[HPforGrownups] Free Will and Time travel

[Kathleen Kelly MacMillan]

No: HPFGUIDX 1304

>> What Dumbledore must teach Harry is that he is the agent of his own
>> destiny;

This is an interesting comment in light of something I have been thinking 
about regarding the time travel in Book 3.  I was watching "Early Edition" the 
other day and I was struck by the fact that there seem to be two approaches to 
time travel:  the "one person can make a difference" approach shown through 
Early Edition, and Quantum Leap, and then what I call the "Prime Directive 
approach" (i.e. we can't change the past, because it will have all kinds of 
unwanted repurcussions, and if we do meddle with the past, it should only be 
to change the damage we have done by meddling with it in the first place.  
This second one seems to be pretty common, though the only example I can think 
of right away is "Back to the Future".  When I first started thinking about 
this, I felt that PoA falls into the first camp, because obviously H&H are 
setting out to change the previous course of events.  (thus fitting in with 
what has been said about free will and our actions defining us).  BUT both 
Hermione and Dumbledore realize the repurcussions of this course of action and 
try to minimize its effect.  So maybe it's really somewhere in between.

Just as an aside, I remain astounded by JKR's use of time travel in PoA, which 
is still my favorite HP book, although I loved the other three.  I have read 
or listened to PoA at least 15 or 16 times, and the scene with the Patronus at 
the lake STILL give me chills.


Kathy