Crouch / Moody (long)

[nickdeller at ntlworld.com]

No: HPFGUIDX 9268

--- In HPforGrownups at egroups.com, "Donna Rae" <donna.rae at v...> wrote:
> This may be a stupid question, but I've always wondered why 
> Dumbledore didn't use the time-turner to go back and reprogram the 
> trophy so it was no longer a portkey.  If he allowed Harry and 
> Hermione to use it to save Buckbeak and Sirius' life, wouldn't it 
> be considered more important to save Cedric's life and keep 
> Voldemort from regaining power?

Delurking...

It's not a stupid question at all, and this will be a confusing 
answer.

Basically, you can't use the time-turner to change things that have 
already happened at the time you go back. All it can do is create an 
extra influence to make what has already happened happen.

When Dumbledore reached the completion of the Buckbeak incident, he 
knew that "somebody" had already saved HP1 and Buckbeak, and had 
probably gained enough information to know that it must have been HP2 
(I'd need to refer back to check the chronology's right, but HP1's 
reference to seeing his father was probably the giveaway). Then it 
was just a matter of making sure the next few minutes went according 
to plan by telling H/H where SB was being held, sending them back and 
letting the pattern complete itself.

I think this is also why HG couldn't go back to the one lesson she 
missed when she was time-turning - once she'd subjectively missed it, 
she couldn't then "unmiss" it.

Going back to change what had subjectively happened in the maze in 
GoF was a no-no, which is why it didn't happen.

Yep, that was confusing... :-)

I still have one puzzle about the time-turner though, and I hope it's 
not come up before - when there were two HP/HGs running around within 
hearing distance of each other, why did neither Lupin nor Snape 
apparently notice it on the Marauders' Map? Both were looking in the 
right place at about the right time. Any theories?

Nick D.