at 14:27
@maguirenumber6 - And a third to give you a back-rub, to take away the stress of a busy day supervising a wand-finding expedition? — Valorum, Mar 27 '16 at 14:41

score 5 · Answer 2 · edited Apr 13 '17 at 12:43

5

Young wizards have a few routes of recourse when they've lost a wand.

They can in fact Accio it, if they can find a sufficient focus object that is wand-shaped (or perhaps any object, as long as it 'works'), or get a friend to Accio it for them. Wands (other than perhaps the Elder Wand) are not a listed exception to Accio.

If for some reason there is something preventing it from being Accio'd, or if a wizard can't find a proper focus, they can always retrieve it with clever application of another spell. As Richard pointed out, Luminos works even when you aren't holding the wand, so it would at least allow a wizard to see where it is.

And, if all else fails and the wizard simply can't find their wand (or worse, it has been destroyed) they can always get another one made, though it's liable to be expensive, and may not be as well-suited for their use as their original wand. Although, in both Ron and Nevill's cases, they turned out to be much better off with new, non-inherited wands.

So those are their three courses of action: accio with a friend or a makeshift focus, use a different spell to locate it, or simply get a new wand made.

Or they could just use their hands to pick it up, but what kind of wizard would do that?

edited Apr 13 '17 at 12:43

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answered Feb 10 '15 at 15:47

Zibbobz

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"a sufficient focus object that is wand-shaped" - I'm not exactly sure that is true, could be any shape as far as we know. Source for this maybe? Rest of the answer is good. +1 – LepelLeLama Feb 11 '15 at 07:06
@LepelLeLama An assumption based on the fact that all wands are shaped in a particular way. I've added a bit to make it clear this is supposition, and not definitive. – Zibbobz Feb 11 '15 at 14:13
@Zibbobz I believe Moody used his staff to cast spells(can't remember if his wand was fused into it or somehow part of it) and the movies portrayed this with him stomping the staff on the ground when casting. You might differ from me but that seems very "un-wand-like" as you "swish and flick" wands in general :D But in all, like I said, good answer – LepelLeLama Feb 11 '15 at 14:23
@LepelLeLama - I can't think of any occasion when Moody cast magic with his walking stick in the novels, only in the films. – Valorum Feb 11 '15 at 15:04
@Richard Yea I was thinking of the movies. – LepelLeLama Feb 12 '15 at 05:56

score 1 · Answer 3 · edited Jun 16 '20 at 09:31

Wands can be Summoned with Accio.

A lost wand can indeed be Summoned with Accio. Hermione uses Accio to get Harry’s wand back to him when he loses it in the Ministry of Magic.

“‘Accio wand!’ cried Hermione. Harry’s wand flew from a dark corner into her hand and she threw it to him.”
_{^{- Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, Chapter 35 (Beyond the Veil)}}

While in that case, Harry didn’t summon his wand himself, a powerful enough wizard could possibly cast Accio wandlessly, and get their wand back that way.

They can also, of course, simply look for their wand, especially if they simply misplaced it rather than it being lost in a duel.

What does a wizard do if he loses his wand?

3 Answers3

Wands can be Summoned with Accio.

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