Dumbledore/Grindlewald duel

[Geoff Bannister]

No: HPFGUIDX 174525

--- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, "Donna" <djmitt at ...> wrote:
>
> At first when I read the DH, one of my main complaints was "How did
> Dumbledore win the duel with Grindelwald when he had an unbeatable
> wand???"  Then I thought about it and listened to the book a second
> time.  Dumbledore stole the wand from the wandmaker using polyjuice
> potion to disguise himself as Grindlewald.  That whole theft scene was
> a little weird with the thief acting like a bird (phoenix).. Now it
> makes sense.  Grindlewald told Voldemort that he never had the wand
> and Voldy called him a liar.  Maybe he was telling him the truth
> ..Dumbledore stole it..of course for the greater good

Geoff:
Musing over this yesterday, a simpler scenario crossed my mind.

If Dumbledore decided to meet up with Grindelwald, when the latter
wasn't expecting it, might it just be that he hadn't got the Elder Wand
immediately near him and did not have the opportunity to summon it?

Maybe we'll have to await the Encyclopaedia - as we will have to for so 
many other bits and pieces of information which are exercising our 
speculative faculties at the moment!