- And remember, Sirius is constantly mistaken for the Grim in the early books — an omen which heralds death.
- But then how would the Resurrection Stone have brought him back in the end of DH?
- There is no reason being Death would prevent him from being summoned by the Resurrection Stone.
- And if he's a Psychopomp, it makes sense for him to be one of the spirits that comfort Harry as he goes to his death.
- Word of God says that the Elder Wand's core is a Thestral tail-hair — so close, but not quite. And people interpret the whole "Death himself forged the Wand" thing LITERALLY?
- Why not? This is a universe with wizards and witches, centaurs, phoenixes, basilisks, vampires, werewolves, accurate prophecies, soul-sucking demons, and an afterlife — is it so much of a stretch to believe that there might be a personification of death?
- Let's just say that the core is Sakura's feather. ...Hey, somebody had to say it.
- Jossed. J. K. Rowling said on her website that it was a Thestral hair, though if the below theory is correct, then this theory lives on to another day!
- And they only bless people who have seen their collective form, see their individual form.
- Death is a shape-shifter who can take ANY form.
- Then how come Dumbledore doesn't have a lightning-bolt scar on his forehead?
- Who said it has to be a lightning bolt on the forehead? He has the map of the London underground on his knee, remember?
- Rowling said Grindelwald "conjured a white handkerchief from his wand". So, um, maybe it wasn't Dumbledore's magical talent that won the battle?
- Um, wasn't that Rita Skeeter saying that's what could have happened?
- Grindelwald lost to his other wand.
- Or his other other wand...
- My theory is that the wand defends its owner from attack, but not itself from capture — Dumbledore defeated Grindelwald with a simple Expelliarmus. (Rowling clearly loves that spell — it's what Harry used to win both his duels with Voldemort.)
- But didn't Lupin say in DH that Expelliarmus was a very unusual spell to use in the first duel?
- Worked for Harry, didn't it? Under some circumstances, the most unusual, least expected move can be the thing that makes all the difference in a fight. Both Malfoy and Harry were able to use the spell in a duel with the wand owner involved, and it worked. Apparently the disarming spell is a loophole since it is not dueling per se any more than shooting the gun out of your opponent's hand is really and truly engaging him in a duel of pistols. You're participating in any sensible definition of the term, but you're still not playing by the rules of what's supposed to constitute the actual fight.
- It's simple. The Elder Wand isn't invincible. Indeed the one consistent feature in the Elder Wand's history is that every single one of its owners is defeated and loses it. It has changed hands many more times than directly mentioned in the novels, and undoubtedly some, if not most of them, occurred in direct duels. The Elder Wand is just an unusually powerful wand, the user's own skill still matters. A sufficiently skillful opponent can overcome whatever advantage the Elder Wand gives. Dumbledore beat Grindelwald because he was just that good. Power does not equal skill.
- Indeed, it's only said to be "invincible" in the tale, which Dumbledore indicated to Harry shouldn't be taken as a 100% accurate and literal version of events. He also suggested the artifacts were created by the brothers themselves rather than being gifts from Death.
- I thought that the book implied that owners of the Elder Wand lost due to arrogance; that having possession of an unbeatable wand made them lazy and unintelligent when it came to using it.
- The only problem with this is that Sirius is "younger by far than Harry had seen him in life", as is Lupin. This suggests that they are being presented as they were in the prime of life, rather than how they were when they died (necessarily). If they were created from Harry's memories, they would have looked how they looked when he knew them.
- To be fair, Harry had seen pictures of both Lupin and Sirius as post-Hogwarts members of the Order of the Phoenix. He had also seen both as students in the Pensieve.
- Supporting evidence for this WMG lies in the way the shades of the stone speak to Harry. Close your eyes and have someone read their dialogue to you, and it will all sound like the same person. Neither Stone-Lupin nor Stone-Sirius have the same speech patterns as their living selves did, in present day or past, and when the whole thing is read, it is very much as if one being is speaking through four different faces.
- Askr Yggdrasils, the ash tree?
- oops... I must have overlooked that part...
- What if by elder she simply meant old, rather than specifying the type of tree it was made from? The book says "so Death crossed to an elder tree on the banks of the river." As Yggdrasil is indeed quite old, it qualifies as being called an elder tree, even if it is not part of the Sambucus genus.
- Except Deathly Hallows explicitly mentions the wizarding superstition "wand of elder, never prosper," with that referring to the type of wood. Also note how the wand's decoration appears to be elderberries.
- oops... I must have overlooked that part...
- When did Voldemort ever duel Dumbledore to a draw? As far as I know, they never actually fought at all.
- I believe they dueled in the fifth book.
