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

[Carol]

No: HPFGUIDX 187355

Alla w:
> 
> Thanks. I am trying to decide where to start with listing the reasons why this statement does not satisfy me as evidence of Elder wand having personality.
> 
> Okay, first of all don't you think that Dumbledore picks and chooses whom he believes and whom he does not in deciding what Elder wand is and what not?
> 
> For some reasons the hearsay testimony of a wizard who may or may not have been completely sane is completely believable to Dumbledore , but the idea of Elder wand being unbeatable or at least very powerful is a myth? Before you ask I believe both of these statements had been not complete myths but just exaggerations. <snip>

Carol responds:

Funny. I had the opposite reaction. Dumbledore is our authority on most matters (he can be wrong, but he's usually in the ball park, at least). And in this case, he's writing about the Elder wand, which he used from 1945 until his death in 1997 (JKR says 1996, but she can't do math!).

I'm just curious. What do those of you on this list who think that the Elder Wand is extraordinarily powerful (IOW, unlike DD, you believe the legend) but has no personality (other than choosing the winner in a fight) think about the effect of the Elder Wand on Dumbledore's abilities? Would he have been the great wizard he was without it? Could he have cast those powerful spells against Voldemort without it?

I think he would have been just as great without it. After all, his great knowledge had more to do with great age and experience, not to mention the intellect he was always boasting about it, than with the wand he was using, and he was already powerful and highly skilled when he defeated Grindelwald (who lost the duel despite having the Elder Wand.)

Anyway, I'm inclined to agree with Dumbledore, but I want to know what others think about its effect on his greatness (I think we can agree that he was greater in terms of magical skill and power than either LV of GG.). How much of that greatness was "the powers native to him" (as Tolkien would say) and how much was the Elder Wand?

And does anyone think that LV's sudden urge to kill anything and everything from an innocent goblin and the DE witnesses to the goblin's story to his own supposedly loyal lieutenant, Severus Snape, was the malign influence of the Elder Wand? We've never seen him completely lose control before (and I see no evidence, as I've said, that the Elder Wand wasn't working for him--no logical or sensible reason to murder Snape). Could the wand have influenced him (or Draco's wand made the Crucio of Amycus easier and more tempting for Harry)? That seems possible based on DD's words as quoted by Pippin a few posts back.

Carol, who thinks that the Elder Wand's power is mostly its ability to stir up strife (even its own maker was murdered)