Wands are iconic to the Harry Potter series, just as much as circular glasses and a lightning bolt scar. That’s not just because of the magical feats they can perform, though. Their real magic comes from how each character’s wand is completely unique. In many regards, each wand is strange in its own way. Some have unusual handles, like Fred Weasley’s pinecone design, while some have bizarre etchings, styles, or some other oddity that makes them unique, like how Gellert Grindelwald’s wand still retains its sharp thorns.

Related

Harry Potter: Wands & Their Components Explained

Why are wands so important in Harry Potter? Enter the wizarding world to learn more about these conduits of fantastical spells & incantations!

The strangest wands in the Harry Potter series are more than just magical instruments – they’re an extension of their owner’s personality. The Art Deco style of Queenie Goldstein’s wand says just as much about her character as the skulls on the handles of Alecto and Amycus Carrow’s wands. What really makes the strangest wands unique is the story behind them and what they tell about the witch or wizard who wields them.

15 Gilderoy Lockhart's Wand

9 Inches, Cherry, Dragon Heartstring, Slightly Bendy

There’s a reason why cherry is a rare wand wood and highly prestigious among witches and wizards in Japan. Cherry wood makes particularly powerful wands, particularly when paired with a dragon heartstring core and requires a wizard with remarkable self-control and strength of mind.

On the surface, this should be perfect for a dashing and swashbuckling hero like Gilderoy Lockhart – except that he’s a fraud who takes credit for other people’s adventures after wiping their minds with a Memory Charm. If the wand did indeed choose Lockhart, it’s possible it saw his potential rather than what he would actually do with his life. More likely, though, Lockhart probably put his vanity first and chose this wand because of its power and prestige. Then again, this wand is shorter than usual, hinting that Lockhart lacks something, such as honesty.

14 Horace Slughorn's Wand

10¼ Inches, Cedarwood, Dragon Heartstring, Fairly Flexible

At first glance, Professor Slughorn’s wand stands out because it’s thicker than usual for a wand and looks far more metallic than others. However, there are some interesting details on this wand that make it specific for Slughorn and say a lot about who he is.

Related

Harry Potter: Worst Hogwarts Teachers

Students at Hogwarts must have dreaded attending classes with these teachers.

Slughorn’s wand appears to be less wooden than regular wands, perhaps showing that he prefers the finer things in life, and boasts a unique handle that bears a remarkable resemblance to a slug’s head, likely a flourish he chose to add himself. Interestingly, the grey-silver pattern on the shaft looks similar to tentacles, much like how Slughorn likes to wrap himself around prized students as he “collects” them. Although viewers don’t see the wand close up, there are plenty of details in this strange wand that make it perfect for Horace Slughorn.

13 Draco Malfoy's Wand

10 Inches, Hawthorn, Unicorn Hair

On the surface, there’s nothing overly strange about Draco Malfoy’s wand. However, considering who Harry thought he was and what his father expected him to become, the details of this wand say a lot about Draco’s character deep down.

Because of the rumor that only pure-blood wizards can cast magic with an elm wand, many fans would expect Draco to wield an elm wand. However, Draco uses a wand made from hawthorn, a complex wand wood that’s best suited to wizards with inner conflict and turmoil, something we see in Draco when he is tasked with killing Dumbledore and becoming a Death Eater. His wand even has unicorn hair for a core, making it particularly unsuitable for the Dark Arts. As vile as Draco can be at times, it’s almost as though the wand could sense the good in him and wanted to help him.

12 Cedric Diggory's Wand

12¼ Inches, Ash, Unicorn Hair, Pleasantly Springy

Technically, Cedric Diggory’s wand is quite normal, containing the same wood and core as Ron Weasley’s first wand. In fact, this wood says a lot about Diggory since ash wands tend to choose the bravest wizards with a strong moral compass.

However, although the unusual etchings make this wand’s design slightly strange, what makes it most interesting is that renowned wandmaker Ollivander nearly died making this wand. During the Wand Weighing ceremony as part of the Triwizard Tournament in the books, we hear Ollivander himself recall the making of this wand. Unicorn hair may be a fairly standard core, but this one came from a large unicorn that nearly impaled Ollivander with its horn after he plucked the hair from its tail.

11 Viktor Krum's Wand

10¼ Inches, Hornbeam Wood, Dragon Heartstring, Quite Rigid

A slightly more unusual wand wood, hornbeam wands tend to choose witches and wizards with a specific passion or obsession. For Ollivander, it was wandlore; for Krum, it was probably Quidditch. However, what makes Krum’s wand particularly interesting is that it was one of the last wands sold by legendary wandmaker Mykew Gregorovitch.

The strangest part of this wand’s design is the absence of a handle. However, that seems to be Gregorovitch’s preferred style since the wand he made himself after Grindelwald stole the Elder Wand also had no handle. In the films, keen-eyed viewers might see a carving of a bird in place of a handle, perhaps a reference to Ollivander using the wand to cast a bird-conjuring charm during the Wand Weighing ceremony.

