Time Travel in the Series

[mss4a at cstone.net]

No: HPFGUIDX 19681

Okay, here are some thoughts on time travel.  Actually I can't take 
credit for this theory, because a friend of mine thought it up, but I 
think it's quite brilliant.  

JKR treats time travel differently from other writers.  Think of the 
Back to the Future movies -- you have different timelines that go on 
concurrently.  I think this is also true in StarTrek.  But we see at 
the end of PoA that in HP everything you do when you go back in time 
*has already been predetermined*, so there is only one timeline.  
Harry did not change the events of the past when he produced the 
Patronus; he intervened to produce the only past that could possibly 
exist.

Now, a possible hole in this theory is when Hermione says, "wizards 
have killed their past or future selves".  If there is truly only one 
possible timeline, it would be possible for a wizard to kill his 
FUTURE self, but not his past self.  Given the way that time travel 
is treated at the end of book 3, I'm willing to believe that Hermione 
misspoke.  :)

If this "one timeline" theory is true, then, no HP character can 
actually change the events of the past; the only thing the Time 
Turner lets you do is be in two places at once.

Thoughts?

Melanie