Something others would swap their Wand for

After this offensive remark against Elphias Doge Rita Skeeter tries to prove her reliability as she mentiones: “’I’ve access to a source most journalists would swap their wands for[…]’”[1] This idiom might be a reference to the muggle phrase ‘would die for’ as well as the phrase ‘give anything for something’. The first example means that something is extremely important and so desirable that people think it is worth dying for.[2] The second phrase is less brutal. It is “used to say that [one] would like to have or to do something very much”[3] This person is than willing to renounce something that is dear to his heart. In both cases the person has to give up on something in order to have access to something better.

            Rita Skeeter claims to have talked to a person who seems to know far more about Albus Dumbledore than anyone else. This makes this person extremely desirable and valuable. Swapping the wand for information is a life-changing act. A wizard or witch without wand is no longer able to perform magic. Thus, it creates a life-threatening situation in which this person is no longer able to protect and defend himself against jinxes and curses. The phrase ‘swapping a wand for something’, thus, has the same meaning as the muggle phrases.

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[1] Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, p. 27.

[2] http://idioms.thefreedictionary.com/to+die+for

[3] http://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/british/i-would-give-anything-a-lot