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harry potter - Why didn't anyone break the Elder Wand?


The Elder Wand is an extremely powerful artifact that many a wizard would lie, cheat, steal and kill for. Dumbledore had hoped that he might die undefeated as it's owner, so that the wand's power would be broken. In the end of The Deathly Hallows, Harry too put it away in the hope that he will die undefeated and break the wand's power. For Harry this is an unlikely outcome, given his choice of professions.


But why did neither Dumbledore or Harry think of simply snapping the wand (as in the movie), and thus effectively destroy it? As we learn in The Deathly Hallows, a broken wand is no easy thing to repair. Harry's powerful phoenix feather wand could only be repaired by the power of the Elder Wand. A wand as powerful as the Elder Wand likely could not have been repaired, or if it could it probably would recover a mere shadow of it's former power.
And on the off chance that someone could repair it to full potency, two or more pieces would be easier to hide more effectively than one whole one. Or in Harry's case he would have had knowledge of muggle methods that could have rendered it into dust or utterly burned it away.


So why did no one in the books think to physically destroy the wand, instead of trying to sit on it until death?



Answer



In the case of Dumbledore, I think he was very clear while talking with Harry in the King's Cross scene in Deathly Hallows that the Hallows were pretty irresistible to him. I'd suggest that Dumbledore was able to harbor the Elder Wand, but perhaps he was just unable to destroy it. By that I mean he was emotionally unable to destroy it - he just couldn't bring himself to do it because that latent connection between wand and master was still intact.


Tales of Beedle the Bard suggests that the Elder Wand may not have been able to be destroyed. It might not have been a physical possibility:




Believers in the Elder Wand, however, hold that because of the way in which it has always passed allegiance between owners – the next master overcoming the first, usually by killing him – the Elder Wand has never been destroyed or buried, but has survived to accumulate wisdom, strength and power far beyond the ordinary.

Tales of Beedle the Bard - page 102-103 - Bloomsbury - The Tale of the Three Brothers



The wand was created by Death, according to the legend. It passes from one wizard to another usually through death. Tales of Beedle the Bard notes that the manner in which it is passed from one wizard to another - death - is what keeps the wand strong and safe from destruction. Perhaps the wand cannot be destroyed by any human or wizard means, even if someone wanted to deliberately do so. Perhaps the wand can only be destroyed by Death (its creator). I know that @Pureferret already touched on this in his answer, but I wanted to expound on why the Elder Wand possibly cannot be destroyed.


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