Harry Potter and the Masters of the Elder Wand

Summary: The one where Harry learns that disarming Draco one year after Draco disarmed Dumbledore won't give him the allegiance of the Elder Wand... This is mostly a personal comment on the ending of HP and the Deathly Hallows. Contains a few short excerpts from the book.

The exhausted defenders of Hogwarts, the students, teachers, members of the Order of Phoenix, and other volunteers watched on as Harry Potter and Lord Voldemort were circling each other in the Great Hall of Hogwarts. Apart from the Dark Lord, all Death Eaters had been subdued, and the fighting in the castle had come to an end.

A wand of hawthorn was pointed against a wand of elder wood as the two mortal enemies exchanged words before their final duel.

"You can't beat me! I am the master of the Elder Wand!" laughed Voldemort.

"You still don't get it, Riddle, do you?" Harry replied. "Possessing the wand isn't enough! Holding it, using it, doesn't make it really yours. The Elder Wand recognised a new master before Dumbledore died, someone who never even laid a hand on it. The new master removed the wand from Dumbledore against his will, never realising exactly what he had done, or that the world's most dangerous wand had given him its allegiance..."

Harry paused for a moment, before he revealed, "The true master of the Elder Wand was Draco Malfoy."

Blank shock showed in Voldemort's face for a moment, but then it was gone.

"What does it matter?" the Dark Lord said dismissively. "Even if you are right, Potter, it makes no difference to you and me. You no longer have the phoenix wand. We duel on skill alone... and after I have killed you, I can attend to Draco Malfoy..."

"But you're too late," said Harry. "You've missed your chance. I got there first. I overpowered Draco weeks ago. I took his wand from him."

Harry twitched the hawthorn wand, and he felt the eyes of everyone in the Hall upon it.

"So it all comes down to this, doesn't it?" whispered Harry. "Does the wand in your hand know its last master was disarmed? Because if it does... I am the true master of the Elder Wand."

The tense silence was interrupted by a shriek in the audience.

"Wait, that's how you get the allegiance of the wand!?"

Harry glanced sideways and saw that Ginny had stepped forward, an incredulous and slightly panicky expression on her face.

"Because- because I disarmed Malfoy in a fight between the DA and some Slytherins at the beginning of the school year!" the girl explained. "Does that mean that the wand belongs to me?"

She looked at Harry with wide eyes. "Quick, Harry, you have to disarm me!"

"But- but I disarmed you when we were training for the DA!" Neville interjected from further behind. "And so did Padma, and Luna, and Dean, and Seamus, and and... probably several more people, and I have no idea who did it first."

"I did disarm you, Ginny, but I think you disarmed me more recently," Padma Patil said from a few yards to the left.

"Stop, I believe I was the first person to disarm you after that fight with the snakes, Ginny," Susan Bones shouted from the other side of the hall. "Remember, in that long mock duel between us last October? However, I'm not sure who disarmed me, first, after that... Neville, was it you again?"

Neville shrugged his shoulders. "It could be," he said hesitantly.

"And I bumped into you, Neville, in our common room and you dropped your wand, and I picked it up for you... does that count?" Dennis Creevey added with a worried voice.

"Oh, and Susan, remember how I took your wand when you slept and hid it as a prank?" Hannah Abbot interjected. "That was also in October..."

"But- oh no!" Susan exclaimed. "Didn't Pansy Parkinson disarm you in a fight last week?"

"Really?" Professor McGonagall asked. "I confiscated Miss Parkinson's wand when she was harassing some first-years three days ago. Maybe..."

"But Minerva," Professor Flitwick said, "I disarmed you yesterday to stop you from cursing the Carrows! That means that-"

"It doesn't matter, as someone in the DA would have disarmed me long before Pansy did," Hannah interrupted. "It was probably Susan again, as I usually pair up with her for the duels."

"And I won all of the recent mock duels between the two of us, Susan," Neville added. "So..."

"But I won against you last week, Neville," Ginny interjected.

"But Hannah, didn't you disarm Ginny in the last DA training session two days ago?" Susan said and frowned. "But then you lost again, but I don't remember against whom..."

