Oak is mentioned. It's under English oak.

I keep thinking that Snape had a walnut wand, but I can't find it anywhere. Any ideas? It might have been Black Walnut.

 

The HP Lexicon has nothing. What they sell from the movie collectibles site looks like ebony but could easily be any wood, stained black for the goth styling.

Going by the OotP movie, Snape has about a dozen wands in a bandolier, one of which he specifically uses for bashing into Harry's mind. Whether they are prizes from the battles he's fought or purpose-driven purchases made over the years, one can't say. If wands are like trained pet dogs, he seems to get along with them better than with most humans.

 

Is there any indication of when Ollivander wrote this? This might be Dumbledore's original wand. Seems to fit rather well.

 

Nah, I think Dumbledore is more of a Dragon Heartstring kind of guy. With maybe a Fir or Vine wand.

 

Draco has a Hawthorn wand, actually (which I believe was also mentioned in that list of wand types).

 

Huh, so he does.

I suppose the whole conflict and turmoil part fits him pretty well. In a way it also represents the way how Draco uses the wand for "Dark", while Harry uses it for "Light".

 

While I appreciate the wand-wood info, does no one else see the obvious shoe-horning of info here, and the way all this was clearly written to conform to the wands and people who owned them in canon? It's painfully clear that Rowling or whoever wrote up these wood properties just looked at who owned what in canon and tailored the properties to how those personalities turned out in canon.

I'd be a lot more impressed if there were glaring discrepancies such as, say, Ginny's wand-wood or wood/core combination indicated she possessed a definite possibility or propensity to work Dark magic or something. Just something that pointed more toward possible future conflicts and less toward a "OMG look how clever we are... after the fact!"

 

Actually, a lot of the information on wands comes from the Celtic meanings of trees. I'm unsure how I feel about this, because on the one hand she (probably) figured out her wand woods before assigning them to people, however on the other hand it means that much of this information she couldn't be bothered to think up herself.

 

Actually, there are several sites on the web that'll explain what different woods symbolize.

http://livingartsoriginals.com/infoforests.htm <== Scroll down and see if any of these match up or contradict what she says about hers.

On her FAQ, IIRC, she said that she fortuitously chose Holly for Harry and Yew for Tom Riddle, and then found a birth-month/symbolic-wood chart that confirmed her suspicions.

 

Well, BludgerCrimson103 is the newest member of... Ravenclaw? Hardly what I expected, but not the worst option by far.

Also, this is totally not worth the wait. Background information is definitely interesting, but the actual interface and the whole aim of this is pretty boring.

 

Riiiggghhhht.

See below.

I read that years ago as well. Yes, she said she had picked Holly for Harry (and maybe Ron and Hermione) and then found out that the wood (at least Harry's) matched up with the Celtic trees associated with that birth month. I thought then and still think that this is cool, and everyone knows the holly tree has had holiness associations for centuries, just as the oak is associated with strength, etc.

I didn't know until reading up on trees and their pagan/mythological associations (for a fic I've been bloating over the past two years, with no end in sight) that the yew tree is associated with death, etc. due to its long life, so kudos to JKR for that. It only makes sense that if she's going to go to those lengths for Harry's wand that she'd do the same for Voldemort's as well as the Elder Wand. But to think she went to all that trouble for all those wand woods before Pottermore is a bit naive, don't you think?

All I'm saying is that it fits awfully neatly, especially when you see that "Ollivander" says there are all these different effects when a certain wood is paired with a certain core material. It just stinks of ret-conning, and I hate that.

As I said, I'd be very pleased if a few of the wand combinations we know from canon - Neville's, for example - was totally incongruous with who we know Neville to be, such that (1) we know/see that none of the rules are hard and fast, since even Ollivander said that wand-lore was a murky and mysterious branch of magic, and (2) perhaps an exceptional person (in a good way or a bad way) can make a wand work for him/her through, say, force of will or perseverance.

And as much as I love recognizing the nuances of symbolic and allegorical elements when they're added to a story (I've often said that no wand could ever suit Harry better than the holly-and-phoenix-feather one, and of course Voldemort would also have an affinity for that core material), I also think that going against the grain of those symbols and allegories can and should be done.

Does that make sense? For example, Mundungus Fletcher's and Alastor Moody's names fits them perfectly, but using the name "Sirius Black," while seeming to fit the naming-convention mold for JKR through the first two books, was misleading and, I think, one of her best red herrings, whatever.

EDIT: Oh, and I received my Welcome email Thursday, but haven't logged in or anything yet. I'm sure many of you will be mentally burning me in effigy for that kind of sacrilege or blasphemy, but I've been too busy to dedicate however long it'll take to get sorted and try to enjoy the process, so it'll have to wait.

And I've got two friend requests already! Better check the DLP group for who it really is...

 

Finally got my email. Sorted into Slytherin when I was expecting Ravenclaw, although I'm not unhappy with that.

My wand is Larch with a Dragon core, 13in, unyielding.

NoxLumos60

 

Just got my letter a day ago or two ago. I got sorted into Ravenclaw. Im MarauderGhost93 on there if anyone cares. Wand is PINE WITH DRAGON CORE, TWELVE AND A HALF INCHES, SUPPLE.

 

The potions system is awful. Bugs out on my half the time, on the second section of course, after the ~90 minute wait. Pouring the drops out of the containers is nigh on impossible to do accurately and precisely, half the time I over pour somehow, or it won't pour at all and I hit the time limit. Plus sometimes it's impossible to pick the ingredient up in the first place because you accidentally dropped one of the others on top of it due to hastiness and not wanting to get timed out. Also, identifying ingredients is not always easy either, since you can't bring the labeled picture back up after you start.

I only tried about 10 potions, but I didn't complete a single one, and I melted all three of my cauldrons and didn't feel like replacing them. Their expensive as hell, and I don't see a way to gain more money. In the story, I've only found a single gallon, and that buys practically nothing.

 

The thing I really dislike is the inability to multitask. Like, you can't be waving your wand and adjusting heat at the same time.

 

Red hair? Melted cauldron? No money? You must be a Weasley!:awesome

 

I've made every single potion, with only one exploded cauldron in the beginning. It might just be you, man.

There are galleons all over, as well, though not that many. I've heard that every time we move into a new book we'll get 500 galleons, so there's that, if it's true.

 

So I went on and accepted the friend requests, and have gone as far as Ollivander's. After answering the questions, I ended up with a Pine wand having a Unicorn core (the whole unicorn, not any of that "tail-hair" bullshit), 14.5 inches, Unyielding.

Doesn't really sound like me, but one of you bitches is gonna see how well I cast the Cruciatus.

And after that, you can send a friend request to WolfThorn9...

 

Accepted all of your requests. Again, I'm LightDragon159 and SnitchMugwump133.