If there's something we love here at TheLADbible, it's a fan theory. Oh boy, I can't get enough of them! Game of Thrones? Yes please! Lord of the Rings? You betcha! Harry Potter?? Of course.
Well, some of them are a load of bollocks. I know this. However, this one has legs. I swear, if you're a Potterhead you need to read this. Immediately.
Reddit user Wmdonovan23 starts off with the title: 'Dumbledore was never the true master of the Elder wand, Voldemort was.'
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Does said Redditor have a point?
Wmdonovan23 refers to one particular part of the book where Harry sees a memory Voldemort took from wandmaker Gregorovitch. Here's the extract from the book.
"Gregorovitch burst into the room at the end of the passage and his lantern illuminated what looked like a workshop; wood shavings and gold gleamed in the swinging pool of light, and there on the window ledge sat perched, like a giant bird, a young man with golden hair. In the split second that the lantern's light illuminated him, Harry saw the delight upon his handsome face, then the intruder shot a Stunning Spell from his wand and jumped neatly backward out of the window with a crow of laughter."
This is where Grindelwald steals the Elder Wand from Gregorovitch, therefore making him the true owner of the wand, right? But hold on a damn second, to become the true owner of the Elder Wand, you must 'best the current owner of the wand'. Stealing it and jumping out of a window isn't exactly 'besting' someone. If anything, it's cowardly.
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Now this is where it gets really interesting. If Gregorovitch is still the true owner of the wand, when Voldemort killed him he therefore took over.
You may be thinking: 'hang on, when Voldemort gets hold of the wand, it doesn't work for him'. Yeah but, as Wmdonovan23 points out, at that point half of his horcruxes had been destroyed so he was less of a wizard. Rather than admitting the problem was within himself, it would tie in with his character if he blamed the wand.
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They conclude: "When Voldemort was destroyed by Harry, the wand's allegiance changed because Harry had bested its actual owner, not because Harry had bested Draco Malfoy, who was the supposed master of the Elder Wand after disarming Dumbledore. The end result is still the same, but the path of the Elder Wand allegiance is different [from what] Harry suspects."
So, as you see, the end result is the same. It just makes so much more sense.
2pete commented: "At first I was sceptical, but this theory closes the plot hole that simply disarming your opponent counts as besting them.
"Good work, OP."
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Just need J.K. Rowling to confirm. To be fair, this works better than her own version so maybe even if it wasn't what she had in mind she should just say it was. No-one would be the wiser.
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