Deathly Hallows

"The Elder Wand," he said, and he drew a straight vertical line on the parchment. "The Resurrection Stone," he said, and he added a circle on top of the line. "The Cloak of Invisibility," he finished, enclosing both line and circle in a triangle, to make the symbol that so intrigued Hermione. "Together," he said, "the Deathly Hallows."

- Xenophilius Lovegood

The Deathly Hallows are three highly powerful magical objects supposedly created by Death and given to each of three brothers in the Peverell family. They consisted of the Elder Wand, an immensely powerful wand that was undefeatable in battle; the Resurrection Stone, a stone which could summon the spirits of the dead, and the Cloak of Invisibility, which, as its name suggests, renders the user completely invisible. According to the story, both Antioch Peverell (owner of the Wand) and Cadmus Peverell (owner of the Stone) came to bad ends. However, Ignotus Peverell's wisdom in requesting the Cloak was rewarded.

According to legend, he who possesses these three artifacts would become the Master of Death. Dumbledore told Harry that he and Gellert Grindelwald took this to mean that the uniter of the Deathly Hallows would be invincible. The story of the Deathly Hallows was originally told by Beedle the Bard and subsequently passed from family to family as a wizard fairytale. Few wizards ever realized that the Deathly Hallows were genuine items.

Harry Potter is the only known person to have owned all three Hallows. The Cloak was handed down to him from his father, and the Stone was left to him in Albus Dumbledore's will, hidden inside a golden snitch. Potter never made use of more than two Hallows at once; by the time he took physical possession of the Elder Wand, he had already dropped the Stone in the Forbidden Forest, never to be seen again.

The Tales of Beedle the Bard
"That is a children's tale, told to amuse rather than to instruct. Those of us who understand these matters, however, recognise that the ancient story refers to three objects, or Hallows, which, if united, will make the possessor Master of Death"

- Xenophilius Lovegood



In The Tales of Beedle the Bard, the author presented his own version of the origin of the Hallows.

Hundreds of years ago, the three Peverell brothers were travelling at twilight, and reached a river too dangerous to traverse. The three brothers, being very powerful wizards, simply created a bridge across the river. They were then stopped by Death himself, who was displeased that they had gotten across the river, thus cheating him out of new victims. Death then congratulated them on being clever enough to evade him, and offered each of them a powerful magical item. The first brother, Antioch Peverell, wished to become invincible in duels; Death broke a branch off a nearby tree and created for him the Elder Wand, a wand more powerful than any other in existence. The second brother, Cadmus Peverell, wished to resurrect his lost love; Death then took a stone from the riverbed and created for him the Resurrection Stone, a stone capable of bringing the dead back to the living world. The third brother, Ignotus Peverell, realised the danger of the situation and requested a means by which Death could not find him; Death grudgingly gave him the cloak off his back, the Cloak of Invisibility, an invisibility cloak that never lost its power through curses or age.

The three objects, the cloak, the wand and the stone, together make up the Deathly Hallows.

Reality
"...I think it more likely that the Peverell brothers were simply gifted, dangerous wizards who succeeded in creating those powerful objects"

- Albus Dumbledore's speculation.

Instead of being rewards for their cleverness, the Deathly Hallows were actually part of a cunning plan by Death to kill off the Peverells so he could take them for his own.

However, Albus Dumbledore felt that it was more likely that the Hallows were actually created by the extremely talented and powerful brothers, and that the story of their origins as objects fashioned by Death sprang up around them as result of the powers they possessed.

Antioch's murder
"So the oldest brother, who was a combative man, asked for a wand more powerful than any in existence: a wand that must always win duels for its owner, a wand worthy of a wizard who had conquered Death!"

- Antioch Peverell

In time, the brothers went their separate ways. Antioch Peverell travelled to a wizarding village where he boasted of the Elder Wand in his possession. He was subsequently murdered in his sleep by a wizard hoping to take the Elder Wand for himself.

Cadmus' suicide
"Then the second brother, who was an arrogant man, decided that he wanted to humiliate Death still further, and asked for the power to recall others from Death"

- Cadmus Peverell

Cadmus travelled back home and used the Resurrection Stone to bring back the woman he loved, but was dismayed to find that it was only a pale imitation of her: the dead did not truly belong in the living world. In the end, Cadmus killed himself so he could truly join her.

Ignotus' peace
"It was only when he had attained great age that the youngest brother finally took off the Cloak of Invisibilty and gave it to his son."

