Gregorovitch

"I vos one of the last to purchase a Gregorovitch vand. They are the best — although, I know, of course, that you Britons set much store by Ollivander."

- Victor Krum's opinion of Gregorovitch's work.

Gregorovitch (d. 2 September, 1997) was a famous wandmaker. He was described as having "pure, white hair and a thick bushy beard".

Early life
"[Hawthorn] makes a strange, contradictory wand, as full of paradoxes as the tree that gave it birth, whose leaves and blossoms heal, and yet whose cut branches smell of death."

- One of Gregorovitch's writings on wandlore.

During the course of his career as a wandmaker, Gregorovitch became an expert in wandlore and supplied many witches and wizards in European countries with reliable wands. Garrick Ollivander, easily the most famous wandmaker in Britain, however, was not fond of Gregorovitch's work (this, however, meant little as Ollivander was not fond of anyone's work in wands but his own).

While Ollivander did not agree with many of Gregorovitch's conclusions, they did concur about hawthorn wands, which were complex and intriguing in their natures.

Elder Wand master
At some point many years ago, Gregorovitch came into the possession of the Elder Wand, one of the Deathly Hallows and the most powerful wand in existence, and upon realising its true nature, began experimenting to try and duplicate its powers. Gregorovitch, somewhat foolish by nature and hoping it would improve business, started a rumour about him possessing a wand and his efforts to replicate its properties. The result occurred one night when Gregorovitch heard someone break into his workshop. He promptly ran inside and saw a blonde-haired young man had taken the wand, who then promptly shot a Stunning Spell at Gregorovitch, before leaping out the window. Gregorovitch never found out who stole the wand.



Retirement
Despite the loss of the Elder Wand, Gregorovitch continued his work, and many years later retired, with one of his last wands being sold to Viktor Krum.

Death
Lord Voldemort, who sought a way to bypass the unique nature of his and Harry Potter's wands, interrogated and tortured Ollivander (who had been a prisoner of the Death Eaters for some time) for information. Eventually, Ollivander revealed he had heard of the rumour of Gregorovitch possessing the wand. Intrigued, Voldemort resolved to track the wand down and gain possession of it, not only to use it to defeat Harry, but also to possess the most powerful wand in the world. Harry himself saw this vision through his unique bond with Voldemort, and under his best friend Ron Weasley's suggestion, he might have been thinking about Dragomir Gorgovitch.



Over the course of the next few months, Voldemort hunted Gregorovitch down, murdering a German Muggle family Gregorovitch lived with at one point. Voldemort inevitably found Gregorovitch, keeping him from escaping by using Levicorpus and a Full Body-Bind Curse. Voldemort demanded he give him the wand, but Gregorovitch said it had been stolen from him many years ago. Enraged to have exhausted months of effort to find Gregorovitch and to find out he was not any closer to the wand, Voldemort believed he was lying, and as such performed Legilimency to confirm it. During his search through Gregorovitch's memories, Voldemort found the memory of the incident when he lost the wand. Finishing his search of Gregorovitch's mind, Voldemort immediately demanded to know who the thief was, but when Gregorovitch admitted he never found out, Voldemort, recognising he had all the information he required, ignored Gregorovitch's pleas for mercy and cast the Killing Curse on him. Gregorovitch's death was witnessed by Harry Potter through his unique link to Voldemort's mind.

Post-mortem
It later turned out that the thief was, in fact, Albus Dumbledore's (then) close friend and infamous dark wizard: a young Gellert Grindelwald. However, Gregorovitch never lived to find out about this.

Etymology
Gregorovitch is derived from Gregory (Gregor being a short-form), originally of Greek origin meaning "to watch, be alert", while "ovitch" is of Eastern Slavic origin and is derived from -ович, meaning "son of" (the "t" in "ovitch" is typical of Anglicisation for the purpose of a correct pronunciation). Literally, his name means "son of Gregor" and is a patronymic, not a given or surname. It is highly unusual to use ones patronymic in their everyday life, as patronymics are almost always used by close friends and associates. Although "Gregor" is not properly rendered in the corresponding language to -ович (that would be Grigoriy and because of the soft consonant at the end, his patronymic would be Grigoriyevich), the name and suffix attached is clearly indicative of an Eastern European origin.

Behind the scenes

 * Actor Rade Šerbedžija portrays Gregorovitch in the Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows film adaptations.
 * The book states that Gregorovitch has a big, bushy beard. However, photos of him for the film show him with a regular, short beard.
 * The Gregorovitch wands shown in the film series all have a rugged, natural appearance and don't have separate handles but the handle is made and is part of the wand itself, as opposed to the ornately carved wands made by other Wandmakers, such as Ollivander.
 * In LEGO Harry Potter: Years 5-7, Harry's visions of Voldemort searching for the Elder Wand is omitted and it only shows him finding the wand in Dumbledore's tomb. However, despite this, Gregorovitch is a playable character in all the versions of the game.
 * Gregorovitch is the only known Elder Wand master that did not get killed or disarmed by the wand's new master.

Appearances

 * Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire
 * Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows
 * Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 1
 * Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 1 (video game)
 * LEGO Harry Potter: Years 5-7
 * Pottermore