- They did, in the Ministry of Magic. It's implied, however that Dumbledore was intentionally battling to a draw for a number of possible reasons.
- See above WMG
- I believe they dueled in the fifth book.
- Um... The book very clearly explained how the Elder Wand changes masters. At least, it was pretty clear to me. In case it wasn't, here it is: In order for the Elder Wand to recognize a new master, its current master must be defeated, but "defeated" does not mean "killed". It could mean something as simple as Disarming, as Harry did to the real master of the Elder Wand as of the end of Half-Blood Prince, Draco Malfoy (also: the master doesn't have to be using the Elder Wand for it to be defeated). So there's the first link in the progression broken: Snape was never the master of the Elder Wand, because he killed Dumbledore as per a prior agreement; Dumbledore more or less forfeited his mastery of the wand to Draco. The second link in the chain has a very low probability of being able to mutter an incantation (she'd have to hold the wand in her mouth, and proper word choice and pronunciation is kind of a big deal in the Potterverse), and she never defeated any of the wand's true masters. Neville, while taking a level in badass, also never defeated any of the wand's masters, but hey, come on. He ended up being master of a big fucking sword that can only be mastered by a true Gryffindor; he's no less badass for not being a master of the Elder Wand (which, as Harry pointed out later, is a lot more hassle than most people want to deal with).
- The point was, there was a lot of confusion with that, and even with Word of God the subject is a Base Breaker. The premise of the guess follows the beliefs of the group who believes Snape was at one point the master to its logical conclusion. And the guess specifically stated that it never specified that the wand's master had to be human. The ability to speak Canis Latinicus follows from having human-like vocal abilities.
- Also, none of this reasoning is consistent with Harry telling Dumbledore's portrait that "As long as I die a natural death, the wand's power dies with me"; after all, the number of scenarios where the wand could possibly switch masters is endless. One of Harry's kids could playfully disarm him, or a Muggle could steal his wand, etc, without the Elder Wand ever leaving Dumbledore's grave.
- It doesn't have to be consistent — Harry's not that bright and has never paid attention to magical theory (at least that's my Watsonian explanation for it never being explained).
- It doesn't work like that. Whether or not a wand changes allegiance has a lot more to do with the intent of the "defeat" than the actual act of disarming your opponent. If you're just fooling around or practicing or something, the wand stays with its rightful owner. If the wizards or witches are duelling with a serious, perhaps life-or-death intent to win, then the wand would change hands. Remember, wands basically have feelings here — imagine them as a shallow girlfriend who will go off with whoever seems to have the most power. It's not as simple as another boy simply yanking them away.
- I would like to point out that being a Gryffindor does not necessarily get you the sword, acts of valor do.
- To clarify everything here, Harry is clearly the master of the Elder Wand as his defeat of Voldemort proves because if he was not, then Expelliarmus would not have worked against the killing curse. Also, Harry did not master the Elder Wand with his own wand, he did so when he took Draco's wand from him physically, thus even if he is disarmed in a real duel, it would be his holly and phoenix wand and not the Elder Wand, which is in Dumbledore's tomb. The only way for him to lose the mastery of the Elder Wand is if he is killed because of the way he obtained the mastery over it, because I sincerely doubt he uses the wand that he used to defeat the Elder Wand.
- Obsidian — which is associated with the underworld.
- Strangely enough, i can totally see that.
- And Altheda was the one who really invented the Wolfsbane potion!
- Asha fell very ill during sunset, and wouldn't allow anyone to touch her. It was moonrise at the same time and she didn't want to hurt the others. Brilliant!
- But then...why does the illustration show her walking with a cane? Oh! I got an idea!
- The cane was silver. If she was transformed and couldn't stop herself, someone could use the silver cane to beat her into submission.
- To the silver cane idea, JK Rowling mentioned that silver does not work on Harry Potter werewolves.
- Maybe during one of her transformations, she got in a fight with another animal and was wounded in the leg, hence the cane?
- The tree itself doesn't have to be more resistant as long as it's Death himself who carves it.
1. The Elder Wand: We've been told time and again that wands are only as good as the wizard who uses them, and the real power comes from the wizard who wields the wand. So why suddenly is there a wand which miraculously makes people's magic stronger? Unless there's something about crafting wands which was forgotten in the hundreds of years since the Elder Wand was made, then it has to have come from somewhere else, and since it couldn't have been another wizard, Death is as good an explanation as any.
2. The Ring: This is literally the only item we've come across which can do this. The Priori Incantatem spells are afterimages of old spells, Voldemort's appearances are all linked to his soul, because he wasn't really dead, so where exactly does this ring come from? Who has the power to bring people back from the dead, even as some sort of after-image, that stays permanently? Death. The Ring makes people stay until the user wants them to go, Priori Incantatem only lasts for as long as someone's wand is pointed at yours.
