Horse Feathers

[justcarol67]

No: HPFGUIDX 93887

Someone wrote:
Why would Ollie think that the counterpart wand to the one that 
killed  his parents and scarred him be just the wand for Harry? 
 
greatelderone responded:
Because he was running out of wands. Remember. Testing out each wand 
probably narrowed down the category for him until he decided to give 
the phoenix wand a try. 
 
> Kneasy argued:
> Not so. "....looked instead at the thousands of narrow boxes piled
> neatly right  up  to  the ceiling."
> Whereas "...the pile of tried wands was mounting higher and higher
on the spindly chair." (PS chap.5) Still several thousand  to go, it
seems.

Carol chimes in:
Kneasy, I think you've missed a key word here: "category." I think
greatelderone is suggesting that the wands Ollivander is handing to
Harry represent certain types or categories that Ollivander is ruling
out. I would agree that there is at least some sort of system being
employed here and that Ollivander is not handing out wands randomly.
We know, based on Ollivander's words in that same chapter, that some
wands are particularly effective for Charms, others for
Transfiguration. We also know that some wands are more powerful than
others. James's is a little more powerful than Lily's but Voldemort's
is much more powerful than either.

I suggest that when Ollivander "measures" a student with his magical
tape measure, he's not concerned with the length of his arm or the
distance between his nostrils. The tape measure is sensing the magical
composition (for lack of a better word) of the student--his latent
skills and talents, and his potential power. So when he encountered
young Tom Riddle, what he sensed was primarily power, perhaps with
some strong Slytherinish tendencies mixed in, so he *knew* (possibly
after some preliminary testing as in Harry's case) that this very
powerful wand, the most powerful in his shop, was the right one for
this young wizard. The decision would have been confirmed, of course,
when Tom swished the wand through the air and produced what I presume
were green and silver sparks. That does not make Ollivander evil, nor
does it assume that Tom, age eleven, was already evil. Ollivander,
after all, states that he didn't know what that wand was going out
into the world to do, and Tom had not yet made the choices that would
make him irredeemably evil.
 <snip>

greatelderone wrote:
<snip> The wand isn't inherently evil only its user. <snip>

> Kneasy responded:
> Perhaps. But if you accept that the wand chooses the wizard, then it
> must do so based on some criteria. How does the wand choose?
> Voldy's wand chose an evil wizard, or if it  chose Tom, a twisted 
> personality. What does that say about the nature of the wand?

Carol:
I think that greatelderone is correct here. If a wand were inherently
evil, Ollivander would be an accessory to every murder or
Unforgiveable Curse performed by the owner of the wand. But I agree
with Kneasy that the wand (with some help from Ollivander, who has
already sized up the student's capabilities and has some idea which
wands will be most suitable) must have some criterion (probably more
than one) for choosing the wizard. In Lily's case, it was a talent for
Charms. In James's (and probably Sirius's), it was a gift for
Transfiguration. In Tom's, as Ollivander himself makes clear, it was
unusual power. A powerful wand chooses a powerful wizard. (I can find
the quotes to back up these statements if you need them.)

In Harry's case, IMO, it was an odd combination of his own inherent
gifts as a wizard in combination with whatever traits were transferred
to him by the deflected AK--including, I think, that same unusual
power. So Ollivander hesitated, but when other wands that might have
been compatible with Harry were not, he decided to try the most
powerful wand remaining in his shop--the "brother" of the wand that
gave Harry the scar--saw clear and immediate evidence that he had
chosen correctly, and immediately informed Dumbledore of this strange
(but possibly not unexpected) affinity. 

I certainly agree with Kneasy's (snipped) point that chance was not a
factor (maybe fate was, but I won't get into that), but there's no
need to assume that Dumbledore chose Harry's wand in advance. I think
it was simply the *one right wand* for Harry, and Ollivander, with his
many years of experience "sizing up" students with that magical tape
measure (yes, it's a pun), deduced that the time was right to test the
wand that he had probably been holding on to for years, ever since DD
informed him that Tom Riddle was Voldemort. He must have suspected
that Harry Potter, The Boy Who Lived, would be the right person for
that special wand, but he had to test him first to be sure.

Carol