The three Deathly Hallows are first introduced to readers in the final book of the Harry Potter series, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows. In it, we learn of three magical items that quickly become vital to the defeat of Voldemort.
To young witches and wizards, the Deathly Hallows are first introduced as a story, called The Three Brothers, in Beedle the Bard, a book of fairytales for children. Thus, the story itself is fully believed to be a fairytale, much like The Wizard and the Hopping Pot and Babbitty Rabbitty and her Cackling Stump, two other stories in the five-story book.
However, unlike the other stories, the three brothers were real: the Peverell brothers. The story states that if one owned all three items, they would be a master of death. So which one is the best? Here are the Deathly Hallows, ranked from best to worst.
1. The Invisibility Cloak
Woven from the hair of a Demiguise, donning this cloak renders the wearer completely invisible. Automatic positive. Harry and his friends used the cloak various times to find out information they would otherwise not have known. It’s invincible to spells, and the invisibility aspect never fades. On top of that, it can be used multiple times, no matter how long the owner has the item, and the amount of time used in one go is endless.
Seems pretty unbeatable. The two downsides? If it’s not covering your body fully (think Harry’s floating head in The Prisoner of Azkaban), you’re still seen. And it can be easily removed should someone outside the cloak grab it and pull it off you. Though if the owner is careful, these two things can be avoided. It’s essentially operator error if the use of the Invisibility Cloak goes wrong and has nothing to do with the cloak itself.
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2. The Resurrection Stone
This one is pretty simple in its benefit: It brings someone back from the dead. That’s a pretty big positive, supposedly. The creation of the stone allows someone to bring back their loved one from death. However, the loved one basically comes back half ghost. That is a pretty big negative.
Harry obtains the stone as a gift from Dumbledore, hidden in his first caught snitch. He ultimately uses it toward the end of the Second Wizarding War (the snitch opens at the close—Harry’s sacrifice) to connect with his loved ones before giving himself over to Voldemort.
Being that it was used only to communicate with his loved ones and not bring one back to life, it wasn’t used to its full potential. Though that may not be a bad thing. In any case, it gave Harry the support and reassurance he needed to go through with his surrender.
3. The Elder Wand
This will be an unpopular opinion. Yes, the Elder Wand is powerful and hard to master (thank you, Threstral tail), and it takes a skilled wizard to wield it, but other than that, it’s not all it’s cracked up to be.
Its loyalty shifts, just as any other wand. In fact, it transfers its loyalty to Draco Malfoy after he disarms Dumbledore. You’d think it would take more than a simple disarming spell to gain it, or that the wand, as powerful as it is, would be able to decide on its own whether it wants to transfer its allegiance or not.
The wand is really only as strong as the wizard who uses it, as well. Let’s be real, most of the spells that Dumbledore uses with the wand, he’d likely have been able to do with a regular, run-of-the-mill wand. He was one of the most powerful wizards of all time, after all. So it’s not likely that his skill was reliant on the Elder Wand.
Now let’s consider Voldemort. No, he wasn’t the true owner of the wand; Harry was. That’s true. But that has nothing to do with the inherent power of the wand. As strong as the wand is, it shouldn't have been able to be defeated by, again, a simple disarming spell such as Expelliarmus.
Yes, Harry is a skilled wizard, but he’s also still a teenage boy. He hasn’t had nearly as much practice with magic as Voldemort has. So, for Harry to be able to defeat the Elder Wand with a simple holly wand (phoenix feather connection or not) is pretty improbable, in reality.
For all the talk about such a great wand, its power should still be enough to finish the job. (Whether we wanted it to or not.)