I too had a bad feeling about the Gringott's plan, although mainly because of the goblin-cheating.

Yanking a wand out of somebody's hand seems a pretty low bar for changing ownership. If disarming with a spell counts, then wands have been changing ownership all over the place.

I totally agree with these sentiments. Ah, well.

MY POINT EXACTLY!!

Makes those D.A. sessions sort of uncomfortable doesn't it? "Expelliarmus! Hah, Neville, I guess your wand is mine now!" "Yeah, but...didn't you just let me 'Expelliarmus' your wand? Does that mean we have to trade wands now?" "Um. Shut up."

Perhaps the wand-taking has to have the taker voluntarily/explicitly taking the wand -- there's a necessary element of intent, not just a technical defeat, as in practice.

I was just assuming that the passing of ownership thing only applied to The Elder Wand, not to wands in general.

I just got up to the scene in Goblet of Fire where Ron is complaining about how Hermione's obsessed with house elves, and Sirius tells him that, if you want to know the measure of a man, you should look at how he treats his inferiors, not his equals. Not really much for self-awareness, Sirius.

I was just assuming that the passing of ownership thing only applied to The Elder Wand, not to wands in general.

Olivander seemed to imply it applied to all wands, but really, with anything less than the elder wand, it didn't seem to make much difference. With a normal wand, it only means you can use a captured wand about as well as your "chosen" wand, and it doesn't seem to have much effect on the wands original owner being able to use it. On the other hand, with the elder wand, it puts a pretty big weapon in your hand.

See, that last sentence just amuses the hell out of my inner twelve-year-old.

Um.

Sorry, sorry. Carry on.

That's quite alright Fay. In the lunch room earlier, one fellow was unfortunate enough to use the phrase "Why is my meat so wet?" All our inner twelve-year-olds had a ball with that.

Loads has happened, including most of the budget for movie seven. Anyhow they penetrated Bellatrix's vault and got the cup horcrux. It seemed a little too easy given Gringott's reputation, but then it is no longer under Goblin rule so standards have probably declined.

The hot metal defense actually seemed like a pretty good anti-theft measure. It seemed from the description that they would be hurt much worse than they were when all of them got bathed in cursed treasure. This is really a minor quibble though. The dragon escape strategy was great however, it wasn't a cheap way to get out of their dire situation. Griphook demonstrated why it doesn't pay to trust goblins too much.

Anyhow they got out of the dragon and got healed up thanks to Hermione and her potion of healing (that dit... stuff I don't know how to spell). Ron was funny. Thanks to Voldemort's anger, Harry got the general location of the last horcrux which, thanks to Luna, we know is the headdress of Ravenclaw. Voldemort now knows that the secret is out. It would seem impossible to know how the heck Harry would know about them and their location, I can see why that would get Voldemort all worked up. Shooting the messenger is a bad policy though, dude should totally read the evil overlord list.

Now off to Hogsmead. Harry just heard Voldemort say that Hogsmead was being guarded so I don't know why they would go someplace close to Hogwarts that isn't Hogsmead. On the other hand they didn't have much time and Harry is not one of the world's great planners when under time pressure.

Now I'm at the point where they have been saved by Aberforth and his ability to talk the death eaters into thinking he set off the charm. There is no way his patronus could not be a goat. They have discovered that Aberforth was the one in the mirror, which makes total sense. They also discovered how he got the mirror and that makes total sense as well. A satisfying end to that mystery. There still remains the mystery of the silver doe however. I think that has to come down to some totally mystical thing dealing with Harry's mother or Snape as he is the one who had a potential connection to their location through Finnius's portrait. However I don't really think Snape's patronus would be a doe and Aberforth pretty much confirmed that your patronus is not something that can be changed at will. Maybe it has something to do with the snitch but that doesn't really seem to fit with "I open at the close" which I still think is something for after Voldemort is defeated, a last message for Harry. Ok enough rambling.

this. is. so. much. fun.