"I can't imagine why you would have," Professor Reed assures her. Then she stares pointedly at the Aurors, until they hasten to repeat the point. They still look rather disgruntled and panicked, though. Those were their Patronuses.

"I - I'll avoid telling anybody else? At least unless it turns out you get them back or get people later."

"I definitely want to look for my wand."

"What does it mean when the spells do that?"

"Summoning Charms are hardly perfect," Professor Reed explains. "It's progressively more difficult to Summon things that are far away, and there are some obstacles they can't get around, and there are a number of counterspells. But Point Me-" she sighs. "The Four Point Spell isn't terribly useful, because it doesn't provide any information about distance, but it's hard to get it wrong short of a counterspell interfering."

"...Someone's hiding my wand?"

"It certainly looks like it."

"Someone stole my wand."

"Unless you just happened to have dropped it somewhere with counter-spells against both the Summoning Charm and the Four Point Spell... most likely, yes."

"Well, I suggest waiting to experiment until you find an Auror with a working Patronus," Professor Reed says dryly. Underneath the dryness is a hint of- sorrow? Anger? Whatever it is, stealing children's wands is not okay.

Professor Reed puts a hand on her shoulder comfortingly. "It's okay, it's okay. It wasn't on purpose. And remember: you have a Patronus. Even if you can't kill a Dementor, you are hardly defenseless against them."

"Yeah," sighs Miranda. "But - just chasing them seems really stupid when I know they can die."

Professor Reed smiles. Mini-Crusader she has here, it's adorable. " 'Just chasing them' is very different from 'chasing them to find out if they can still be killed'," she points out. "And even if your wand was stolen-" okay, by now it's pretty obvious, but that seems less reassuring- "the Ministry will find it. This is hardly for forever."

"I guess. Who would have taken it? Why would somebody do that?"

"As a guess- you've said a number of times you think the Silverlight effect is related to the wand. Just now, even, when you weren't sure you can still kill Dementors without it. If someone wanted to imitate the spell, but was failing..."

"I think it less now - if some people can't cast Patronuses anymore after they hear how I do it it seems like it's probably to do with that. But why would they want to do it themselves with my wand? It won't even behave right for them - right? - and it's not like I was saying 'no I refuse to kill any Dementors'..."

"You can use other people's wands," Professor Reed says, surprised. "Do they not tell you that, in England? It's much, much easier to use your own, of course. It's... tuned to you, you might say. Spells on a wand not your own will be unusually weak, but then again, with that wand of yours that might work to their advantage."

"I know you can borrow wands, it just - doesn't work as well, but yeah, I guess with the chimaera wand that might help it not explode them. Even though they are a thief and should maybe be a little bit exploded."

"I'm not well versed in the punitive laws here in England, but I'm quite sure the Ministry doesn't let thieves go unpunished."

"Well, it used to be they'd go to Azkaban, but. I'm not even sure what they do anymore."

"Thieves went to Azkaban?"