Why was Harry Potter the rightful owner of the Elder (plus other Book 7 questions)?

Question

I just read Harry Potter 7 – The Deathly Hallows (stop reading this question if you haven’t finished the book), and I can’t help but be confused by the ending. Here are my questions:

1) Why exactly was Harry the rightful owner of the Elder wand and why didn’t Voltemorte’s spells cause any damage to Harry?

2) While Harry was looking into the Pensieve, he saw Snape having a conversation with Dumbledore in which Dumbledore stated that Harry and Voltemorte would have to kill each other in order to end Voltemorte’s existence. Apparently, a piece of Voltemort’s soul had entered Harry after he was killed, so the only way to finish him was to make sure that Harry died too. However, Harry lives at the end of the book. Was Dumbledore simply incorrect about Harry needing to die?

3) When Harry is knocked out with the killing curse, he goes into a dream like state. He has a conversation with Dumbledore, and there is a crying baby in the dream. What was this crying baby?

Answer 1

Ok it seems that a number of your are very strongly mistaken so I will go ahead and clear some things up for you.

1. It is discovered by the end of the book that the elder wand is passed simply by defeating its owner, (not by death). Therefore when malfoy disarmed dumbledore in the 6th book before snape finishes him off, malfoy becomes the rightful owner of the Elder wand. Furthermore when Harry, Ron and Hermoine get captured by Fenrir Grayback and are brought to the malfoy residence: Harry ends up stealing Draco's wand, thus defeating him, making him the rightful owner of the Elder Wand. In the last scene when Harry kills Voldemort, the Elder Wand refuses to kill Harry because the wand knows that Harry is the wands owner.

2.) Dumbledore was not incorrect at all, yes he knew that harry had to receive the killing curse from voldemort once again to destroy the fragment of his soul that lived inside of harry. However, Dumbledore also strongly speculated that because Voldemort had reconstructed his resurrected body using Harry's blood that the protection charm cast upon harry from his mother years ago would live on. That is what protected harry from being killed when he was a baby, and then finally in the forbidden forest it protected him once more, so instead of destroying him, voldemort only destroyed the fragment of his own soul living inside of Harry.

3. And finally, the little crying figure in the corner is the fragment of voldemort's soul that was just destroyed inside of harry.

Answer 2

1) Harry was the rightful owner of the Elder Wand because in HBP, Draco Malfoy disarmed Dumbledore, and by doing this he forcibly took the wand from Dumbledore, making himself its rightful owner, even though he never touched it. Dumbledore never got a chance to reclaim the wand, because he was killed. In DH, Harry forced a couple of wands away from Malfoy when he was at Malfoy Manner. Doing this, he became the master of all the wands Malfoy owned, the Elder Wand being one of them. Voldemort was never the rightful owner because even though Snape did kill Dumbledore, it had been planned all along so he didn't force anything on Dumbledore. Like, if I had a wand and I let you borrow it, I'd still be the owner because you didn't steal it from me. I'm guessing Voldemort's spells didn't cause Harry much damage because he was using the Elder Wand, and Harry was its owner, so it wouldn't really inflict serious damage upon its master.

2) No, Dumbledore's wasn't incorrect. If you remember at the end of GOF, after Harry tells Dumbledore that Wormtail used his blood to make Voldemort a body, there was a sparkle in Dumbledore's eyes. So Harry was a Horcrux. When Voldemort cast the Avada Kadavra on him, it was like he had died, so the Horcrux died with him. But he didn't die, because some of his blood was in Voldemort, anchoring his body and soul with the living.

3) I think the baby could have been the Horcrux that was in him, because when he was made a Horcrux, he was only a baby. So, it would be dead, just like Dumbledore, so it would have been there.

Hope this helps! If you look on MuggleNet, you'll see tons of interviews with JKR, and maybe that'll help too.

Answer 3

SPOILER WARNING!!!
1) Dumbledore was the last owner of the elder wand but when Draco defeated dumbledore by causing him to become disarmed Draco became the owner. Harry Defeated Draco by possesing Draco's wand causing Harry to become the Master of the Elder wand. Death doesn't pass on the Elder wand only defeat.Voldemort was not the owner of the elder wand, and the wand recognized his owner meaning that the wand would not be able to defeat/kill/curse its true owner (harry)

2) Dumbledore was correct under other circumstance that Harry would have to die along with Voldemort for him to be totally defeated but when Voldemort used the elder wand to try and defeat Harry, it recognized its owner and killed the only part that wasn't fully Harry (Horcrux) Harry still lives because the wand is unable to kill its owner.

3) This one I don't truly know the answer but I have a guess, It is a creature/human that is dying but doesn't want to. Harry is here because he has a choice to either give up and die or continue to fight. I believe that the "baby" is giving up and is very scared.

