In Defense of PoA (WAS Emotional Impact of CoS)

[cynthiaanncoe at home.com]

No: HPFGUIDX 27525

--- In HPforGrownups at y..., jonathandupont at h... wrote:
> I'm not saying that the ending wasn't cleverly done - just, well, 
its 
> still a cheap trick:-
> 
> Harry: Oh no! What are we going to do? Sirius is going to die!
> Hermione: Oh, by the way Harry, did I ever tell you that I can time 
> travel?
> Harry: Wizards can do that? But what about saving my parents? Or 
> Cedric in Book 4 that I shouldn't know about but Jon is inserting 
to 
> make a point?
> Hermione: Ah... but you see Harry - time travel is far too 
dangerous 
> to be used ever. Except, of course for the stunningly important 
> matter of helping me take a few more lessons. 
> etc.
> 
> Time travelling in a story that isn't based on it - in a plot that 
> isn't based on it - when its introduced out of the blue (and no, 
> Hermione's schedule doesn't count) just feels to me a lot like 
> cheating. Bit Deus Ex Machina as well, really.
> 

Uh, oh.  Now I feel kinda silly, because you make some good 
points.  :-)  

<*struggles to re-group*>  Um, well, you see, Time Turners are so 
hidously important and valuable that they can only be used for 
mundane things like taking extra classes.  Otherwise, the world would 
tip right off of its axis, you see, and we can't have that.  So 
that's why Hermione is allowed to have it for something mundane like 
studying, but McGonagall would have slammed a door in Hermione's face 
had Hermione asked to obtain a time turner directly to assist in the 
defeat of the most terrible Dark Wizard who ever lived.

As for Important Things like saving Cedric, well, it would never work 
because Harry would never be able to find Cedric in the maze and make 
him not touch the portkey, you see.  And, um, as for James and Lily's 
deaths, we can't alter that either, because, well, the only reason 
Voldemort fell the first time is because the attack on Harry failed, 
you see, so as painful as it is that Harry is an orphan, we have to 
let them stay dead so that Voldemort won't be such a menace.

Cindy (thinking maybe she won't bother to defend GoF after all and 
will instead bash Quiddich Through The Ages)