If somebody tells 11 year old Harry that he is a wizard, he wouldn’t believe them for a hot minute. After all, he had been gaslighted by his relatives for much of his childhood when it comes to things out of the ordinary (magic included) to care about it.

So it shouldn’t be a surprise that he had to swish and flick the possibly 2 wands he is stuck with (the Elder Wand being more so than his old reliable) on the beach and nothing happened, leading him to think that it is possible that this world is trying to make him use its magic in exchange of being here. It sounds like a really terrible trade off but what can he do about it?

“Well, I had finished repairing an old wand of mine back at home when I was dragged into the water,” he replies, “And I was trying to do away with the one wand that I used to fix it and just use my old one.”