Who WAS the True Master of the Elder Wand?

[Mike]

No: HPFGUIDX 183978

> Carol:
> 
> Dead is dead. And if he killed *all* the people in that room,
> including the escapees (how do we know that they closed the door
> behind them?) he'd have no servants left. Altogether, a stupid
> thing to do. I've heard of killing the messenger, but killing the
> listeners, your own loyal followers? 

Mike:
But Carol, it's not a matter of what Voldemort did or didn't do, 
should or shouldn't do. It's a matter of what the wand should do, in 
the hands of it's true master.


> Carol:
> 
> Even Voldemort must have been sated after that kill-fest, and he
> certainly did not doubt the effectiveness of his weapon then or
> later. Nor does it fail him in creating Nagini's bubble, drawing
> Snape into it, or turning the green potion clear, the only feats
> of magic other than those unimaginative AKs that it's depicted as
> performing. 
> <snip and added from below>
>
> If we had only seen him attempt and fail some spectacular feat of
> magic along the lines of the spells used in the duel with
> Dumbledore in the MoM. 

Mike:
As you've acknowledged, Voldemort wasn't thinking about what the wand 
was doing for him on this occasion. He was more concerned about his 
Horcruxes, understandably. And he certainly did doubt the 
effectiveness of the wand later, that was the whole point of killing 
Snape.

It's not a matter of the wand "failing" him, as in not performing the 
spells. Ollivander said, "if you are any wizard at all you will be 
able to channel your magic through almost any instrument." <DH, The 
Wandmaker> Voldemort isn't just "any wizard". He's probably the most 
powerful and accomplished wizard of his age, with the possible 
exception of Dumbledore. Voldemort could have performed all those 
spells with Hagrid's umbrella/wand, IMO. So of course the Elder Wand 
had no problem doing those spells, because it was Voldemort's magic 
that was spectacular. Voldemort didn't have to be the wand's master 
to accomplish what was usual magic for him.

But the true master of the Elder Wand will get an extra boost to his 
magic. We've seen it on page. Twice. Dumbledore's Stupefy blasted a 
door out of the way and continued on to strike Crouch. Stupefy isn't 
a spell that should be able to blast through solid objects. Then we 
saw Harry repair his Phoenix and Holly wand with the Elder Wand after 
Ollivander told him there was no way to repair it.



> Carol:
> It's no *more* effective than his old yew wand, but that wand
> chose him and performed many feats of spectacular Dark magic,
> including creating Horcruxes and Inferi and the protections in
> the cave, as well as the spells he cast against DD in the MoM.

Mike:
And that's exactly the point! The Elder Wand was no more effective 
than his Yew wand and it should have been. Voldemort could see and I 
daresay sense that the wand wasn't living up to it's potential. 
Wizards were shown to sense an affinity or lack thereof for the wands 
they're using, Harry certainly does throughout DH. Voldemort would 
have come to realize that the Elder Wand was not performing according 
to legend. Legends can of course exaggerate, but there was some truth 
to this legend. We saw it.

Ollivander also told us that the manner of taking a wand mattered. 
Both he and Xeno understood that one had to "win" the Elder Wand. 
Voldemort thought that stealing the wand from Dumbledore in the grave 
was enough. He came to realize that it wasn't. 


> Carol:
> At any rate, IMO, the fact that some of his followers escaped him
> is no indication of the wand's failure, though it does show the
> limitations of the AK.

Mike:
But if he was the master of the wand, they shouldn't have escaped. 
They should have been blasted through the door just as Crouch was 
blasted through the door by Dumbledore, while using a less powerful 
spell than an AK.

I'll bet that Voldemort couldn't have pointed to a specific event or 
spell where the wand didn't meet his expectations. It was probably a 
cummulative effect and an overall sensing that the wand wasn't any 
better than his Yew wand, and maybe even a little less effective in 
his hands.


> Carol:
> No doubt Voldemort thought that the wand wouldn't AK Snape if he
> was its master since he hadn't been Disarmed, but Voldemort could
> have realized, after his questioning of Snape, that Snape knew
> nothing about the Elder Wand, and then handed it to him saying,
> "Here. Hold this," and Disarmed him with the yew wand. Snape
> would say, "What the--?" and then be sent back to the battle

Mike:
Oh yeah, and that wouldn't have been at all OOC for Voldemort! You 
don't suppose you might be a bit biased against this story line 
because it was used to kill Snape, do you? ;-)


> Carol:
> 
> You apparently find it convincing. I don't. There was no reason
> whatever for Voldemort to kill Snape except that JKR wanted him
> to die that way,

Mike:
Honestly, whatever method JKR used to kill off Snape was fine by me, 
just as long as he was killed off. ;-) 

I agree with Pippin's assessment that this method allowed Harry to 
get there (realize Voldemort wasn't the master of the wand) before 
the reader did. Which set him to thinking of *who* was the master, 
because he knew Snape wasn't it.



> Carol, looking for *on-page* evidence of the wand's failure to
> serve Voldemort effectively and finding none at all

Mike, seeing at least one on-page scene where the wand didn't perform 
to spec and deciding that if Voldemort was convinced, he should be 
convinced