Wands

[breegenie]

No: HPFGUIDX 31728

--- In HPforGrownups at y..., "grey_wolf_c" <greywolf1 at j...> wrote:
faux pas wrote:
1) Wands in general. Ollivander seems to make it clearthat the wand 
chooses the owner. Why does Ron get his brother's wand then? Why 
would Charlie get a new one while Ron just gets the old one? Do wands 
wear out? The only thing I can think of to compare it to would be 
custom made shoes. They fit the person they're made for but wouldn't 
fit anyone else as well. 


"grey_wolf_c" wrote:
Of course, it could be Ollivander's unconfirmed theory (sort of a 
religious belief. Ollivander IS a bit odd). Wands DO get old and have 
to be changed from time to time, anyway, so it's not af it's a "for 
the rest of your life" choice, even if wands select their owners.



My theory is, people outgrow their wands. For example, Charlie 
probably needed a new wand after Hogwarts because his interests 
changed. The wand that is good for taming dragons is probably 
different from the average wand a Hogwarts student would need. And so 
Ron inherited his old "school" wand, since the Weasleys couldn't 
afford a new one, and it was just a multi-purpose wand anyway.

I got this impression from Ollivander's comment about Lily's wand, 
which he mentions was good for charm work. I'm assuming she didn't 
know she wanted to be a charms expert when she first started at 
Hogwarts, so perhaps this was a later wand, post-Hogwarts. James was 
well-to-do, so they could both afford an upgrade. Maybe when you 
graduate you get a new wand for your area of expertise?

Harry hasn't really hung out with anyone long enough to see the life 
cycle of a wand. Perhaps JKR will elaborate on this as the Trio 
ages...

Bree