How Newt Kept His Wand After His Hogwarts Expulsion

September 02, 2024

Although Newt Scamander was expelled from Hogwarts, he still had his wand in the Fantastic Beasts movies, possibly due to Dumbledore defending him.

As established in Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them, Newt Scamander was expelled from Hogwarts - so how did he keep his wand? According to Hogwarts rules, the Ministry of Magic will confiscate and snap their wand if a student is expelled. When Newt and his best friend, Leta Lestrange, were 16, Leta’s illegal experiment with a magical beast called a Jarvey endangered the life of a fellow student. However, Newt took the blame for the incident, resulting in him getting expelled from Hogwarts. Despite this, Newt clearly still casts spells throughout the Fantastic Beasts film series, raising questions as to exactly how Newt retained his wand.

Similarly, Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets explains that Rubeus Hagrid was expelled from Hogwarts for supposedly committing the same crime: endangering other students with a beast. A lover of magical creatures, Hagrid adopted Aragog, an enormous spider, when he was 13 and secretly kept him as a pet. Unfortunately, Tom Riddle, who would later become Voldemort, opened the Chamber of Secrets that year and began attacking students with the Basilisk, even killing one girl. To avoid suspicion, Riddle framed Hagrid and his spider for the attacks, leading to Hagrid’s expulsion. Due to this, Hagrid’s wand was snapped, and he could not perform proper magic.

These different outcomes raise the question of how Newt was able to keep his wand while Hagrid’s wand was destroyed. Although Hagrid was expelled for a more severe crime, given that a student died, Newt’s offense was still supposed to receive the same punishment. According to one theory (via Stack Exchange), the key difference is that Newt’s expulsion was never enforced. Instead, Newt was allowed to continue studying at Hogwarts, graduating with his wand intact the next year. This theory argues that Newt was able to stay at Hogwarts due to Albus Dumbledore defending him, which is supported by Newt’s magic skills in the Fantastic Beasts movies.

In Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them, Percival Graves mentioned during an interrogation that Dumbledore had argued against Newt’s expulsion. Citing a MACUSA document from a companion book, this theory holds that Dumbledore’s intervention succeeded. The document also explains that due to Dumbledore defending him, Newt’s name was cleared, and he was allowed to keep his wand to continue his studies. Although it is unclear why Dumbledore defended Newt, he may have known Newt was not at fault for the incident with the beast. In Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald, Dumbledore explained that he admired Newt for always doing the right thing, so he may have suspected that Newt was protecting Leta and did not want him to be punished on her behalf.

Further evidence that Newt kept his wand because he was never expelled includes the type of magic he used. Throughout the Fantastic Beasts films, Newt proved himself as a skilled wizard, frequently performing difficult spells such as apparition or teleportation. Newt’s ability to apparate is notable because Hogwarts students only learn how to apparate in a special course when they are 17 years old, suggesting that Newt was still at Hogwarts the next year after the incident with the Jarvey. This indicates that although Newt was meant to be expelled from Hogwarts, Dumbledore successfully prevented it, ensuring that Newt could graduate and still have his wand in Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them.

Next: 1 Dark Grindelwald Line Changes How You See Dumbledore In Harry Potter

Related Topics About The Author

A lifelong lover of writing and stories, Kristen Brown became a Movies/TV Features Writer for Screen Rant in 2021. She recently graduated from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill with a major in Interpersonal and Organizational Communication and completed the UNC Hollywood Internship Program. This helped her obtain two development internships with Hollywood production companies, Piller/Segan and Chatrone. Her other writing experience includes self-publishing three young adult novels about superheroes, beginning with "The White Dove," under the pen name K. R. Brown. Growing up in North Carolina, Kristen lived on Scooby-Doo, Disney animated movies, the MCU, and especially Star Wars. This came in handy when she joined UNC Chapel Hill’s chapter of the A Moment of Magic Foundation, which trains students to visit pediatric hospitals and special events while portraying popular characters. Assigned as Princess Leia, Kristen gladly became an expert in all things Star Wars, especially the galaxy’s favorite rebel princess.

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