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[Harry Potter (Books)] Why does Harry et al believe that the Elder Wand's power will be broken?

A good chunk of *Deathly Hallows* is spent establishing the fact that the Elder Wand's loyalty doesn't require the death of the previous owner, but rather only that the previous owner is beaten (presumably through magical means, though there's indications that non-magical means works too). We see this in action when the Wand changes allegiance from Draco to Harry after Harry disarms Draco at Malfoy Manor.

At the end of the book Harry announces that he does not want the Elder Wand. He uses it to repair his original Holly Wand, then has this to say to Dumbledore's portrait:

>"I'm putting the Elder Wand back where it came from. It can stay there. If I die a natural death like Ignotus, its power will be broken, won't it? The previous master will never have been defeated. That'll be the end of it."

Why would Harry think this, and why wouldn't anyone else — human or portrait — speak up?

Harry would have been 17 years old during the Battle of Hogwarts so by normal estimations he's probably got another 60-70 years of life ahead of him. Virtually since birth he's been fighting enemies, magical and muggle alike, and he hasn't always won those battles. He's also firmly dedicated to being an Auror and knows what the threats and mortality rate is there. But he also knows that he only needs to be defeated *once*, and not even fatally, for the Elder Wand to change its allegiance. Does Harry, Ron, Hermione, and Dumbledore all so firmly believe that over the next 60-70 years not a single opponent of Harry's will manage to disarm him even once?

The best argument that I've heard for this is, "Well, whoever disarms Harry won't know that the Elder Wand's allegiance will have changed to him, so that person would never benefit from the Elder Wand anyway." Which IMO is crap.

First, the question isn't whether or not someone takes possession of the wand. The question is whether or not the wand's power would be broken by Harry's natural death. As far as I can tell, it won't. Harry could be disarmed next week, then the person who disarmed him could in turn be disarmed a month later, and so forth and so on. Even if there were 100 disarmings, the wand's power is still there waiting for the new owner to take possession. Its power is NOT broken, even if Harry dies a natural death somewhere in there.

Second, more importantly, the odds of someone NOT knowing about Harry's possession of the Elder Wand is nearly nil. During the final battle with Voldemort the Great Hall was filled with people, all of whom heard Harry's explanation as to how the Elder Wand's allegiance was Harry's, and all of whom saw Harry take physical possession of the wand afterwards. We're talking *hundreds* of people here, and *none* of them are going to say a single word to anyone about Harry and the Elder Wand? Impossible. It'll be the biggest magical news story ever, and people who want the wand will be coming after Harry in spades. Sure, many of them will be intimidated by Harry's perceived power, but some won't. And inevitably over the years the story will be told and more people will be made aware of it, and more people will try to defeat Harry. Is Harry going to defeat them *all* for the rest of his life?

And third, another argument I've heard is that Harry won't be carry around the Elder Wand so even if he's defeated the person won't know where the wand is. That assumes everyone in the Potterverse has the IQ of baking soda. The wizarding world has always known the tight connection between Harry and Dumbledore. Following the Battle of Hogwarts, the wizarding world will also *know* that Dumbledore had it, will *know* that Voldemort was using it, will *know* that Harry had the wand in his hand once Voldemort was killed, and will almost certainly *know* that Harry never left Hogwarts with the Elder Wand. I guess the typical wizard reaction would be something like, "Hmmm, Harry took the wand from Voldemort, who had in turn taken the wand from Dumbledore's grave. Harry never took the wand out of Hogwarts. Dumbledore is buried in Hogwarts. Harry really loved Dumbledore and vice-versa. Well, I guess it's impossible to figure out what Harry did with the Elder Wand!"

So, there it is: Why does Harry and the rest of them believe that the Elder Wand's power will be broken if Harry dies a natural death?
gpt
The Elder Wand is to wizards what Excalibur is to muggles. If you're hearing secondhand that You Know Who had the special super wand, you're probably not going to believe it.

Add to that the fact that the wand isn't in Harry's possession. It'll get really confusing really fast who the true master of it is. 

Harry goes on to be an auror. If he's disarmed by a criminal type who gets away in like his first week, then that guy is caught by a different auror sometime down the road...Well, by the time Harry is old enough to die of old age, the nature of who the wand's master is all be nearly impossible to figure out without breaking open Dumbledore's tomb.