Deathly Hallows: Central Theme or Distraction?

[M.Clifford]

No: HPFGUIDX 173695

--- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, "Steve" <bboyminn at ...> wrote:
>
> ---  "mandorino222" <mandorino222@> wrote:
> >
> > Am I simply late to the discussion?  Has someone else
> > brought up the fact that Harry has control of all 
> > three Deathly Hallows when Voldemort hits him with AK
> > in the forest?  Dumbledore can talk all he wants about 
> > blood; the Deathly Hallows are why Harry survives.
> > 
> > Nick
> >
> 
> bboyminn:
> 
> In theory, yes, Harry has the allegiance of the three
> Hallows, but does he? 
> 
> He has the Cloak, but he has abandon the Ring/Stone
> in the forest. Since he abandon it, does he really
> have control of it? 
> 
> Note, Harry was able to use the Ring/Stone in an 
> unselfish way. He did call back the dead, but not with
> the intent of keeping them in the realm of the living.
> He simply needed a moments company to bolster his 
> courage. He full intended to let them return to 
> resting in peace. 
> 
> It is possible that that unselfish act solidified the
> Ring/Stones allegiance to him, but because he abandon
> it, we can't be sure.
> 
> As to the wand, we have a similarly convoluted path of
> allegiance. Draco disarmed Dumbledore, but he never
> really took possession of the wand. He never actually
> touched it. 
> 
> Also note that when Harry 'defeated' Draco by taking
> Draco's wand, it was the Hawthorn wand he took. Harry
> also never touched the Elder Wand. Is simply capturing
> /any/ wand from a wizard enough to cause the shift in
> allegiance of the Elder Wand, which neither of the
> involved wizards has ever touched? Maybe...maybe not.


I've given this some thought too, Steve. In regards to the stone I
think Harry claimed it all the more when he dropped it in the forest,
he wasn't simply dropping it, he was hiding it and its temptation,
from everyone, including himself. I'm okay with the idea that Harry
commanded mastery of all three Hallows in the end, albeit only in a
symbolic way, but then that does seem to be the case with JKR's
ancient magic in the WW, like the magic invoked by Lily's willing
sacrifice 'take me, *not Harry*', it's the indirect victory that makes
it the more masterful.

With the Elder wand vs the Hawthorn wand I think we are given the
concept in pieces, which we can put together after a little thought.

Earlier in the book, as the Kings Cross Station "Dumbledore" explains,
Harry's Holly wand acts of it's own accord against Voldemort's magic.
 The wand has an internal memory of LV's magical trace and recognises
it in battle. The Holly Phoenix wand then uses it's superior
understanding of Voldemorts magic against the instrument it recognises
as an inferior channel for said magic. The Holly wand has experienced
LV's magic at it's finest through it's brother wand, so the borrowed
wand having no real allegiance to Voldemort, is an easy target for the
Holly one.

This same wand memory concept extends to the final battle. The Elder
wand was last defeated at Hogwarts tower in HBP, by the Hawthorn wand.
LV has snatched it from Dumbledore's body and used it to kill a wizard
whose magic it doesn't recognise as an enemy or a Master. To the Elder
wand, Snape's death was all but a random event, the only memory of
it's former master that was with Snape was in Snape's wand, which it
never really made contact with. To the Elder wand, Snape's death is
meaningless. On the other hand, Harry holds the Hawthorn wand that
once defeated the Elder's great master in a surprise attack. That
attack is all the memory the Elder wand has of Dumbledore's end, by
the time it is reunited with DD he is gone, along with his magical
trace, for all the elder wand knows the Hawthorn wand is its new
champion, it has no way of knowing any more. 

When Harry uses the Hawthorn wand against the Elder wand, The Elder
wand recognises the magical instrument that had subdued it before, and
moreover it recognises that the wizard using it was the self same the
wizard that it had **killed** in a recent battle. This is an
opportunity that the wand could not resist. Not only had this wizard
taken control of the last wand to defeat the Elder, but he had also
overcome the Elder wand's power by surviving it's lethal spell in a
direct hit. If a wand's desire is to learn from the Wizard, then no
wand in the position of the Elder wand could resist the Magical carrot
Harry was dangling under it's nose. 

As for Voldemort, the wand had seen him rob it from a grave and then
struggle to understand it, and it had seen Voldemort use it to destroy
himself when he killed Harry in the forest. In the view of the Elder
wand, Voldemort was a most unworthy master. In wandlore terms, Harry's
confidence was well justified, Voldemort had just shamed himself to
the deathstick repeatedly to the point where if the wand felt it was
in the hands of a sub-par stupid wizard, it was well and truly
justified in leaving him.

I have another curiosity about the Hallows. I thought about wether
they had all been united in HBP at any time, and they were. In the
beginning chapters when Harry and Dumbledore are travelling together
to Sluggy's house, and to the Burrow. I haven't got my copy of HBP
owing to having lent it out, so I am just wondering, does anything
strange happen in those chapters when the Hallows are united by team
Harry/DD? 

Valky