- Ignotus Peverell

Ignotus used the cloak to remain hidden from Death for a long time. When he was an old man, he passed the cloak onto his son, and went willingly with Death to the next world.

Descendance
The cloak continued to be passed down through the descendants of the Peverells (although the name became extinct in the male line). The wand passed from wizard to wizard, nearly always by the murder of its previous owner. The wand, during its passing from wizard to wizard, has been called "The Death Stick" and the "Wand of Destiny". On an interesting note, no witch is ever stated to have held possession of the wand. The stone was also passed down through the Peverells' descendants. It eventually ended up in the possession of the Gaunt family, and was later stolen by Tom Marvolo Riddle, neither Tom nor Marvolo Gaunt were aware of the powers of the stone, nor that it was a Hallow. Marvolo was solely concerned with the "noble origins" of the stone, made into a ring, and thought that the Hallows symbol on it was the family coat of arms. Lord Voldemort could not have been aware of the stone's true origin either, as he transformed the stone into a Horcrux.

Quests for Hallows
"There is nothing Dark about the Hallows - at least, not in that crude sense. One simply uses the symbol to reveal oneself to other believers, in the hope that they might help one with the Quest."

- Xenophilius Lovegood

The Hallows played a particularly important role in the lives of Albus Dumbledore, Gellert Grindelwald, and Harry Potter.

Albus Dumbledore
"I was fit only to possess the meanest of them, the least extraordinary. I was fit to own the Elder Wand, and not to boast of it, and not to kill with it. I was permitted to tame and to use it, because I took it, not for gain, but to save others from it."

- Albus Dumbledore on the Deathly Hallows and the Elder Wand,

In his youth, Albus Dumbledore, along with soon-to-become Dark Wizard Gellert Grindelwald, entertained dreams of finding and appropriating the Hallows for himself. This quest for power also manifested itself in his vision of a future where wizards would rule over and control Muggles "for the greater good". A family argument later caused him to revise and reconsider his beliefs after the death of his sister. Up until his death, he never trusted himself with power, refusing the post of Minister for Magic three times - yet his yearning to find the Hallows never left him.

After his sister Ariana died, Dumbledore sought out the Resurrection Stone in the hopes that finding it would somehow revive his dead sister and parents. Thus when he chanced upon it sometime in 1996, when it had already been turned into a Horcrux by Voldemort, the temptation proved too much to handle and he put on the ring, invoking a terrible curse Voldemort had placed which caused his right hand to wither and die. Only when the horcrux was destroyed by Godric Gryffindor's Sword did the stone revert back to its normal state, with its original powers intact. Dumbledore also came into possession of the Cloak of Invisibility when he borrowed it from its owner, James Potter, a descendant of Ignotus Peverell. It was he who passed the Cloak on to James' son, Harry, to whom it proved to be a useful tool in defeating Voldemort and his allies. He also gave to Harry the Resurrection Stone, by means of the Snitch Harry had caught in his first ever Quidditch match.

Gellert Grindelwald
During a holiday spent with his aunt at Godric's Hollow, Gellert Grindelwald met Albus Dumbledore, and with him he sparked his desire for the Hallows. In his later life, Grindelwald gained possession of the Elder Wand by stealing it off the foreign wandmaker known as Gregorovitch. Upon duelling Dumbledore sometime in the 1940s, Grindelwald lost, along with the possession of the wand. Decades later, in 1998, Lord Voldemort attempted to acquire the wand by visiting Grindelwald at his cell in Nurmengard. However, Grindelwald denied ever possessing the wand, and was murdered by Voldemort.

Harry Potter
Upon hearing the Tale of the Three Brothers, Harry Potter wished to unite the Hallows to become the Master of Death and ultimately defeat Lord Voldemort. He ultimately dismissed this idea however, as he knew that the late Albus Dumbledore wished for him to destroy the Horcruxes in order to beat the Dark Lord. Harry did possess each of the Hallows eventually, for a brief moment of time.

Invisibility Cloak
"It's never occurred to me before, but I've heard stuff about charms wearing off cloaks when they get old, or them being ripped apart by spells so they've got holes in. Harry's was owned by his dad, so it's not exactly new, is it, but it's just... perfect!"

- Ron Weasley on the Cloak of Invisibility

Without realising it, Harry Potter possessed one of the Hallows from the age of 11, the Cloak of Invisibility. The latter was rightfully his, and should have been passed down to him from his father, James Potter, had he not been murdered. Harry is a living descendant of the third brother, Ignotus Peverell.

