[HPforGrownups] Dumbledore_Master of the Elder Wand?

[Bart Lidofsky]

No: HPFGUIDX 192625

On 3/15/2014 7:40 PM, moony_loony at yahoo.com wrote:
> So are there maybe other means of gaining allegiance of a wand besides 
> defeating its former master?
> Otherwise Dumbledore might not have been the master of the elder wand 
> at all (which would explain why he didn't defeat Voldemort despite 
> being 'the strongest wizard AND in possession of the Elder wand in the 
> Battle inside the Ministry, book five).

Bart:
     The story makes clear Grindlewald WAS the master of the elder wand, 
and so was Dumbledore. However, it never makes clear exactly how 
Dumbledore defeated him. The implication, though, was that it was not by 
direct attack, as that should have been impossible (still, given that 
there were wizards who could see through Harry's Invisibility Cloak, it 
could just be that the Hallows, while very powerful, were not quite as 
powerful as the legends told, and DD's superior skill was able to 
counteract Grindlewald's superior power). However, I can give a couple 
of guesses on how the duel was won (with explanations as to why JKR 
didn't just say it):

1) DD can be pretty damned ruthless if the situation calls for it. Given 
that JKR thought of DD as gay, it is quite possible that DD used the 
feelings that he and Grindy used to have for each other as a 
distraction, long enough to land the coup de grace. As JKR wanted to 
make his sexuality an undercurrent rather than explicitly state it, 
explaining this method would be saying too much, and therefore she left 
it out.

2) My preferred guess: DD used a muggle method to defeat Grindy. While 
it has been demonstrated that wizards can defend themselves from certain 
forms of muggle violence, and if injured but not instantly killed they 
can be brought back to life from just about any conventional injury if 
treatment is given quickly, the Secrecy Laws show that even before 
modern technology, wizards were afraid of concerted muggle action 
against them. They do get tired eventually, and there may not be enough 
Healers if there is mass injury. An unexpected physical attack would 
have been enough for DD to get the upper hand.

The reason for not revealing that reason could be explained in-story as 
WW disdain for muggle methods. But an out-of-story reason is a bit of a 
plot hole in HPDH. While it would not occur to a pure wizard or maybe 
not even half-bloods, muggle-born wizards would almost certainly have 
thought of using a muggle Resistance methods as a surprise defense. 
Setting up a massive booby trap (high explosives, poison gas, etc.), and 
saying "Voldemort" before running like hell or wearing protection, would 
kill the hit squads; the evidence could be cleaned up before the bad 
guys knew what happened. And the purebloods might know that something 
was happening, but their arrogance would preclude them from considering 
muggle methods as a cause.

     Bart
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://archive.hpfgu.org/pipermail/hpforgrownups/attachments/20140316/39aefa4a/attachment.html>