Basic Information
Usage	To Become the Master of Death by possessing the Cloak, Stone, and Wand
Manufactured during	13th Century

Overview

The Deathly Hallows are three powerful magical objects, which were supposedly created by Death and given to the three brothers in the Peverell family. There was the Elder Wand (powerful wand that was considered unbeatable), Resurrection Stone (stone able to summon spirits of the dead), and the Invisibility Cloak (makes the user completely invisible). According to the story, Anotioch Peverell (owner of the Wand) and Cadmus Peverell (owner of the Stone) both came to bad ends. However, Ignotus Peverell was rewarded for his wisdom in requesting the Cloak.

According to the legend, one who possessed all three would become the Master of Death. Dumbledore told Harry that he and Gellert Grindelwald took that meant the uniter of the Deathly Hallows would be invincible. The storyteller of the Deathly Hallows was Beedle the Bard. Subsequently, it was passed from family to family as a wizard family. Only a few wizards realized that the Deathly Hallows were actual, genuine items. Most people had assumed that Beedle made many things up to entertain witches and wizards.

Harry Potter is the only one who has been in command in all three at the same time. Though, he was never in possession of them all at once. He had dropped the stone in the Forbidden Forest just before getting the wand. Albus Dumbledore was similar, having also possessed all three but not all at once.

Elder Wand

Description

The wand is made of elder wood, 15 inches, and contains a Thestral tail hair core. This type of wood contains powerful magic and is the rarest of all wand woods. However, it is said to be unlucky and more difficult than others to master. Only an unusual person who was the superior of their company would find their perfect match with the wood. The Thestral core was said to be a tricky substance that only wizards who mastered death can control.

Despite its reputation and ability, the Elder wand was an unassuming object. When appearing at face value to be a wand like any other one, it had a smooth, unadorned shaft and a handle formed out of two spheres. The Elder Wand would give its loyalty to who won it from the previous master. Most people simply assumed that meant killing the current master. However, that was not the case. It was to disarm the master of the Wand - whether that be knocking it out of the hand or physically grabbing it. That sufficed to win its allegiance. I did not necessarily have to be the Elder wand for its loyalty to change. The change in loyalty also happens if the master is disarmed of their own wand, as long as they did not have the Elder Wand with them at the time. Normally, the wand will have some bond with the previous master(s), even if the loyalty has changed. This is not the case with the Elder Wand. Its estrangement and change in loyalty is complete and total.

Power

The Elder Wand is the most powerful wand in existence. Its owner could use it to cast spells far more powerful than should ever be magically possible. For example, Harry Potter was able to repair his Phoenix feather wand using the Elder Wand in 1998. This is despite how broken wands were held to be damaged beyond magical repair. Harry did so despite not having any training in wandlore.

In 1932, when Grindelwald used the Cruciatus Cruse on Jacob Kowalski, the effects of the spill continued to affect Jacob even after the wand was no longer pointed. Both Ollivander and Voldemort believed that wand's powers is the only one capable of overpowering the bond between the latter and Harry. That created the effect that Harry managed to overcome Voldemort’s attempt to kill him.

However, there are limitations in the Elder Wand’s power. It appears to improve pre-existing spells to perform the seemingly impossible instead of being able to perform the impossible. Dumbledorewasn’t able to cure petrified victims of the Basilisk or nullify the Jinx on the post of the Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher. He also wasn’t able to overcome the Drink of Despair with the wand that amplified his own magic. In addition, the Elder Wand shifts allegiance by cunning assassination instead of a fair fight. It also does not guarantee victory, as displayed when Dumbledore was able to defeat Gellert Grindelwald without killing him despite Grindelwald’s mastery of the Elder Wand. Meanwhile, Egbert the Egregious was known for having actually "slaughtered" Emeric the Evil in a duel to claim the wand.

This can be attributable to the fact that in these circumstances, the proper counter charms/potions weren’t known to the master of the Elder Wand. Moreover, spells can have a counter potion instead. It is also stated that a wand would not give up its master easily even when attempted to be won. The Elder Wand seems to do this time and time again. However, this does not refer to its willingness to give up its master. It is rather the amount of effort it took to defeat the wielder of the wand. As the wand embodied the concept that might is right, greater power would indicate superiority.

As Lord Voldemort used the Elder Wand without mastering it, he claimed that the wand would only unleash his regular amount/level of magic. It would not have the unbeatable effects it was rumoured to possess. It is unknown if the wand would work this for another who hasn’t mastered it though, as Voldemort has used the wands of others in the past with no handicap. So it is likely that this is his own power rather than the power of the Elder Wand.