Resurrection Stone
Upon his death, Albus Dumbledore left the Resurrection Stone to Harry in his will. It was disguised inside a Snitch, the first one Harry had ever caught in a Quidditch match. On the Snitch was engraved the words I open at the close. Harry figured out later that in order to open it, he had to be close to death. To open the snitch, he said "I'm about to die," and touched it to his mouth because he had caught it with his mouth. This was before confronting Lord Voldemort and his Death Eaters in the Forbidden Forest during the Battle of Hogwarts. Harry used it to "bring back" and talk to his mother, his father, Remus Lupin, and his godfather, Sirius Black. Harry dropped the stone later in the forest, and never told anyone (besides Dumbledore's portrait) so that nobody would seek it. In a recent interview, Rowling said she would like to believe that a centaur's hoof pushed it into the ground, burying it forever.

Elder Wand
Without realising until later, Harry became the master of the Elder Wand when he defeated Draco Malfoy during the Battle of Malfoy Manor in 1998. The wand recognised him as its master when Harry duelled Lord Voldemort during the Battle of Hogwarts, even though Harry had never even touched it before. Harry did not want the wand, he only used it to repair his thence broken Holly and Phoenix feather wand.

Once this deed was accomplished, Harry replaced the wand in the tomb of Albus Dumbledore. His mindset was that if he could die of natural causes without passing the wand to an heir, the wand's power, and, therefore, its history of bloodshed, would be gone forever.

Creation of the Elder Wand


Of the Elder Wand, only its recent history is available. Celebrated Bulgarian wandmaker Gregorovitch had obtained and kept the wand for some time to study and eventually copy its magical powers in his own wands. Sometime in the middle of the 20th century, a young Grindelwald stole and took the wand for his own. The wand switched hands yet again when, in one of the most famous duels of the wizarding world, Dumbledore fought and defeated Grindelwald. Dumbledore used the wand wisely, never for his own gain but for the betterment of the wizarding and Muggle communities, and so managed to avoid incurring the misfortune the Elder Wand was supposed to bring.

In 1996, Dumbledore was overpowered by Draco Malfoy, and subsequently killed by Severus Snape. Since Draco had disarmed Dumbledore, the power of the wand passed to him. When Harry later disarmed Draco, even though Draco had a different wand in his hand at the time, the magic in it caused it to recognise Harry as its new master. Severus kept the wand in safekeeping, and it was laid to rest with the Headmaster's body.

When Voldemort stole the wand from the tomb, it did not work its legendary wonders for him as it was supposed to. Thinking that Snape was the new master of the wand, having killed Dumbledore, Voldemort executed him in order to let the ownership pass to himself. Yet again he made a fatal oversight: he had no way of knowing that, as that boy had been the one to overpower Dumbledore, Draco Malfoy was the next master of the wand, and that, having defeated Draco in turn some months later, Harry Potter was its current owner. Having failed to consider these factors, Voldemort attempted to kill Potter using the wand but failed - the wand would never harm or kill its owner. In the climactic duel that concluded the Battle of Hogwarts, the Elder Wand recognised its rightful master and, instead of killing him, backfired upon Voldemort.

The Elder Wand
As Harry Potter had no intention of using the Elder Wand for his own purposes (having achieved his goal of defeating Voldemort), he only used it to restore his own broken wand. He then returned the Elder Wand to the grave of Albus Dumbledore, supposing that, if he died of natural causes, its power would finally be broken, and its bloody history along with it.

The Resurrection Stone
The Resurrection Stone was lost somewhere in the Forbidden Forest near Aragog's lair, where Harry intended it to remain. J. K. Rowling later revealed that a centaur pressed it into the ground by stomping on it as the herd charged to help in the fight against Voldemort.

The Cloak of Invisibility
As for the Cloak of Invisibility, Harry remarked to Dumbledore's portrait that he would be keeping it for himself and his family ; it is most likely still with him to this day and probably passed it down to one of his children.

Behind the scenes

 * In the movie version of Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, there is a scene in Dumbledore's office where there is a close up of Dumbledore standing next to a cabinet. Inside the cabinet is what appears to be a 3D model of the Deathly Hallows symbol (a pyramid with a line down the middle, and a ball, a 3D version of the sign). It is unknown if this is a coincidence, as Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows would not be published until two years later, although J.K. Rowling may have already conceptualised the design for the symbol at this point.
 * When asked in an interview if the hallows were based on any realworld myth or faerie tale, she responded with, "Perhaps the Pardoner's Tale, by Chaucer."

Notes and references
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