3. The Cloak: Again, we're told repeatedly that invisibility cloaks either don't make you truly invisible or don't last forever, so why is there one that makes you completely invisible and has lasted for hundreds of years?
The gist is that there must be limits that human wizards and witches can't surpass when it comes to magic, no matter how skilled they are. If Dumbledore, Grindelwald, the founders of Hogwarts, and more haven't been able to replicate the efforts of three wizards despite thousands of years of magical improvements, then where did these three items come from? The story of the three brothers meeting Death must be true, there isn't another explanation.
- Pretty much confirmed in-universe when Ron mentions that the Invisibility Cloak acts exactly as the tale describes, then Harry puts it together that he's descended from the third brother. (This becomes Hilarious in Hindsight when you realize that Harry and Voldemort are pretty much cousins seventy-times removed since Voldemort is descended from the SECOND brother.) And then Dumbledore and Voldemort flat-out prove the Elder Wand is real, so the first brother also existed. Harry even proves the Stone is real when he uses the thing to summon his parents, Sirius, and Lupin. Since we know Voldemort's grandfather claimed direct lineage to the Peverell brothers as stated in book six and that there were three of them...well, do the math. The Peverell siblings are the three brothers in the tale and their encounter with Death happened.
- How exactly does that confirm that the encounter with Death happened? I thought it was pretty clearly meant to be the case that it hadn't happened and that while the Peverell Brothers existed, they had simply made the Hallows with their own skills.
Thus he is the mastery of all 3 Hallows and according to the legend the master of Death itself. Voldemort's curse didn't kill him because he could not die. He then revokes his mastery when he rejects the Wand consciously later, presumably.
This also means that Dumbledore also had all 3 Hallows at some point, but I think not all at the same time, and he had only borrowed the Cloak.
- I love this theory because it's somewhat less far-fetched than some other dei ex machina involved in the final battle, and because it's totally consistent with Dumbledore's character: with all three Hallows, he found himself Master of Death and became afraid of his own power, because he knows what the darkness inside him — the one that believed in "the greater good", the one he keeps fighting against — is capable of; and thus gave one of the Hallows to Harry as soon as he can. Of course, James' will helped him to regain his reason, but I like to imagine him tempted.
- In this theory, either he found the Stone shortly before Christmas 1991, or had been Master of Death for quite some time at this point and only "accepted Death as an old friend" during this very year, after considering Voldemort's mistakes and/or talking with Flamel — becoming the Dumbledore we all love only at the beginning of the saga.
- I'm pretty sure Dumbledore didn't find the Resurrection stone (and also one of Voldemort's horcuxes) until around the summer of 1996. Since 1940s till 1996 it been hidden in the Gaunts' cottage. So Dumbledore had possession of the Elder wand from 1945-1997 (51 years). He had the cloak from 1980/81-Christmas of 1991 (10/11 years). He had the Resurrection stone for less then a year July/August 1996-June 1997.
- In this theory, either he found the Stone shortly before Christmas 1991, or had been Master of Death for quite some time at this point and only "accepted Death as an old friend" during this very year, after considering Voldemort's mistakes and/or talking with Flamel — becoming the Dumbledore we all love only at the beginning of the saga.
So why did the Elder Wand not kill him? Because it was facing another wand also owned by its master. It was Draco's wand vs. Draco's wand, and the Elder Wand realized that first (it seems more sentient than other wands) and gave up.
Throughout both parts of Deathly Hallows, we see a phenomenon simply not present in the books; that Voldemort slowly falls apart as his Horcruxes are destroyed, implying that, rather than just anchoring his soul to the mortal plane, they are literally holding his body together. Cut to the end of Deathly Hallows, Part Two, and Harry and Voldemort's epic final confrontation, climaxing in a final wand stalemate broken only by Neville swiftly slaying Nagini. Voldemort barely has time to fire one last Avada Kedavra before dying, apparently by his own curse rebounding. Yet we see no apparent signs of an actual rebounded curse; nor does Avada Kedavra cause an individual to explode into confetti. It seems far more likely that Voldemort's death was due to the death of Nagini. Nor is any mastery of the Elder Wand made apparent by Harry. Oddly enough, the scene where Harry uses the wand to repair his old one is completely omitted, leaving us with a movie where Harry did not once use the Elder Wand. Why, then, should we assume he mastered it?
