Not really something wrong per se, but I wonder what the twins’ reaction was when they found out Remus and Sirius were Moony and Padfoot? (THIS is my guess.)
Yeah – a lot of the creatures in Potterdom are ones that come from ancient myths, legends and even fairy tales. (House elves, for example, are based on the story of the shoemaker and his elves) Banshees, unicorns, spinxes, dragons, etc. So it makes sense that things like Big Foot and the Loch Ness Monster are also real in the wizarding world.
Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them lists some of them. (It’s a funny book, btw. It’s written like a text book, and Harry and Ron have written notes in the margins)
I’ve wondered about the actual power of the Elder Wand. It was supposed to be super-powerful, but in at least two duels between more or less evenly matched opponents, it failed to give its owner the edge. First, Grindelwald, only a shade less skilled than Dumbledore, failed to beat Dumbledore with the Elder Wand. Then in HP5, Dumbledore using the Elder Wand failed to beat Voldemort. So would the Elder Wand actually have helped Harry in a duel against any moderately powerful Death Eater, let alone Voldemort?
Also, the way the Elder Wand transferred its allegiance to Harry is really thin. Harry seized Malfoy’s usual wand, so that wand switched to Harry. Why would the Elder Wand, never touched by either Malfoy or Harry, transfer its allegiance to Harry second-hand? In fact, since Malfoy never took the Elder Wand after disarming DUmbledore, and the Wand was later returned to Dumbledore’s tomb, technically the allegiance should have gone Dumbledore-Malfoy-Dumbledore-Voldemort.
I’m not too bothered by this. I’d guess that in the two cases you describe, the wielder of the Elder Wand was unwilling to kill his opponent (I’m guessing that Grindelwald had some lingering personal affection for Dumbledore), so it wasn’t being used to its full dueling potential.
Returning the wand to Dumbledore’s tomb wasn’t wresting it from its master against his will. It seems that the Elder Wand attunes itself to whichever master has forcibly disarmed its prior master.
This doesn’t bother me too much. I see it as similar to being a CIA agent. AIUI they can only tell their spouses, and pretty much keep up a cover story 24-7 for everybody else. (Although here in the DC area you pretty much have a clue when somebody says the “work for the State Dept” and are unable to say exactly what they do).
They’re allowed to tell their spouses, and some close relatives, I believe (siblings, parents,) After all, Petunia was able to tell Vernon. (Yes, she told him BEFORE they took in Harry, if you’ll recall)
One thing that bothered me, and I know Rowling only did it so the story would work, but Voldemort having Nagini kill Snape rather than just Avada Kedavra-ing him. I know otherwise Harry wouldn’t have been able to complete his quest, but I can’t remember if there was an explanation for why Voldemort did it. Was Nagini hungry, or did Voldemort maybe suspect and wanted Snape to suffer?
I thought Voldemort believed the Elder Wand wasn’t “working” for him because Snape was still its master; it was my impression that, as a result, he thought that the wand wouldn’t be able to produce a killing curse.
Nagini biting Snape gave Snape enough time to pass on his memories to Harry (and stare into Harry’s eyes) before he died. If Voldemort had Avada Kedavrad Snape, Harry wouldn’t have got Snape’s memories. I don’t think any other reason was given, except that maybe Voldemort liked to use Nagini as his hitman/hitsnake. I find it hard, though, to believe that Snape died so easily. He was a powerful wizard (even if not in Voldemort’s league). Surely he could have put up a better fight against Nagini – Neville killed her fairly easily?
I’m guessing Dumbledore wanted to kill Grindelwald even less than Grindelwald wanted to kill Dumbledore – so the Elder Wand should still have given Grindelwald the edge.
A wand should attune itself to whoever forcibly disarms its master of that particular wand. Say Malfoy had taken the Elder Wand, and Harry had snatched Malfoy’s spare wand with the Elder Wand remaining in Malfoy’s possession. Why would the Elder Wand switch from Malfoy to Harry? Alternately, Malfoy was forced to leave the Elder Wand and flee – McGonagall or somebody took it back and returned it to Dumbledore. The wand should have changed allegiance away from Malfoy. Or, Voldemort ‘killed’ Harry after Harry had disarmed Malfoy, and the Wand should have changed allegiance from Malfoy to Harry to Voldemort. Harry becoming master of the Elder Wand without ever coming near it just doesn’t seem logical.
