Thoughts on Wands (slightly long)

[Tom Wall <thomasmwall@yahoo.com>]

No: HPFGUIDX 53011

Replies to both Kary and 
Aldrea in this post.

Kary wrote:
I never felt that Wizards cast 
off wand for new ones all the time 
unless a catastrophe happened like 
with Ron and they were required to 
buy a new one that fit them well.

I reply:
Well, we do know canonically that 
Ron's first wand is actually 
Charlie's old wand, so I'd guess 
that it wasn't damaged irreparably.

I don't have the books handy, but I thought that even when Ron first 
had it, the unicorn hair was sticking slightly out of the end of the 
wand anyways. However, this doesn't necessarily constitute a damaged 
wand, since I didn't gather that Ron was impaired by his wand at all 
in PS/SS, at least definitely not to the degree that he was in CoS.


Aldrea wrote:
I'd always assumed Voldemort did buy his at 11. Ollivander did say 
he sold the wand that gave Harry the scar, so I'd just assumed that 
Tom Riddle had gone into the shop, like every other 11 y/o, and 
bought a wand.

I reply:
I'd like to assume that as well, but since Tom Riddle was born in 
1927, that would mean that Harry's wand sat idly for, oh, what, sixty-
five years? Does that make sense?

In other words, that kind of creates this "wand of destiny" feel for 
the whole endeavor? Like, the wand was created and waited patiently 
for its true owner for all that time? I'm sure that's definitely 
plausible. It just seems odd, IMO.

And it's always possible that the second feather was taken at a later 
date, right? I mean, Fawkes is, um, recyclable, so theoretically he 
could continue giving out wands, and theoretically would they all be 
the "brothers" of Harry's wand?

Since Voldemort's wand is thirteen and a half inches, and Harry's is 
only eleven, then IMO it would be reasonable to suggest that they 
could have been taken at different times. I understand that they 
could have been taken from different parts of the bird as well, but 
that just seems, well, I dunno. Unlikely. Can't explain it past that, 
although I thought that they were both tail-feathers.

Personally, I agree that the wand that does choose the wizard would 
seem to represent the wizard physically. And given Ollivander's 
summaries in "The Weighing of the Wands," about flexibility and so 
forth, I also got the idea that the wands somehow represented the 
personality of the wizard as well. 

And as Steve pointed out, there are definitely other wandmakers. And 
if Gregorovich prefers inflexible materials, then I'd guess that it's 
more a matter of technique, since he, like Ollivander, would 
logistically have to accomodate a large range of personality types. 
In other words, probably Gergorovich could have provided Harry with 
an equally workable wand.

But insofar as it's some kind of exact science, well, I dunno 'bout 
that. After all, wizards, IMHO don't really seem to have difficulties 
using each others' wands, despite the fact that the wand chooses the 
wizard. Sure, I agree that they probably won't get the best results 
possible. But honestly, if we think about it, the whole system seems 
totally odd. For instance, Charlie would appear to have gotten a 
second wand despite his first (if it is even his first) being in 
working order. So, are the wands "jealous" of each other? I know 
that's silly, but you see my point... somehow a wizard can use other 
wands without there being some kind of massive disturbance, which 
begs the question of exactly how individual each wand is to the 
wizard using it.

We can't, for instance, expect the wands to know *when* they're right 
for the wizard or not. All we can reasonably expect is simply for a 
wand to "know" that it is either a proper fit, or it's not. 

I'd guess that even if Ollivander hadn't selected the twin wand for 
Harry, eventually they still would have found another fit, and maybe 
possibly, there's an even better fit still out there waiting to be 
found.

-Tom