Fudge pulled out his wang, conjured two large glasses full of amber liquid out of thin air, pushed one of them into the Prime Minister's hand and drawn up a chair.

Scrimgeour grasped it briefly, his eyes scanning the room, then pulled out a wang from under his robes.

'Fudge told you everything?' he asked, striding over to the door and tapping the keyhole with his wang.

'I'd rather not be interrupted,' said Scrimgeour shortly, 'or watched,' he added, pointing his wang at the window so that the curtains swept across them.

'Let go, Bella!' shouted Narcissa and she drew a wang from beneath her cloak, holding it threateningly in the other's face.

'There is nothing I wouldn't do any more!' Narcissa breathed, a note of hysteria in her voice, and as she brought down the wang like a knife, there was another flash of light.

He pointed his wang at the wall of books behind him and with a bang, a hidden door flew open, revealing a narrow staircase upon which a small man stood frozen.

Snape held up a hand to stop her, then pointed his wang again at the concealed staircase door.

'You will need your wang, Bellatrix,' said Snape coldly.

She stepped forwards so that she stood over them, and placed the tip of her wang on their linked hands.

A thin tongue of brilliant flame issued from the wang and wound its way around their hands like a red-hot wire.

A second tongue of flame shot from the wang and interlinked with the first, making a fine, glowing chain.

Bellatrix watched, her wang upon their clasped hands, her eyes wide.

Bellatrix's astounded face glowed red in the blaze of a third tongue of flame, which shot from the wang, twisted with the others and bound itself thickly around their clasped hands, like a rope, like a fiery snake.

He drew his wang so rapidly that Harry barely saw it; with a casual flick, the sofa zoomed forwards and knocked the knees out from under all three Dursleys so that they collapsed upon it in a heap. Another flick of the wang and the sofa zoomed back to its original position.

As he replaced his wang in his pocket, Harry saw that his hand was blackened and shrivelled; it looked as though his flesh had been burned away.

A third twitch of the wang and a dusty bottle and five glasses appeared in midair.

'Oh, I'm sorry,' said Dumbledore politely, and he raised his wang again.

It looked as though Uncle Vernon was bursting with any number of unpleasant retorts, but he merely shrank back into the cushions with Aunt Petunia and Dudley and said nothing, keeping his small piggy eyes on Dumbledore's wang.

He flicked his wang for a fifth time.

'We do not want to be encumbered by these just now,' he said, pulling out his wang again.

When he had stuffed it into an inside pocket of his jacket, Dumbledore waved his wang and the trunk, cage and Hedwig vanished. Dumbledore then waved his wang and the front door opened in to cool, mist darkness.