Snape was prepared for a Voldemort hex to the point that he drew his wand. He was not prepared for Nagini coming up from behind and enclosing him partly in her globe.
Dumbledore’s no-kill style is an aberration for the elder wand’s history. It was repeated more than once that the death stick had a bloody history.
Minor nit pick: Dumbledore beat Voldemort. Voldemort escaped.
My feeling about the Elder Wand is that it was seriously overrated. Its reputation attracted wizards who were already inclined towards violence, and were willing to do nasty things to get it and keep it, but the wand itself wasn’t really All That. What Harry did in spinning his theory to Voldemort that V didn’t actually have the allegiance of the wand was to attack Voldemort’s confidence. Unsure as to whether the wand was truly his, he lacked full conviction in their last duel and it turned into a self-fulfilling prophecy when Harry’s spell turned his back onto himself.
If you don’t allow a tool free reign to be used to its full potential, there’s no telling just how much your “punch-pulling” is hampering it. Dumbledore was the more skilled wizard, by keeping the Elder Wand’s power somewhat in check, his lesser skill doomed him in the duel.
Who are we to say what “should” or “shouldn’t” happen with a wand in the Rowling fictional world? Heck, the whole idea of “wand allegiance” was only introduced in the last book. Before that, Ron used someone else’s (Bill’s, maybe?) old wand before it got destroyed by the Whomping Willow in book 2, and Neville used his incapacitated father’s old wand until it was destroyed in the fight at the end of book 5, and there was never even a hint that there was anything inferior about that. The rules were probably not invented by her until she wrote the ending scene of book 6.
As others have mentioned, the elder wand seems highly over-rated.
But I also think the comparison you make might not make much sense. Different tools are designed for different purposes, and it seems reasonable* to me that a snake might be magic-proof and yet still vulnerable to a magical, venom-infused sword. (* For definitions of reasonable that include speculating about fictional magical items. )
This is especially true if you remember that Nagini was not just a snake, but a horcrux. I don’t remember how Dumbledore broke the ring, but Potter and friends were only able to destroy horcruxes via the basilisk’s venom (either straight from a fang or from the infusion of venom into the sword). They tried every spell they knew on the locket without success.
Snape didn’t have the Elder Wand, Voldemort did. Snape presumably had his own wand. Voldemort simply believed that Snape had its allegiance, which is why he killed Snape.
Also, Voldemort using Nagini to kill Snape was clearly written in service to Snape giving Harry his memories, I’m not arguing that. However, using Nagini doesn’t feel contrived to me, because it fits with Voldemort thinking that the Elder Wand would not function correctly if used against its true master.
I think Snape didn’t defend himself because he was taken by surprise, first by Voldemort’s unexpected decision to kill him, and second by the unusual method of flinging Nagini at him. Snape wanted to sneak off and find Harry so he could pass on his information. Voldemort mortally wounding him and then leaving before he breathed his last, while Harry happened to be nearby watching was just a lucky coincidence. Now that I read it, the whole thing does seem awfully convenient.
Nagini wasn’t inherently magic-proof, Voldemort had (once he realized that Harry was hunting Horcruxes) placed Nagini in a magically-protective “cage”, and when he thought Harry was dead and himself safe, he removed the “cage” from around Nagini.
He used Gryffindor’s sword. The portrait of Phineas Nigellus Black told Harry and Hermione this (don’t recall if Ron was with them at that moment), that’s how they knew the sword could destroy Horcruxes.
oft wears hats:
There’s a lot that was awfully convenient for Harry in the books, especially books 6 and 7. But not to the point of breaking suspension of disbelief, at least not to me.
I can download it just fine, but I don’t have access to my Kindle just now, will test it later. I was meaning to ask you - how did you scrape it? I couldn’t get copy paste or anything to work on that site. I was trying because it kept crashing all the time. And I hate pausing my reading.
Snape used the killing curse on Dumbledore, so Voldemort figured Snape was the Elder Wand’s master. Actually, it was Draco who had disarmed Dumbledore and was the Elder Wand’s master. Voldemort didn’t know that.
I know that was the reason. I’m just wondering why Voldemort would do so. That’s all.
I would’ve liked to know how the twins figured out how to work out the Marauder’s Map. It’s not a huge deal, but it would be interesting. I’m also hoping that Pottermore will put up Wormtail’s bio eventually, and we’ll find out how he came to live with the Weasleys.
)
That’s all.