It did have one redeeming quality like other wands. It refused to harm or kill its true master when in the hands of someone else. It also wouldn't harm or kill those who are under sacrificial protection.

Resurrection Stone

Description

The Resurrection Stone has the power to bring back lost loved ones. However, the ones who were brought back were never fully alive, and it is said that the returned spirits disliked resurrection. When the stone is turned three times in the user’s hand, it will temporarily return the dead, but they never seem to come back completely. These summoned spirits would be more solid than a ghost but less than a living body. It can possibly be similar to Priori Incantem, reappearing echoes of the dead. However, the exact nature was unclear. Harry Potter described them as almost transparent and they produced this Patronus-like effect. They only remained visible if the stone was held and the person holding the stone could see them. The shades were said to dislike being drawn from the afterlife as they did not belong in the living world anymore. Harry’s loved ones made no complaints when they were summoned, though.

According to legend, whoever reunited the Stone with the other two Hallows, the Elder Wand and Invisibility Cloak, would become the master of Death. This was assumed to mean that the wielder would have a form of immortality. However, this was never proven. Harry also possessed all three Hallows (not at the same time), yet never became the Master of Death (as in conquering death). Dumbledore theorised that being the master of death was about accepting mortality and not fearing it, rather than just united the Hallows.

Invisibility Cloak

Power

Compared to regular invisibility cloaks, the Cloak of Invisibility was especially powerful. If its legend were to be believed, the cloak concealed its wearer that even death itself could not find the respective brother. It had remained effective through its existence for around seven centuries, which is unlike other Invisibility cloaks. Typical Invisibility cloaks lost their power over time. The Cloak of Invisibility is also resistant to jinxes, hexes, and other spells that would damage or render a normal Invisibility Cloak ineffective. This kept the Cloak of Invisibility in the same pristine condition.

Although powerful, the Cloak of Invisibility was not infallible. The Cloak resisted spell damage, but it did not shield the wearer from the spells. For example, Harry was immobilised under the Cloak twice during the 1996-1997 school year with the Full Body-Bind Curse. In addition, the Cloak would not hide the wearer from detection that was based on optical sight. That includes Alastor Moody’s magical eye; creatures like ghosts, poltergeists, and Dementors;p spells such as the Human-presence-revealing Spell (at least cast by an extremely powerful wizard) and the Caterwauling Charm; and magical devices like the Marauder's Map and arguably Dark Detectors. The Cloak did not hide the wearer’s scent as well, as Mrs. Norris was able to detect Harry’s presence by smell.

Origins and History

The Tale of the Three Brothers

In The tale of Beedle the Bard, the author presents his own version of the origin of the three Hallows. A hundreds of years ago, the three Peverell were traveling at Twilight and reached a point where the river was too dangerous to cross. The three brothers were trained in the magical arts, simply waving their wands to create a bridge to cross the river. Then, they were stopped by Death, who felt cheated that they got across the river since most travellers had drowned in it.

Death was also a cunning liar and pretended to congratulate them on their cleverness to evade him. Then, he offered a powerful magical item as a reward. Antioch Peverell wished to have the most powerful wand because of his combative personality. Death broke off a branch of a nearby elder tree and so created him the Elder Wand. Cadmus Peverell was more arrogant and wanted to humiliate Death even further. He wished to have the power to bring loved ones back from the grave. Death took a stone and created the Resurrection Stone, which was capable of bringing the dead back to the living.

The last brother, Ignotus Peverell, was a humble man and did not trust Death. He asked to go on from the river without being followed. So, Death gave him an Invisibility Cloak. It was a cloak that never lost its power through curses or ages. And in time, the three brothers separated ways. These three objects - the cloak, the wand, and the stone - would make up the Deathly Hallows.

Dumbledore’s theory

Instead of being rewarded for cleverness, the Deathly Hallows were part of a plan to kill off the Peverells, so Death could take them for his own. However, Dumbledore thought that it was more likely that the Hallows were actually created by the talented brothers, and that the story of their origins as objects created by Death sprang around them as a result of the possessed powers.

Dumbledore and Grindlewald

Dumbledore and Gellert Grindlewald, the soon-to-be Dark Wizard, entertained dreams of finding and appropriating the Hallows for himself. This quest manifested itself in his vision of a future where wizards would rule and control Muggles. A family argument made him reconsider his beliefs after the death of his sister. So, up until his death, he never trusted himself with power, refusing the post for Minister for Magic at least three times. However, his yearning to find the Hallows never left him.