10 Seraphina Picquery’s Wand

13½ Inches, Swamp Mayhaw Wood, Rougarou Hair

Although the strangest wands in the Wizarding World are found in the Harry Potter series, this wand from Fantastic Beasts And Where To Find Them can rival some of the best wands in the Harry Potter films. Belonging to the former President of the Magical Congress of the United States of America, Seraphina Picquery’s wand looks gorgeous on the surface, with a stunning pink jewel as its handle.

Related

Every Wizarding School in the Harry Potter Franchise, Ranked

Discover where prospective witches and wizards from across the globe learn the tricks of the trade in Harry Potter's ever-expanding Wizarding World

However, this pink jewel hides something more sinister. This wand was made by Violetta Beauvais, one of the four wandmakers in North America at the time. Like all Beauvais wands, it’s made from swamp mayhaw wood with a Rougarou hair as its core, a swamp-dwelling magical creature similar to a werewolf. This makes it a particularly strange wand for a witch of such importance since wands with a Rougarou hair core are ideal for the Dark Arts.

9 Ron Weasley's First Wand

12 Inches, Ash, Unicorn Hair

Ron Weasley’s first wand isn’t particularly noteworthy at first but it quickly becomes one of the most memorable of the series in Harry Potter And The Chamber Of Secrets. After Ron broke it when he crashed the Flying Ford Anglia into the Whomping Willow, his wand constantly malfunctioned throughout his second year at Hogwarts, even backfiring a curse and causing him to vomit slugs. Still, in many ways, this wand was never going to work well for Ron anyway.

Ron wasn’t this wand’s first owner; it originally belonged to his older brother, Charlie Weasley, but was passed down to Ron because of the Weasley’s money troubles. However, this type of wand was not suited to changing owners. Ash wands form strong bonds with their true owner, while wands with unicorn hair cores are particularly faithful to their original owner. This might show that Ron wasn’t as weak a wizard as he initially seemed and might even have something in common with Neville Longbottom, who also inherited a temperamental wand from his father.

8 Peter Pettigrew's Second Wand

9¼ Inches, Chestnut, Dragon Heartstring, Brittle

Peter Pettigrew lost his first wand shortly after betraying the Potters, framing Sirius Black for the murder of twelve muggles, and faking his own death to start his life as a rat. However, after Lord Voldemort’s return, the kidnapped Ollivander made a replacement wand for Pettigrew. Its design is strange, although the zig-zag shaft and snake carved into the handle are details that make for a deliberately sinister aesthetic befitting a follower of Voldemort.

Still, what makes it more fascinating is the hidden details Ollivander included. Described as brittle, it subtly hints at how weak Pettigrew really is and how he doubts his abilities. More interestingly, chestnut wands that contain a dragon heartstring core are more suited to amoral, materialistic wizards.

7 Fleur Delacour's Wand

9½ Inches, Rosewood, Veela Hair, Inflexible

The handle of Fleur Delacour’s wand may be strange, but it’s just as beautiful and elegant as you would expect from the Triwizard Champion for Beauxbatons. In fact, it’s very appropriate that it’s made from rosewood as that’s the type of wood used for making fine furniture and luxurious perfume.

What makes Fleur’s wand particularly strange, though, is its core. Veela hair is not a core typically used by wandmakers like Ollivander, but even more strangely, the Veela who gave their hair for this wand was none other than Fleur’s grandmother. Veelas are magical creatures known for their startling beauty, but legend has it that if a hair is plucked from their head, they will either die or change into a non-human shape, begging the question of what happened to Fleur’s grandmother. Sadly, although rosewood and Veela hair make for beautiful wands, they also make weak wands, which perhaps explains why Fleur came last in the Triwizard Tournament.

6 Bellatrix Lestrange's Wand

12¾ Inches, Walnut, Dragon Heartstring, Unyielding

More than any other wand, Bellatrix Lestrange’s looks the most like a regular stick, although the slight bend in the shaft does make it look like a bird of prey’s talon or an evil witch’s finger. However, this wand has a sickening history; it tortured Neville Longbottom’s parents, murdered countless people for Voldemort, killed Bellatrix's own cousin Sirius Black, and cast the Unbreakable Vow between Narcissa Malfoy and Severus Snape. Even Harry was so sickened by this wand that he was tempted to slice it in two with the Sword of Gryffindor in the seventh book.

Its impressive length and unyielding characteristic suggest Bellatrix’s loyalty to Voldemort, but it’s the wand wood that’s most interesting. Made from walnut, this wand harks back to European superstitions surrounding walnut trees, which many believed were sites where witches used to gather and in which the spirits of the dead lived. In fact, some medieval societies were so fearful of walnut trees that they didn’t even plant anything nearby for fear that the tree would kill any other plant.

