Who WAS the True Master of the Elder Wand?

[pippin_999]

No: HPFGUIDX 183949

 
> Mike:
> The Resurrection Stone. Eh, not really any need to resolve that plot 
> line. It was only introduced in HBP and for all intents and purposes 
> it's story seemed over. 

Pippin:
It was needed to explain Dumbledore's lie about what he would see in
the mirror of Erised, and to give him a motive for allying with
Grindelwald. Although we didn't know about the alliance per se, we did
have indications that he'd done something of which he was deeply ashamed. 

IMO, The Hallows themselves symbolize three ways of reacting to
deathly peril: confrontation (the wand), denial (the stone), and
avoidance (the cloak.) All have their place, all can be misused, and
none of them will postpone death forever. The books as a whole deal
with these topics in detail. 

I realize there are people who don't *want* the story to have any
deeper meaning. But do you  think anyone would devote fifteen years of
their life to writing a story if it didn't mean something to them? JKR
obviously had something in mind besides creating a fantasy world to
play in. The last three books are devoted to destroying the illusion,
created by the first four, that the WW is a kind of fairytale place.


> Mike:
> I think you've both hit the nail on the head. As Steve has countless 
> times pointed out, there was the legend and then there was the 
> reality. 
> 
> You've brought up another point, Montavilla, that I think was a lost 
> oppurtunity. In seven books we didn't see anybody other than 
> Dumbledore and Harry himself raise a wand against Voldemort. 

> We have to accept Voldemort's prowess on spec.

Pippin:

 The adults don't speak of fearing Voldemort's prowess in battle.
Fudge  says outright that  it's his followers that make Voldemort
dangerous. What people  fear is Voldemort's obsessive enmity and his
ability to get the seemingly innocent and righteous to do his bidding.
Of that, there are plentiful examples. 

  Voldemort enjoys killing, but he prefers to let others fight for
him, which is only sensible. Although the legend is that Dumbledore is
the only one he ever feared, the text shows that Voldemort is
thoroughly opposed to giving *anyone* a fighting chance against him. I
think, if there had not been witnesses, he would have fled from
Dumbledore at once. But he couldn't afford to lose face. *He* knows
that his followers are the true source of his power.


 It's only when he thinks he's the true master of the unbeatable wand
*and* the only person who could kill him is dead, that Voldemort
deliberately puts himself in harm's way.

Thanks to Mike's brilliant observation about Dumbledore blasting a
spell through a door, I've realized that we did see the Elder Wand
failing Voldemort. If Voldemort had been the wand's true master, could
a simple door have saved Lucius and Bella from his wrath?

I don't think so. The spells should have gone right through it. We do
see the spells of the Elder Wand deflected when Dumbledore is using
it,  but only by magic. They aren't stopped by ordinary obstacles, and
they don't miss. 

Pippin