After his sister died, Dumbledore sought out the Resurrection Stone with the hopes that once he finds it, it will revive his dead sister and parents. When he chanced upon it in 1996, it was already turned into a Horcrux by Voldemort, but Dumbledore’s temptation was too strong and he put on a ring, which invoked a terrible curse Voldemort placed to make Dumbledore’s right hand wither and die. The stone only reverted back to its normal form with its powers intact when the Horcrux was destroyed by Godric Gryffindor’s Sword. Dumbledore came to possess the Invisibility Cloak when borrowed from its owner, James Potter, a descendant of Ignotus Peverell. He was the one who passed the cloak to Harry, in which it proved to be a useful tool in defeating Voldemort and his allies. Dumbledore also gave Harry the Resurrection Stone with the Snitch in his first Quidditch game.

During a holiday, Gellert Grindelwald met Dumbledore and with him, he sparked his desire for the Hallows. In his later life, Grindelwald came to possess the Elder Wand by stealing it from Mykew Gregorovitch, a foreign wandmaker. Upon duelling Dumbledore in the 1940s, Grindelwald lost the possession of the wand. Then, when visited by Lord Voldemort in 1998, Voldemort attempted to get the wand at Grindelwald's cell in Numengard. However, he denied having the wand and was murdered by Lord Voldemort.

Harry Potter

When Harry heard the Tale of the Three Brothers, Harry wished to unite the Hallows and become the Master of Death to ultimately defeat Lord Voldemort. He discussed this idea, as Harry knew that the late Albus Dumbledore wished for Harry to destroy the Horcruxes in order to defeat Voldemort. Harry did possess the three Hallows eventually, for a brief moment. Without realizing it though, Harry did possess one of the Hallows from the age of 11, the Invisibility Cloak. Harry is a descendant of the third brother, Ignotus Peverell, and had the cloak as rightfully his. It should have been passed down from James Potter, his father, if he wasn’t murder.

Then, upon his death, Dumbledore left the Resurrection Stone to Harry in his will. It was inside the snitch Harry first caught in a Quidditch match. Inside the Snitch, the words “I open at the close” were engraved. Harry figured out that he had to be close to death in order to open in it. To open the Snitch, he said “I’m about to die” and caught the stone in his mouth. This was before confronting Voldemort and his Death Eaters in the Forbidden Forest during the Battle of Hogwarts.

Harry used it to talk to his mother, his father, Sirius Black (his godfather), and Remus Lupin. Later, Harry dropped the Stone, never telling anyone (besides Dumbledore’s portrait) so nobody would seek it. Then, it is said to be believed that a centaur’s hoof pushed the stone into the ground, burying it forever. Without realizing it until later, Harry became the master of the Elder Wand when defeating Draco Malfoy in 1998 during the Battle of Malfoy Manor. The wand recognized Harry as its master when Harry duelled Lord Voldemort later during the Battle of Hogwarts. Harry had not even touched it before and did not want the wand. Harry only used it to repair his broken Phoenix feather wand. Once this was completed, Harry replaced the wand in the tomb of Dumbledore. Harry thought that if he died of natural causes without passing the wand on, the wand’s power and history of bloodshed would be gone forever.

Ultimate Fate

Elder Wand

Since Harry Potter had no intention of using the Elder Wand (having defeated Voldemort, Harry only used it to restore his broken wand. Then, he returned the wand to the grave of Dumbledore, located on the grounds of Hogwarts. Harry supposed that if he died of natural causes, the wand’s power would be broken and its history of blood and violence would go along with it.

Resurrection Stone

After Harry used the Stone to talk with his parents, Sirius, and Lupin, he discarded the Resurrection Stone. It was lost somewhere near Aragog’s lair in the Forbidden Forest, where Harry intended it to be. Later, a centaur would press it into the ground by stomping on it when the herd charged to help Hogwarts in the fight against Voldemort and his Death Eaters.

Invisibility Cloak

For the Invisibility Cloak, Harry said to the portrait of Dumbledore that he would be keeping it for himself and his family. And as of 2020, James Sirius Potter, Harry’s son, owned the Invisibility Cloak.

Credits/References

---

Written by Mila Grace
Base code by Andrew Sutherland, edited by Iselin Merilä and Desmond Gray.