Harry uses Hermione's wand to kill Volemort?

[justcarol67]

No: HPFGUIDX 106306

I (Carol) wrote:
<snip> P.S. As to the core of Hermione's wand, <snip> there are of
course only three possibilities. Since Ron's is a unicorn hair and
Harry's is a Phoenix feather, I think it's a safe bet that Hermione's
is a dragon's heartstring.

Adan responded: 
I remember the three things being thrown out as the possibilities as 
well, but in GoF isn't Fleur Delacour's wand core her (grandmother's) 
veela hair?  So it was obviously a wand made specifically for her, 
but that might mean there are many possibilities.  
 
My question is wondering whether the wand core, of a wand chosen 
specifically for the witch/wizard, shows any kind of compatibility 
with other wizards... man, that's just not clear.  What I mean is, 
would someone with a dragon heartstring (like Krum) be better suited 
to someone else with a dragon heartstring (like the presupposed 
Hermione)?  Or would it be like in magnets, and repel?  Just a wild 
hair...
 

Carol responds:
Okay, I guess I'd better quote the bit of canon I had in mind when I
wrote that P.S.:

"Every Ollivander wand has a core of a powerful magical substance, Mr.
Potter. We use unicorn hairs, phoenix tail feathers, and the
heartstrings of dragons. No two Ollivander wands are the same, just as
not two unicorns, dragons, or phoenixes are quite the same. an of
course, you will never get such good results with another wizard's
wand" (SS Am. ed. 83-84).

Clearly Ollivander doesn't think it's necessary to deviate from his
three standard substances since he can get the variety he wants simply
by using two different animals (not to mention varying the wood and
the length of the wand). Granted, Fleur's wand uses a Veela hair (from
her own grandmother), but Ollivander doesn't use Veela hair because it
makes the wand "temperamental" (GoF Am. ed. 308). (Even Viktor Krum's
wand, a "Gregorovitch creation" made of hornbeam (a hardwood tree of
the birch family), has a dragon heartstring core, suggesting that it's
pretty standard).

At any rate, unless Hermione did not go to France or Bulgaria to get
her wand. She must have bought it in Diagon Alley, and unless she went
to some other wand shop (Hagrid's statement that Ollivander's wand
shop is "the only" place to buy wands may be literally true and may
mean that it's the best place--either way, if she had any guidance at
all, she would have ended up at Ollivander's).

So I admit I was assuming that she bought the wand at Ollivander's,
but if she did, as seems likely, there really are only three
possibilities. Which returns me to my original light-hearted
supposition--hers is probably different from those of the two boys
because her personality and abilities are so different from theirs.
Three cores for three protagonists. It makes sense to me.  

As to your question, Adan, I really don't know the answer beyond the
Priori Incantatem effect of brother wands, which I don't think we'll
encounter except with regard to the Fawkes' feather cores of
Voldemort's and Harry's wands.

The question for me is, what are the implications of the particular
wand cores. Of course, the Phoenix is associated with immortality,
which explains why it suits Voldemort, and the Phoenix song is
apparently associated with purity of heart, so it suits Harry (more or
less--I won't go into character flaws or the possible corrupting
effects of a failed Crucio here). He's the hero of the story and
Fawkes the Phoenix is allied with both him and Dumbledore--he's been
healed twice with Phoenix tears, once rather superfluously as he
wasn't near death. I don't know of any other students with Phoenix
feather wands. I would guess that they're extremely rare, even if more
than one Phoenix exists. We know that Fawkes gave only two feathers;
that's all we know on the matter. But it does seem to reduce the
likelihood that Hermione's wand also has a Phoenix feather core.

As for Ron's unicorn tail hair core, there may be some association
between unicorn tail hairs and innocence. I'm thinking, of course, of
the usual associations of unicorns with innocent young girls--virgins,
in medieval lore--and of poor Cedric, who was "good and kind and
brave" and whose wand had a unicorn tail hair. But despite Firenze's
words, "Always the innocent are the first to die," I don't think we
need to expect that all the students with unicorn tail hair wand
cores--roughly a third to a half of the Hogwarts student body--is
doomed to die, or that we need to worry about Ron for that reason.
Interestingly, Charlie's original wand also had a unicorn hair core.
Does that mean he's definitely a good guy, "innocent" in comparison
with the twins, at any rate?

As for dragon heartstrings, you'd think that would be the core of
choice for our courageous Gryffindors (except Charlie, who tames
dragons and Hagrid-like, probably doesn't want one to give its life
for his wand). Seriously, I would think that dragons would be
associated with either courage or cunning, but not being up on that
branch of mythology, I'd be interested in hearing from the experts. If
I'm right and Hermione's wand has a dragon heartstring core, what are
the implications? (And wouldn't those wands be rather rarer than
unicorn tail hair cores because the animal has to die and can only
contribute one heartstring? I can't see Mr. Ollivander killing dragons
himself at his age, even if he does pull out unicorn tail hairs. He'd
have to get them from a distributor of dragon parts.)

Oh, the heartlessness of the WW.

Carol, trying not to think of the old Disney movie, "Pete's Dragon"