More on time travel

[heidi.h.tandy.c92 at alumni.upenn.edu]

No: HPFGUIDX 10284

Oh, I know how late this response it - please forgive!

--- In HPforGrownups at egroups.com on Jan. 15, 2001, "Scott " 
<harry_potter00 at y...> wrote:

> It seems to me that the time travel in the HP canon can't actually 
> change things. Take for instance what seems the most obvious 
possible 
> change that no one seems to have mentioned. Why can't they just go 
> back and kill Tom Riddle before he becomes Lord Voldemort?  
> 
> But then I thought about it. Lord Voldemort would have happened 
even 
> if there had never been a Tom Riddle.  Someone with enough greed 
and 
> thirst for power would have been in his place. It seems to me that 
> this (and examples of it throughout history) are problems with 
> society as a whole. If we don't stand up then we're bound to fall.  
> The wizard society must have been very vunerable. They needed a 
> leader, someone to turn too. Voldemort happened to have to fill the 
> position. 

If anyone wants to read a wonderful book that discusses the problems 
with changing history, I highly recommend a novel by Stephen Fry 
(yes, THAT Stephen Fry) called MAKING HISTORY 
(http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/1569471509/o/qid=980261080/sr=
8-1/ref=aps_sr_b_1_1/107-5939716-8357354) - it's about an Oxford 
student (nicknamed "Puppy" (siriusly!) who meets a professor who has 
created a machine which allows him move things into the past - 
together, they decide to prevent Hitler's birth - which turns Puppy 
into a Princeton student (along with two nasty brothers named 
Gallagher) in a United States that is consumed by a cold war with the 
Germans, who, in the 40's and 50's, were led by a wealthy, super-
charismatic sometimes-actor who encouraged the creation of weapons of 
mass destruction, conquered Russia and made England and Europe 
subservient to  his whims - an excellent & funny Changed History 
story.