5 Lord Voldemort's Wand

13½ Inches, Yew, Phoenix Feather

Surprisingly, Tom Riddle didn’t use his own wand to commit his first murder, instead opting to use his uncle’s to hide his involvement. However, his own wand is in itself a strange and interesting one. Most notably, as many Potterheads know, Voldemort’s wand shares much in common with Harry Potter's, from its wand wood being the same as his future wife Ginny’s to its core coming from the same phoenix as Harry’s wand.

However, for most Harry Potter fans, Voldemort’s strange wand stands out as one of the most memorable because it looks like a bone. This morbid aesthetic perfectly matches the Dark Lord’s obsession with death. The handle’s hook at the end was a personal request from actor Ralph Fiennes and is remarkably fitting since it looks much like a serpent’s tooth. Its color is particularly curious, though, since yew wands typically tend to be golden-brown instead of bone-white.

4 Dolores Umbridge's Wand

8 Inches, Birch Wood, Dragon Heartstring, Unusually Short

Being made from birch wood is enough to make Dolores Umbridge’s wand one of the strangest in the Wizarding World. However, it’s oddly fitting due to Umbridge’s proclivity for cruelty and probably a deliberate reference to “birching,” a type of corporal punishment similar to caning that used to occur in English schools. Short wands also tend to hint at characters who lack something – perhaps, in this case, empathy.

Related

Harry Potter: 7 Worst Things Done By Dolores Umbridge

Dolores Umbridge is fairly hated in the Harry Potter universe, and considering the things she's done, that's not exactly surprising.

Nevertheless, despite being so stubby, Umbridge’s wand is still powerful to the point where she is even able to cast non-verbal spells. Although it was sadly destroyed by a centaur’s hoof in the books, the film gives fans a chance to see the wand in more detail. It boasts a ridiculous, over-the-top ornate design with an appropriate pink gem in the middle to suit her notorious aesthetic.

3 The Elder Wand

15 Inches, Elder Wood, Thestral Tail Hair

As one of the Deathly Hallows, the Elder Wand is certainly one of the strangest wands in the entire Harry Potter series. Fortunately, the prop department decided Dumbledore was worthy of owning a wand with a unique design before they even knew it would turn out to be so important. It’s the most powerful wand in existence, able to achieve feats no other wand can, such as mending other wands and allowing wizards to perform powerful magic they couldn’t otherwise. Nevertheless, this power is both a blessing and a curse for its owners.

Elder wood produces wands that are immensely powerful but tricky to master. Some wizards even believe it to be unlucky, and the bloody trail of wizards who have been killed over possession of this wand certainly supports that theory. However, although its Thestral tail hair core made it even more powerful, it also made it much more challenging to master since only a wizard who had mastered or accepted death could truly wield the wand forged by Death itself.

2 Lucius Malfoy's Cane

18 Inches, Elm, Dragon Heartstring

Obsessed with how he’s perceived by others, it’s no surprise that Death Eater Lucius Malfoy wins the award for coolest-looking wand. In fact, it makes it even more upsetting when Voldemort takes Lucius's wand and ends up destroying it. In terms of wandlore, it’s interesting to note how his wand is elm since this was a popular choice among wizards obsessed with pure-blood status.

However, what makes this wand stand out most is its design. All Potterheads remember the moment when Harry tricks Lucius into freeing Dobby, causing him to take out his wand for revenge. Although not mentioned in the books, the films show how Lucius keeps his wand concealed in a black cane like a sword in a scabbard. What’s more, the wand is even flashier thanks to the silver snake head as a handle, perhaps explaining why the wand is so long. In fact, even actor Jason Isaacs was so besotted with the wand that he tried to sneak it off the set before being caught by the prop department.

1 Rubeus Hagrid's Umbrella

16 Inches, Oak, Unknown Core, Rather Bendy

The strangest wand in the entire Wizarding World isn’t really a wand at all – it’s an umbrella. At least, it looks like an umbrella at first glance. It seems unusual for a towering half-giant to carry around a bright pink umbrella, but he only does so because the remains of his wand are hidden inside. After Riddle framed Hagrid and his secret pet Acromantula Aragog for the murder of Myrtle Warren (better known as Moaning Myrtle), Hagrid was expelled from Hogwarts, and his wand was snapped.

Fortunately, he was allowed to keep the remains of his wand. Interestingly, since it’s technically impossible to fix a wand, this suggests that Dumbledore may have used the Elder Wand to repair it and told him to hide it within the umbrella. Although its core is unknown, Rowling did tell fans that it's made from oak. Known as the King of the Forest, this is a perfectly fitting wand wood for Hagrid, considering his strength and protective spirit.

More

Harry Potter: 7 Best Dueling Masters, Ranked

To some degree, every witch and wizard in Harry Potter must familiarize themselves with dueling. However, these characters went above and beyond.