He attained mastery over all three Hallows, even without possessing them physically. He used the Cloak to protect, he used the Stone, not to truly summons the dead back to life, but in his attempt to join them; and he proved himself master of the wand by beating its owner.
True. Plus, when he goes to meet LV in the forest, he doesn't know that he has mastered the wand. DD tells him that in Kings Cross.
So, Harry, unlike others seeking theHallows, does not want to use them to cheat death. He went to his willingly.
Regarding Lily's blood protection-LV kept that alive by using Harry's blood at the rebirthing!! HAHA
In the forest, LV killed the only thing that was vulnerable, his own soul piece residing in Harry.
Thanks Voldie!!
Ah, now I see. Thanks!
One thing I wish Rowling had spent a little time on, was the power of perception, as it relates to the Hallows -- the Elder Wand in particular. It seems to me that although the objects in question did have amazing properties, it was people's perceptions that inflated them into something worthy of "the quest" to find them.
Did the Elder Wand really confer such great power, or was the perception of it such that wizards of great power were drawn to it, and led by their greed into killing others to get it?
For example, did the wand really make Grindelwald powerful, or was he already powerful, but made reckless by his perception that the wand made him invulnerable? Somewhere in the book Rowling talks about how a lack of restraint made some wizard or other extra-dangerous....
Voldemort apparently didn't even know the story of the Three Brothers, much less the Deathly Hallows -- he'd just heard about this supposedly all-powerful wand. It was no doubt a really excellent one, but how much of its power was due to that of the wizard holding it, and how much of how it was used, was due to the holder's perception of what the wand could do?
As you note, the only one of the three items that Harry actually used for anything active, was the cape. The ring played no essential role, and the wand was employed against him. Harry basically won without being a master of all three Hallows.
The underlying message seems to be the same as the Dumbledore passed on in Book 1: that it's our choices that define what we are. Harry's choices made him the winner against Voldemort, not his hardware.