Fawkes' Tail Feather in H+V's wands

[erisedstraeh2002]

No: HPFGUIDX 43120

--- In HPforGrownups at y..., "grey_wolf_c" <greywolf1 at j...> wrote:
 
> I want to point out that when they speak of "Phoenix feathers", 
> they're probably not speaking of your everyday, wing's feather, but 
> of a long, beautiful feather that phoenix generally have in their 
> tail. This are traditionally non-regenerative. Thus, if a phoenix 
> loses one of them, they do not grow it back. Those where the most 
> powerful part of the phoenix body, too, although right now I cannot 
> tell you what properties those feathers were supposed to have 
> phoenix legends are not my strength). I seem to recall that phoenix 
> normally have three, but I'm nowhere sure about it, and Fawkes 
> could simply be a rarity.

Now me:

Erm...is this the same Grey Wolf who, in post #42760, said <there is 
no canon that the werewolves in Potterverse are affected by silver.  
Although it's a general sort of affliction for werewolves, the weak 
points of those sort of creatures changes widely from book to book.>
With which I agree completely, and I think the same is applicable for 
phoenixes.  While folklore or legend or whatever may hold that 
phoenix feathers do not regenerate, I see nothing in canon that, at 
least so far, suggests that this is the case for the phoenixes in 
Potterverse.

The phoenix entry in FB&WTFT makes no mention of non-regenerative 
feathers.  Moreover, as JKR (a.k.a Newt Scamander) writes: "the 
phoenix gains a XXXX rating not because it is aggressive, but because 
very few wizards have ever succeeded in domesticating it" (p. 32).  
This suggests to me that, if few wizards can domesticate a phoenix, 
there are probably relatively few phoenixes around from which to 
obtain tail feathers for wand-making.  It would seem to follow 
logically (IMO) that the few phoenixes that are available would have 
to donate more than two tail feathers to the wand-making cause.  As 
Ollivander tells Harry, every wand "has a core of a powerful magical 
substance...we use unicorn hairs, phoenix tail feathers, and the 
heartstrings of dragons" (SS, US paperback ed., p. 84).  It would 
seem to me that if there are only three creatures from which wand 
cores are obtained (in Mr. Ollivander's wands, that is), the same 
creature must donate more than two hairs/feathers/heartstrings.  
Since a unicorns is "so fleet of foot that it is very difficult to 
capture" (FB&WTFT p. 41), the same theory should hold for unicorn 
hairs as well in Potterverse. 

I think the fact that JKR tells us that "very few wizards have ever 
succeeded in domesticating" the phoenix provides additional support 
for my premise that Fawkes belonged to Godric Gryffindor when he was 
alive.  But then I wonder who owned Fawkes after Gryffindor died but 
before Dumbledore obtained him (the Druidess Cliodna, perhaps? :)

~Phyllis