Wandlore

[nirupama76]

No: HPFGUIDX 176647

claire_elise2003 wrote:
>
> Ollivander tells Harry that when a wizard disarms another (or 
otherwise wins his wand by
> force), the wand will usually recognise the new master, depending 
though on the wand
> itself.  Obviously this is crucial in the case of the Elder Wand 
and Draco's wand.  But,
> having just reread the series, I have lost count of the number of 
times Harry and co are
> disarmed (or disarm others), either using Expelliarmus, or 
otherwise.  Why did Harry's
> wand continue to work for him when it had previously been won from 
him by force?

Niru:

I think that intention matters a great deal when one wizard/witch 
disarms/otherwise defeats another. Or as Ollivander would say, "The 
manner of taking matters."

During the practice sessions of the DA, the members were simply 
taking it in turns to disarm each other. The intention was to learn 
to do the spell properly and not to actually disarm their partners 
with a view to finishing them off when they were wandless. Plus how 
many people did we see who actually tried to actively resist being 
disarmed? This wasn't a duel. The intention was simply to learn. 

Weighing into this debate is also the all-important fact that the 
wand chooses the wizard. As Ollivander says, it is not always clear 
why. But in general it is a mutual quest for experience. The wizard 
learns from the wand and the wand from the wizard. Therefore, while 
a wizard can use any wand, the best results will come only when the 
wizard and wand resonate, only when they complete each other. Why a 
particular wand should resonate with a particular witch or wizard is 
far more obscure. Maybe it does come down to the mutual quest for 
experience. Why, for that matter, do we marry certain people? Why do 
we fall in love with some particular person and not someone else? It 
is probably the same for a wand.

The Elder Wand's allegiance becomes clearer when we take the above 
two things into consideration. The manner of taking (the intention 
behind it) and the wand's quest for experience. Draco Malfoy 
disarmed Dumbledore fully intending to kill him once he was 
disarmed. That he was not able to go through with the original 
intention is a different matter altogether. As the wizard who had 
wielded the wand that wrenched the Elder Wand from its previous 
master, Malfoy was perhaps going to enrich the Elder Wand's 
experience further. Or so it believed (if wands have that 
capability, and Ollivander certainly seems to think they do). But 
then Harry took Draco's hawthorn wand from him by force. Again, the 
intention was to definitely weaken Malfoy and give Harry the upper 
hand. This was no practice session. Harry was focussed on getting 
away. He'd have had no qualms about incapacitating Malfoy (I don't 
mean that he would have killed Malfoy). The hawthorn wand's 
allegiance transferred to Harry. And when this happened, he was also 
bound to get the Elder Wand's allegiance – the hawthorn wand being 
the wand that had ripped the Elder Wand from its previous master. 
The wizard who mastered the hawthorn wand mastered the Elder Wand.
JMHO.

Niru