Why Harry would not use Elder Wand? WAS: Re: Wand allegiance.

[Carol]

No: HPFGUIDX 187304

Alla wrote:
> 
> But all those examples that you cited and I snipped do not really work for me, because most of them are really not fights and if in the example of fight one of the participants did have elder wand, how do we know that it will not make a difference?
> 
> But do not get me wrong, I totally see that Harry would not have been using elder wand, only I do not see any justifications that you are bringing it up. I mean, really, the most powerful weapon to defend himself, if it was a different series, I would say - eh why not?
> 
> But here especially after book 7 to me it is very clear that guns and their magical equivalents, strong magical powers are very last thing that will bring JKR's characters victory.
> 
> I think JKR wants the hero whose power comes from self sacrifice, not from being the strongest fighter physically, from somebody who has friends who will stand up for him, not that he had to know all the magic tricks, etc. <snip>

Carol responds:

right. Very good, Alla! I think you've hit on the right answer. From the beginning, the strongest magic (as Dumbledore tells Voldemort and Voldemort foolishly refuses to believe) is Love magic. Baby Harry doesn't defeat the Dark Lord through superior powers; he survives through no will or effort or power of his own because Voldemort gave her the choice to live or die and she chose to give her life in place of Harry's, so that when LV tried to kill Harry, too, her sacrifice protected him. Later, he survives, as Snape puts it, through luck and the help of more talented friends. And he defeats Voldemort first through self-sacrifice (love) and then through luck (the elder Wand). I'm oversimplifying, but I'm trying to say that Harry's successes are almost never a matter of his skill and a wizard (unless we count Quidditch matches) or his power (except for his Patronus, which again he learned to produce through the luck of having a Dementor boggart to practice on and the help of a more knowledgeable friend, Professor Lupin). They're always about friendship and luck and love. And those things, we can be pretty sure, will remain with Harry until the end of his days.

And in the unlikely event that a new Dark Wizard shows up who's foolish enough to want to defeat Harry (not necessarily kill him unless, as Pippin says, he believes the myth rather than history) and, after that, somehow obtain the hidden Elder Wand, that simply wouldn't happen. Love, luck, and the help of more talented friends--not to mention his very good wand--Harry will win again because Harry always does--especially since his opponent wouldn't be using the "unbeatable" Elder Wand.

Anyway, I realize that I'm exaggerating in that last paragraph based on JKR's reluctance to have Harry lose in any contest (except the duel with Snape at the end of HBP), but, seriously, I think that it isn't about power or magical ability. It's about the themes that Alla outlined, all of which have been the keys to Harry's success and without which, even with the scar link and the ability to speak Parseltongue, he'd never have been able to defeat Voldemort. And that's what all the wizards who died after winning the Elder Wand failed to understand: love is the most powerful magic, and the world's most powerful wand merely turns you into a target.

Harry is wise not to use it and to let people forget about it, as people always do. As for an accurate version of events in the WW--that has yet to happen (with the single exception of Harry's interview), whether it's Rita Skeeter's biographies, the Daily Prophet, or Hogwarts, a History, which didn't reveal the full truth about the Chamber of Secrets.

The thing is, though, that if Harry uses the Elder Wand, which *can* be defeated ad both DD and Grindelwald demonstrated, he risks losing it to someone else and its power won't end. The cycle of violence will continue. He *has* to keep it out of circulation (and remain undefeated himself, which he can easilydo with his usual Expelliarmus and quick reactions--not to mention backup).

Carol, whose post has been interrupted so many times that it's undoubtedly incoherent