"Wasn't it Ginny again?" Hanna asked uncertainly.

"Really?" Ginny asked. "I think it was Padma. But then she lost against Parvati. Or was it the other way around?"

The two Indian twin girls looked at each other and shrugged. "We don't know," they said simultaneously.

"We had several duels, and I don't remember in what order. But I know that I lost my last training duel that day against Neville," Padma continued.

"And I lost against you, Ginny," Parvati added. "And against Lavender, but was that before or after our duel, Ginny?"

"And Neville, didn't you lose that last two-against-one fight that day against Hannah and Susan?" Seamus asked.

The Great Hall descended into chaos as seemingly everyone started talking over each other, trying to figure out how the ownership of the Elder Wand might have been passed on.

Harry and Lord Voldemort in the centre of the hall had almost been forgotten. The two mortal enemies had followed the discussion with confused expressions on their faces, both having lowered their wand slightly.

"So... uhh..." Harry finally said, "So who's the master of the Elder Wand now?"

He glanced towards Hermione, who stood at the front of the crowd a few yards to his right. If anyone could figure it out, it would be her. Dammit, he cursed internally, he should have talked to her about his suspicion in the first place! She would have immediately pointed out the flaw in his plan.

"I have no idea," Hermione said apologetically when she caught his gaze. "But most likely not you. Maybe someone from the DA. But we don't even know if Ginny was the fist person to disarm Malfoy..."

Harry sighed, but then he cleared his throat. "Alright, change of plans!" he announced loudly and turned back towards the Dark Lord, who kindly refrained from firing any curses until all the talking was done.

"Yes, new plan!" Harry repeated and gestured towards all the people filling the Great Hall. "How about instead of being useless as usual, and watch on while I fight alone, you help me, and we all start throwing curses at the Dork Lord at the same time, seeing as we outnumber him by something like five-hundred to one?"

"What?" Voldemort exclaimed with outrage, as suddenly hundreds of wands were pointed at him. "That's not fair!"

Harry shrugged. "So what?"

He waited for a moment, during which the spectators that had been standing behind the Dark Lord quickly hurried aside, to not be caught by friendly fire. All the defenders of Hogwarts formed a wide half-circle behind Harry, their wands raised against Voldemort.

"On the count of three, everyone, all right?" Harry then shouted. "One... two... three! Diffindo!"

"Stupefy!" "Expelliarmus!" "Diffindo!" "Stupefy!" "Sectumsempra!" "Expelliarmus!" "Incarcerus!" "Stupefy!" "Diffindo!" "Reducto!" "Avada Kedavra!" "Expelliarmus!" "Reducto!" "Stupefy!" "Furnunculus!" "Diffindo!" "Stupefy!" "Stupefy!" "Petrificus Totalus!" "Reducto!" "Reducto!" "Incarcerus!" "Stupefy!" "Confringo!" "Tarantallegra!" "Diffindo!" "Diffindo!" "Avada Kedavra!" "Reducto!" "Stupefy!" "Stupefy!" "Expelliarmus!" "Diffindo!" "Stupefy!" "Stupefy!" "Expelliarmus!" "Diffindo!" "Stupefy!" "Sectumsempra!" "Expelliarmus!" "Incarcerus!" "Stupefy!" "Diffindo!" "Reducto!" "Desaugeo!" "Expelliarmus!" "Confringo!" "Incendio!" "Reducto!" "Stupefy!" "Diffindo!" "Bombarda!" "Stupefy!" "Stupefy!" "Petrificus Totalus!" "Reducto!" "Incarcerus!" "Impedimenta!" "Stupefy!" "Diffindo!" "Avada Kedavra!" "Reducto!" "Stupefy!" "Stupefy!" "Expelliarmus!" "Diffindo!"

When the dust settled, only a huge crater was left in the place where Voldemort had been standing. Of the Dark Lord himself, the largest part that remained was a dismembered hand that was still gripping onto the Elder Wand.

Unfortunately, the wand had also been cut into several pieces. The mystery of who had been its last master would never be resolved.