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

[pippin_999]

No: HPFGUIDX 187335

Alla:
> But I mean, nobody would really suggest that soldier on the battlefield, policeman, firefighter, you name it, would go against enemy, against criminal with **only power of love** as their weapon, right?

Pippin:
Nobody is suggesting that Harry go unarmed. It is just that if the EW has great power for good, it has failed to show it in the last 1000 years or so. It isn't neutral like a gun that has no mind of its own. It has a personality  and not a nice one, according to ToBtB. Why should Harry have to struggle with that? Can he really do as much good with such a wand as with the one that chose him freely?


> 
> Alla:
> 
> So, what if the terrorist already spotted you? You would not think that using the most powerful gun will still be a good idea?

Pippin: 

But the power is a myth! Harry's life was threatened at the MoM and Dumbledore was not ready to lose him. If DD could have stunned Voldemort or turned him into a newt, he would have. Dumbledore's greatest deed, according to canon, was defeating Grindelwald. He didn't need the Elder Wand to do that. 


AFAWK, the Elder Wand is only superpowerful at two things: killing, and mending broken wands. Harry is philosophically opposed to the first and the second is not going to  help him much in a fight. 

Policemen do not necessarily have the biggest guns available. They have guns that are big enough to stop someone who's coming at them. IIRC,  the reason for using a bigger gun is not that it's easier to kill, in fact just the opposite. If somebody gets hit in the arm or a leg with a .45, they're going to be knocked down even if the wound is not fatal, whereas with a smaller bullet they might keep on coming even while they're bleeding to death. 

>From what we saw at the MoM, a wizard who's powerful enough to block ordinary spells can block the spells of the Elder Wand too, except for AK and whatever other killing spells the Elder Wand knows. But Harry doesn't want to use those powers. 


> Alla:
> 
> So what kind of the innate caution Harry does not have that Dumbledore did? Would it be the same innate caution that made Dumbledore put the ring on his finger the moment he had it? 

Pippin:
Yup. How many times has somebody had to rescue Dumbledore? Once. Now, how many times has somebody had to rescue Harry?

Alla:
Without taking some time to restrain him and think that maybe, just maybe cloak may come in handy to him and his family if the attack may happen?

Pippin:
If James thought his family needed the cloak for protection,  he wouldn't have left the house wearing it, much less lent it to Dumbledore.  

Alla:
> And still as you said, Dumbledore managed just fine to be a good guardian for a wand. Something tells me that Harry could have managed no worse, IMO of course.
> 

Pippin:
Dumbledore was a good guardian until it was taken from him. If he couldn't hang on to it, it's hardly reasonable for Harry to think he could do better. Considering all the sacrifices Harry and his friends made to save the wizarding world from tyranny, I can't imagine him doing anything he thinks would make it more likely that tyranny will rise again. If he did such a thing just to make his own life a little longer, he'd be no better than Peter Pettigrew. He'd have no business being an auror, much less guardian of the wand.

> 
> Pippin:
> Plus he'd be under pressure from Ron, who lusts for victory, and Hermione, who thinks she knows what's best for everybody without the trouble of asking them. 
> 
> Alla:
> 
> He will be under innate pressure from Ron and Hermione to constantly use the wand? I just do not think so. I totally agree with you about one of the lessons in Potterverse to learn what your weaknesses are and not to get yourself into the situations, however, I also think (or at least I hope) that some growth and maturity occurs for the characters.

Pippin:
No, I don't think they'd constantly press him to use the wand. But that's not to say they'd never do so.

Ron still hates losing at anything so much that he cheated on his driver's test, with nothing more at stake than the embarrassment of having to take it again. Hermione seems to be as bossy as ever.  Harry didn't like the way they were looking at the wand as teenagers, but there's nothing in canon to show that growth and maturity makes you incapable of abusing power later in life. 

The best way to keep yourself from abusing power, according to canon, is not to have so much of it that no one can stop you when you try. 

Pippin