Time Travel

[Calliope]

This whole time travel bit on the main list (Harry 1/Harry 2 and the Patronus in
PoA, and the new Ron is Dumbledore theory) has me thinking about another time
travel book I've read, and the author's theory on TT.  I'm sending this to the
OT list, as it's not totally HP, but maybe this author's look at TT may be the
same as JKR's. 

In the Outlander series by Diana Gabaldon, the main character, Claire, is
accidently thrown back 200 years in the past, from just after WW2 to the
beginnings of Charles Stuart's attempt to regain the throne of Scotland.  (I'm
fuzzy on Scottish history and haven't read these books for a while, being too
wrapped up in HP lately.)  :)  

After she realizes she's stuck there, she starts building a life there, and ends
up facing a couple of time travel paradoxes/dilemmas.  

First of all, she runs into a man named Jack Randall, who is the ancestor of her
husband Frank (from her post WW2 life).  Later on, due to events that she
caused, he is rendered...er...impotent...before fathering any children, yet
Claire still has her wedding ring from her WW2 life, meaning that somehow Frank
must still exist, or else she wouldn't have the ring.  (The Grandfather
Paradox.)  Turns out later on that Jack's brother is really the father of the
child that is Frank's ancestor, not Jack, and so Frank still exists (which is
confirmed later on when Claire returns to the future). 

Second of all, she knows that Charles Stuart's activities will result in the
Highland clans being decimated when they get behind him in battle with the
English, and so she tries to set events in motion that will prevent his rise to
power from happening.  She tries ruining his business deals, cutting off his
sources of funding, along with other things, but he eventually finds other
sources of funding and history proceeds as normal.

Gabaldon's theory of time travel is basically that people can't change large
details of history; small things can be changed, but because history is
influenced by so many different factors it would be impossible for a single
person to dramatically alter history.

(I'm beginning to get Gabaldon time-travel and Rowling time-travel sort of
blurred; please forgive me.  :)

I'm starting to think that time travellers may influence history in very
insignificant ways; things that have already happened will find a way to happen
again, maybe not in the way they appear to happen (ie, Harry and Hermione
*thought* Buckbeak was dead, though they didn't see it, but really he wasn't).

Say that Frank had originally been Jack's descendant.  Jack can't father
children, indirectly due to the effects of Claire (the time traveler), but Frank
is destined to be born, so it ends up that Jack's brother is Frank's ancestor
instead of Jack.  It was destined to happen, it just didn't happen the way
everyone assumed.


Okay, with the Ron!Dumbledore theory, one problem is how Ron!Dumbledore could
let all the bad things happen that he knows are going to happen anyway.  Maybe
he *tried* to save the Potters (offering to be their Secret-Keeper, knowing that
Peter would betray them), but of course they turned him down.  Or maybe he
*tried* to force Scabbers out of Animagi form, but was interrupted or something
and never was able to do it.  

Okay, now my head hurts.

Has anyone else read time-travel fiction, and wants to share the author's
theories, in hopes of figuring out either the Harry and the Patronus confusion
or the Ron!Dumbledore theory?

Calliope

*who wishes she had a time turner so she could go back and make Alfonso Cuaron
put Sean Biggerstaff in PoA...but wait, time travelers can't alter
history...dang it...*

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Calliopes_fics/
http://www.thedarkarts.org/authorLinks/Calliope/
http://www.riddikulus.org/authorLinks/Calliope/