Putting all the pieces together, it seems far more likely that Snape, who ultimately bested Dumbledore (as Malfoy certainly wasn't going to kill him or seize his wand), did become the master of the Elder Wand, until mastery was taken from him by Nagini, who had every bit as much right to hold ownership of the wand as Voldemort, thanks to the piece of a human soul within him. Finally, Neville took the life of Nagini, making him the master of the wand. Voldemort did not die because Harry was the master of the wand; he, never the wand's master, could not overcome the wand stalemate between he and Harry, which lasted until his death, at which point Harry's Expelliarmus took effect and he seized the Elder Wand.
Which means that he just snapped Neville's wand in two and tossed it off a bridge. Class act, Harry.
- Um... no. Just, no. You are grasping at straws to try to make your theory hold together, but all you do is spend time uselessly trying to convince others of something that is clearly shown to be incorrect. As explained above, Snape never intended to defeat Dumbledore — he was just planning to give him a Mercy Kill. It is Malfoy who defeats Dumbledore by disarming him. It is Harry that then defeats Malfoy by disarming him. It is Harry's ownership of the Elder Wand that allows him to defeat Voldemort, since the Wand will not attack its master. And it is Voldemort that defeats Snape in the movies, by using Sectumsempra. And, of course, you choose not to explain how your pet theory fits with the part where Harry does not die to Voldemort's Avada Kedavra, instead only destroying the Horcrux in Harry's head. And the reason why Nagini's death helps Harry? Simple, Voldemort feels the death of the snake and knows he has lost his last anchor - and that weakens him.
- DEATH cannot see through Harry's cloak. DD, Moody, Crouch, Norris and such Gryffindors can see through. The Cloak only works versus children, squibs and Slyths.
- Out of all the people you mentioned, only DD is a confirmed Gryffindor. Also, Mrs. Norris is a CAT.
- Jossed. In POA Harry uses the cloak to hide from Hagrid, McGonagall and Fudge.
- Slytherins do not even know that there is such a thing as an invisibility spell. POA cloaked Harry attacks Draco. Draco automatically assumes that it is ghosts, he never considers for an instant that the attack is from a Wizard with an invisible spell.
- However Voldemort uses the Disillusionment Charm on himself in book 6. Draco, Crabbe and Goyle all use the Disillusionment Charm on themselves in Book 7. As to why Draco assumes he was attacked by ghost might be because he was being attacked right by "the most severely haunted building in Britain".
- DH: Ministry hunts Harry, they never think of putting anti-invisible Charms on the Ministry and Gringotts and the Secret Thaumonuclear Bunker.
- Gryffs can see through the Cloak; Slyths don't even know that invisible spells exist, so they never bother to check. The Cloak works against DEATH, therefore DEATH is a Slytherin.
- Draco knew about invisible spells in HBP, but he was sorted too soon. DH ends with the Malfoys being redeemed because of random wand rules, therefore they became Gryffs.
- Slytherin =/= evil. Besides, despite their apparent Heel–Face Turn (or rather, they went from working for the Big Bad to being neutral), Malfoy was still somewhat of a coward, although also somewhat intelligent - he was implied to be able to pick up new skills rather easily. Of course, all of that talent was hidden under his Jerkass personality and a laundry list of other character flaws. If he had been sorted anywhere else, it probably would have been Ravenclaw.
- Moody has his magic eye that can see through literally everything. Crouch borrowed it as part of his disguise (Polyjuice couldn't replicate it). Mrs Norris is a cat, and did not see through the cloak - she smelled Harry because the cloak does not stop detection by the other senses. Similarly, Harry is not made inaudible by the cloak. When did Dumbledore ever see through it, exactly?
- Draco knew about invisible spells in HBP, but he was sorted too soon. DH ends with the Malfoys being redeemed because of random wand rules, therefore they became Gryffs.
In the first book on Harry's 3rd night (the 2nd nights after Christmas)trip to the mirror. Dumbledore's already in the room and Harry under the invisibility cloak comes in and goes straight to the mirror. "Back again Harry?"
- But then, why was Harry able to destroy it so easily, unlike Voldemort's many Horcruxes?
- Because he was never resurrected? Also, I think he only destroys it in the movie.
- A Horcrux's (in)vulnerabilities don't change whether the owner has a body or not, hence the Basilisk venom being necessary to destroy the diary while Voldemort was still incorporeal somewhere. But yes, the wand was only broken in the film.
- Because he was never resurrected? Also, I think he only destroys it in the movie.
- The actors for the romantic couple actually were going out until an hour before the curtain rose, when the guy playing Sir Luckless broke up with the girl playing Amata because he was attracted to the actor who played the sick witch. Immediately after the Ashwinder exploded, the two girls attacked one another with spells and the whole thing just went downhill from there.