Answer 4

1. In book 6, Draco disarms Dumbledore on the tower and then in book 7 Harry takes away Dracos wand making him the owner. And at the last fight, "the flaw in the plan", Voldemorts wand didn't harm Harry because he was the rightful owner and the wand wont kill its owner.

2. When Voldemort shot the killing curse at Harry, Voldemort himself destroyed the horcrux inside of Harry, so Harry's sould is no longer linked to Voldemort and is all Harrys. So he does no longer have the connection with him and cant speak parseltongue

3. I'm not sure about this but I think the bab y represents the dead because when harry looks at the baby pitifully Dumbledore says something like "Dont pity the dead, harry, there are far worst things in the livng world that the dead."

If your so confused I'd recommend going back and rereading.

Answer 5

I thought that was the most confusing part of the book. I had to write it down to figure it all out. Grindelwald had the Elder Wand. Dumbledore beats Grindelwald. Dumbledore now has the Elder Wand. Draco Malfoy attacks Dumbledore on Voldemort's orders. Draco doesn't finish the job, so Snape kills him. This would technically make Snape the owner, but since Dumbledore asked Snape to kill him, Snape never defeated Dumbledore, and since Draco technically defeated Dumbledore by disarming him, the wand became Draco's, yet he did not know that. Draco becomes the master of the wand, and when Harry overcomes Draco's own wand, the Elder Wand also passes to his control, though neither know it. Voldemort steals the wand from Dumbledore's tomb, and therefore when Harry gets it in the final battle between himself and Voldemort, the wand obeys Harry. It's a pretty twisted timeline, but then again, a lot of the book was like that, and needed a lot of re-reading.

Answer 6

1. Harry was the owner because Draco disarmed Dumbledore on the tower, making Draco the owner; but then Harry disarmed Draco, making him the owner. The spells didnt work because [as told by Ollivander] the wand wasn't won by Voldemort, so it didn't respond well to him, so his spells weren't as powerful. And the wand couldn't really attack its rightful owner.

2. No.Dumbledore wasn't incorrect. He knew Harry's personality.If he heard it, he would have made that sacrifice to save everyone else. Harry does not die because he was a Horcrux. Basically, Voldemort killed a piece of his own soul [that's why Voldemort was knocked down too] Its hard to explain. You really have to refer to earlier parts of the book [ex-a human can live w/o a soul, but the soul inside the horcrux cannot live without its 'home']

3. The crying baby was a part of Voldemort's soul. It is now dead.

Answer 7

1. Harry was the rightful owner of the elder wand. Dumbledore had become the owner after defeating Grimewald. On the Astronomy tower in the sixth book Draco Malfoy disarms Dumbledore (therefore defeating him) and becomes the owner of the Elder wand. He doesn't actually ever get the wand. In DH Harry takes Dracos wand and therefore defeats him. He becomes the owner without having the wand

2. Voldemort kills the part of his soul in harry when he kills him in the forest, but harry is able to stay alive because voldemort has harrys blood in him.

3 that is the bit of voldemort's soul

Answer 8

1. When Dumbledore died, he was killed by Malfoy, who then became the rightful owner of the Elder wand. When Harry disarmed Malfoy, that made HIM the rightful owner. So since he was the rightful owner, the wand could not harm him, since he was its master.

2. Partly. As it turns out, Harry had a choice. He could either die and leave the others to their fate, or he could go back and fight. Just the fact that Harry was willing to die if it meant saving the others was enough to destroy the piece of Voldemort's soul that was inside him.

3. I have no clue.

Answer 9

draco disarmed dumbledore in book 6 making him the rightful owner of the wand and when harry stole draco's wand, that made him the new owner of the elder wand without him having to kill draco. voldemort thought it was snape because he was the one who actually killed dumbledore so he killed snape.

the killing curse voldemort used on harry in the forest destroyed the horcrux in him and killed him but harry chose to go back. i think it's either that or it had something to do with the hallows. having mastered death or something like that becaus he had the wand the stone and the cloak. or maybe it was both. at that point, the only remaining horcrux was nagini

the crying baby was voldemort. since he made so many horcruxes, he was reduced to that. i guess that has something to do with the graveyard in book 4 where wormtail had to cut off his hand.

Answer 10

Ok. 1) Dumbledore won the wand from Grindewald. Malfoy won it from Dumbledore in book 6 (but didn't possess it). Harry disarmed Malfoy, thus winning the allegience of the wand from him. The wand recognized that such an occurance took place and refused to hurt its owner. Remember in the first book, that they wand chooses the wizard.

2)No. He had to die in order to release the horcrux. However, Harry chooses to go back.

3)I think that the crying baby is the horcrux that was in Harry.