Wand Cores

• Type: Magical Component, Wandlore Ingredient
• Sources: Magical substances taken from a variety of magical creatures, most notably the Phoenix, Dragon, and Unicorn.
• Makers/Suppliers: Wandmakers, such as Garrick Ollivander and Mykew Gregorovitch, are responsible for selecting and inserting the core into a wand. The creatures themselves are the ultimate source of the material.

A wand core is a magical substance placed within the length of a wand. This core is the component that channels a witch or wizard's magic, giving the wand its particular power and character. The type and quality of the core are fundamental to a wand's performance. According to the esteemed wandmaker Garrick Ollivander, the finest wands have cores of powerful magical substances. His personal philosophy led him to exclusively use three materials he dubbed the “supreme cores.” Different wandmakers may use other substances. Known core materials include:

• Phoenix Feather: A tail feather from a phoenix. These are exceptionally rare and produce wands capable of the greatest range of magic.
• Dragon Heartstring: The heartstring of a dragon. Wands with this core are typically the most powerful and capable of flamboyant spells.
• Unicorn Hair: A single hair from a unicorn's tail. These cores produce the most consistent magic and are known for their faithfulness to their first owner.
• Veela Hair: A hair from the head of a Veela. Ollivander considers these to be temperamental, though some wandmakers use them. The wand of Fleur Delacour contains a Veela hair.
• Thestral Tail Hair: An exceptionally powerful and tricky substance. The only known wand to contain this core is the Elder Wand. This was a deduction made by Harry Potter, as Ollivander himself stated he had never worked with it. (DH36)
• Basilisk Horn: The wand of Salazar Slytherin contained a fragment of Basilisk horn. (Pottermore)
• Ilvermorny Cores: The four houses of the American school of magic, Ilvermorny, were named for magical creatures whose parts could be used in wand cores, including Horned Serpent horn, Wampus cat hair, Thunderbird tail feather, and Pukwudgie arrows. The wandmaker Isolt Sayre used Horned Serpent horn for the first wands made in North America. (Pottermore)

The core is the true heart of a wand, and its properties define the wand's “personality.” As Ollivander explained to Harry Potter, the pairing of a core with a specific wandwood creates a unique instrument that must then choose its ideal user. The characteristics of the supreme cores are as follows:

1. Unicorn Hair: Produces the most consistent magic and is the least subject to fluctuations and blockages. They are the most faithful of all wands and are difficult to turn to the Dark Arts. Their primary weakness is that they are not the most powerful, and they are prone to “melancholy” if seriously mishandled, meaning the hair may 'die' and need replacing. Cedric Diggory's and Ron Weasley's second wand had unicorn hair cores.
2. Dragon Heartstring: Produces wands with the most raw power and which are capable of the most flamboyant spells. Wands with dragon heartstring cores tend to learn more quickly than other types. While they can change allegiance if won from their original master, they do not bond as strongly as a unicorn hair wand. They are also the most prone of the three cores to accidents, being somewhat temperamental. The wands of Hermione Granger, Viktor Krum, and Bellatrix Lestrange all contained dragon heartstring.
3. Phoenix Feather: The rarest core type. They are capable of the greatest range of magic, though they may take longer than unicorn or dragon cores to reveal this. They show the most initiative, sometimes acting of their own accord—a quality that many witches and wizards dislike. Phoenix feather wands are always the pickiest when it comes to potential owners, for the creature from which they are taken is one of the most independent and detached in the world. Their allegiance is hard won and they are difficult to tame. The wands of Harry Potter and Lord Voldemort shared a core from the same phoenix, Fawkes.

The use of high-quality, potent cores is a relatively modern development in British wandlore, largely attributed to the Ollivander family. Prior to their influence, it was common for customers to provide their own magical substance, which could be of questionable power or compatibility, such as Kelpie hairs or Kneazle whiskers. Garrick Ollivander's father revolutionized the craft by insisting that the core and wood must be matched by an expert wandmaker for superior results. Other cultures and wandmakers, like Mykew Gregorovitch, developed their own traditions and preferences for core materials, as seen with Viktor Krum's hornbeam and dragon heartstring wand. The history of cores is intertwined with the history of wandlore itself, reflecting different approaches to magic across the world.

Wand cores are central to the entire narrative of the *Harry Potter* series, primarily through the “twin cores” of Harry Potter's and Lord Voldemort's wands.

• Twin Cores and Priori Incantatem: The most significant plot point related to wand cores is that Harry's and Voldemort's wands both contain a tail feather from Dumbledore's phoenix, Fawkes. Because of this, the wands are “brothers” and will not work properly against each other. When forced to do battle in the Little Hangleton graveyard, they connected and initiated the rare magical effect known as Priori Incantatem, or the Reverse-Spell Effect. This forced Voldemort's wand to regurgitate the last spells it had performed, allowing echoes of Voldemort's victims, including James and Lily Potter, to appear and protect Harry.
• Voldemort's Pursuit of a New Wand: Voldemort's failure to kill Harry was attributed to the twin core problem. This misunderstanding of wandlore led him to believe that he simply needed a different wand. His quest for a more powerful wand that did not share a core with Harry's directly led him to hunt down and claim the Elder Wand. He kidnapped Ollivander to force him to explain the connection between the wands.
• Wand Allegiance and Power: The characteristics of different cores explain the behavior of various wands throughout the story. Hermione's powerful dragon heartstring wand served Harry reasonably well after his own was broken, but Ron notes that a wand's allegiance is to its master. The unique Thestral tail hair core of the Elder Wand helps explain its immense power and its reputation as the most powerful wand in existence.

• In the film adaptation of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2, it is Ollivander who identifies the Elder Wand's core as Thestral tail hair. In the novel, Ollivander professes ignorance on the matter, and it is Harry who deduces the core material. (film)