Time Travel - 3rd task

[Amy Z]

No: HPFGUIDX 19712

Melanie wrote:

>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.

I think this is supported by the Buckbeak incident, where JKR definitely 
deliberately sets it up so that we dont actually know what happened the 
first time-Buckbeaks execution and Macnairs temper tantrum sound 
identical.

But its undermined by the basic premise of their going back, which is to 
change things.  Dumbledore says they can save two lives; he believes that 
Buckbeak has already died and that Sirius is going to get his soul sucked.  
Why do anything if the rescue has already been accomplished?  Time has to be 
changeable in some sense in this universe.

Dave wrote:

>One other thing I've been thinking about in regard to the Time
>Turner: Is it a special kind of Portkey?  This would clear up two >things 
><snip first thing>  Second and more importantly,
>suppose the Triwizard Portkey was designed to return to outside the
>maze *and* only a few seconds in time after it departed!  This would >clear 
>up the thing that has been bothering me: why Snape is sitting >there on his 
>keister all the time between feeling the Dark Mark return >and Harry's 
>rematerialization.  This way, there was no pause between
>the two events.

Yeah, Ive wondered a bit what everyone (not just Snape) was doing while 
Harry was in the graveyard; it was such a long time that youd think they 
would start to worry about where all the Champions were (though its not an 
insurmountable plot problem by any mean--maybe it's just taking them a long 
time to find the center).  It also makes the possibility of spectators more 
plausible if Harry and Cedric took the Cup (witnessed by the spectators) and 
then immediately appeared at the edge of the maze.  If they disappeared for 
half an hour, the spectators would worry, wouldnt you say?

Of course, the spectators ought to be a bit worried about Fleur suddenly 
dropping and Krum hitting Cedric with the Cruciatus too . . . back to the 
drawing board on the ol spectator question, I guess.

One other question about the 3rd task:  the description of the Four Points 
Spell has really been bugging me.  This spell doesn't point toward the 
center of the maze; it makes the wand act as a compass.  Now, you can't find 
the center of a maze by consulting a compass, can you?  After a couple of 
turns, it would be useless, because you'd no longer know what direction the 
center was in relation to you.  People who understand orienteering, help me 
out here.

Amy Z
_________________________________________________________________
Get your FREE download of MSN Explorer at http://explorer.msn.com