[HPforGrownups] Re: Hermione's wand and related question.

[Sherry Garfio]

No: HPFGUIDX 48506

Snuffles said:
> Ok. This is something that has been bugging me as well; however we see in 
> GoF, someone  ( Crouch Jr) uses Harry's wand to conjure the Dark Mark using a
> spell only the Death Eater's know- "Morsmorde!" Mister Ollivander examines 
> Harry's wand and uses it, as well.
> In PoA, in the Shrieking Shack, there is a great deal of wand switching.
> My best guess is that it is possible for people to use wands not their own if
> the will of mind is strong enough.......
> Although, this still leaves the issue of Harry finding his wand at 
> Ollivander's after blowing things up with other wands....

Movie-tainting alert!  In the book, nothing happens when Harry tries the
"wrong" wands.  In fact, Ollivander snatches each one out of his hand before he
has a chance to do anything, and he has no idea what Ollivander is expecting.

When Harry buys his first wand, he has had no training whatsoever, and he isn't
even attempting any particular spell or incantation.  Note that when he first
takes hold of "his" wand, he feels a warmth in his fingers, even before he
waves it and shoots out the red and gold sparks.  I think that in this
situation, with an inexperienced wizard, the wands simply go into default mode
and either spark or don't depending on their "resonance" with the wizard.  No
spell is necessary; it's just raw magical potential.

Ollivander states that you'll never get "such good results" with another
wizard's wand; that doesn't mean that you will get *no* results.  If Harry had
already had some training and tried to actually do a spell with each wand he
tried, he would probably have made something happen.  Likewise, for simple
spells like Hermione's Alohomora and Ollivander's sparks, and even Crouch's
Dark Mark, they are able to use Harry's wand.  Nothing could really go wrong
with any of these spells; Alohomora will either work or not, sparks aren't all
that impressive, and the Dark Mark may be a bit dull or blurry, which wouldn't
make it any less scary.

I suspect that when you go to buy a replacement wand, by that time you have
enough experience that you can determine which wand suits you best, much like a
musician can select a new instrument that suits him based on experience with
other instruments.

Sherry


=====
"The one thing that unites all human beings, regardless of age, gender, religion, economic status or ethnic background, is that, deep down inside, we ALL believe that we are above-average drivers."

      -Dave Barry, "Things That It Took Me 50 Years to Learn"

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