a whole lot of parts of the chapter discussion

[Carol]

No: HPFGUIDX 185325

Carol earlier:
> > So, unless the wand chose not to kill Harry by striking the
Expelliarmus instead of its master, Harry's being the wand's master
makes no difference.
> 
> Pippin:
> 
> So why didn't the crucio work? It threw Harry into the air three
times, but didn't hurt him.  I don't think he's impervious to pain, or
he wouldn't have known when Narcissa's nails pierced him. 

Carol responds:
I agree that he's not impervious to pain, but he has just sacrificed
himself, returning from what could have been death if he had chosen to
go on. Maybe the Love magic *does* protect him as well as the others.
Certainly, that's the reason that LV's other spells fail (as Harry
informs us himself). Or perhaps the wand sensed *then* that Harry was
its master--or a more powerful and therefore more "worthy" Wizard in
its view than LV--because it had AK'd but not killed him. (Maybe
something similar happened with DD and GG--GG had the Elder Wand and
was its master, but if it sensed that DD was, in his own words, "a
shade more powerful," perhaps the wand chose to betray GG?) Or, as I
said before, it learned (being sensient) that Harry was its master at
the same time that LV did.

Pippin:
> 
> I take your point that the AK in the forest seemed to work. But I
think what you've ignored there is that  when the Elder Wand struck
him the first time, Harry *wanted* to die. The Elder Wand, like Snape,
obeyed its master and tried to carry out an order that would
ordinarily have been impossibly repugnant. <snip>

Carol:
Hm. That's possible. I don't think that the Elder Wand would find
killing repugnant, though, and I don't think that it had yet *chosen*
to accept Harry as its master even if it knew that he was (still a
moot point). You think that a captured wand is enslaved to the new
master and has no choice but to accept him. I accept Ollivander's
statement that it's more complex than that. *Usually* but not always,
the wand bends its will to the new master. And in the case of a wand
that wasn't even involved in the Disarming, it would be even more
complex. It seems to me that the wand, once it knows what happened,
has three choices: Accept Draco, whom it knows to have Disarmed its
former master, Dumbledore; accept LV, the powerful Dark Wizard who
took it from DD's tomb, has it in his hand and has used it
successfully for more than a month, and matches its own malignancy; or
accept Harry, who claims to have Disarmed Draco and has just come
back, to all intents and purposes, from the dead. Discarding Draco,
who has never touched it and has been (Harry claims) disarmed by him,
not magically but by snatching his wand, is easy. (Perhaps it senses
that Harry is the master of the wand he's now using, formerly
Draco's.) Perhaps it senses weakness and fear in Voldemort, whom it
knows did not Disarm or kill DD. (It would also know, I think, that he
chose to die by Snape's hand.) Perhaps it senses that Harry is in some
way more powerful than LV ("the one with the power to vanquish the
Dark Lord") and chooses him for that reason. Perhaps it simply
believes his story and yields itself to his will. The important thing
here is that we don't know at which point--or why--the Elder Wand
accepts Harry as its master. And I quote Ollivander as my authority.

Ollivander says of the wand that Harry took from Draco, "--then it
*may* be yours. Of course, the manner of the taking matters. *Much
also depends on the wand itself.* *In general,* however, where a wand
has been taken, its allegiance will change."

Harry responds with, "You talk about wands like they've got feelings.
Like they can think for themselves."

Ollivander reminds him that "the wand chooses the wizard." They agree
that a wizard can use a wand that hasn't chosen him (which doesn't
explain Harry's struggle with the Snatcher's wand) but Ollivander
notes that "*the best results, however, must always come where there
is the strongest affinity between wizard and wand.* *These connections
are complex.* An initial attraction, and then a mutual quest for
experience, the wand learning from the wizard, the wizard from the wand."

Ollivander asks whether Harry took the wand from Draco by force. Harry
says yes asks whether he can use it safely. Ollivander says, "I
*think* so," adding, "Subtle laws govern wand ownership, but the
conquered wand will *usually* bend its will to the new master."
Wormtail's new wand, taken from him by force by Ron, is "*more
likely*" to "do [Ron's] bidding and do it well than another wand." 

Harry asks if these laws apply to all wands and Ollivander says "I
*think* so," but reminds Harry that wandlore is "a complex and
mysterious branch of magic." (DH Am. ed. 403-04).

Ollivander's uncertainty throughout the conversation is apparent.

"It *may* be yours." "I *think* so" (twice). "*More likely." "*In
general.*" "*Usually.*" He thinks certain outcomes are likely, but he
doesn't know, because wandlore is "complex and mysterious," governed
by "subtle laws." 

Wands, it becomes clear, *can* think. they have *feelings* and a
*will.* *Usually* but not always they will yield that will to the
conquering wizard, but clearly there are exceptions. A wand works best
for a master with whom it has an initial affinity and with whom it has
built a relationship. And, it stands to reason that, having a will, it
could reject a conquering wizard with whom it does not sense an
affinity. Yes, Hermione can use Bellatrix's wand, but even if Hermione
had taken that wand by force from Bellatrix, she would still hate it
for the crimes it has performed. It would not have learned with her
and built up a relationship with her; it has learned with and built up
a relationship with a powerful and evil witch (for whom it already had
a natural affinity or it wouldn't have chosen her) and who is
exceedingly fond of the Cruciatus Curse, a spell that Hermione, unlike
Harry, has never attempted or been tempted to cast.

Draco's wand, in contrast, quite readily chooses Harry, who in many
ways (magically, at least) resembles Draco. They are evenly matched in
terms of magical ability, as their duels at school show. Neither is
yet fully qualified. Both have attempted to cast Crucios, Draco
successfully if reluctantly. (How that works when you have to enjoy
casting the spell to make it work, I don't know.) Wormtail's wand
didn't choose him; it was made to replace his old one. It has had only
a year to form a bond with him and no opportunity to learn with him
since he's not likely to be using it much or learning new spells. Ron
wins it, and the wand's choice is easy--switch loyalties to the
unknown new master.

The Elder Wand's choice is by no means so easy (except with regard to
Draco). Should it choose the wizard with whom it has a natural
affinity, or should it choose the one who disarmed its own master?
(There's no indication that it *knows* Draco has been disarmed until
Harry says so. Until then, it may well have been forging a
relationship with its new owner and considering taking him as its
master. It does not seek out Harry, nor does it betray Voldemort until
the end. It stops working for him because of Harry's self-sacrifice.
His own wand would have suffered the same fate. It would not, however,
have had any reluctance to kill Harry, its natural enemy, had he faced
Voldemort at the end with Draco's wand (his own wand would have
resulted in the Priori Incantatem all over again, which is why LV
thought he needed another wand in the first place).

To say that the Elder Wand had no choice or that a captured wand loses
its will, that the same thing happens with all wands and that the
outcome is predictable, is to ignore everything that Ollivander said
about this "complex and mysterious" branch of magic.
 
> Pippin
> hoping that Carol will forgive her for trying to clarify a few more
things
>
Carol:
No forgiveness is necessary. That's what both of us are trying to do.
I just want to make it clear that I *am* basing my wandlore on
Ollivander's.

Carol, noting that no interpretation is definitive and we need to keep
our minds open to other possibilities