[HPforGrownups] TIME TURNER-CAN YOU GROW OLD?

[Sherry Garfio]

No: HPFGUIDX 48068

KuhKuh Lynn wrote:
<SNIP>
> If you went back say 40 years 
> would you have to wait 40 years until you reached the correct time of 
> when you went back in time? Also, can you grow old and die while you 
> are using the time turner or is your age frozen? That would look 
> really odd if one second you were 10 and the next 40 because you had 
> been in the past so long, but that is what it would look like to 
> someone going through normal time. Thanks! 

Obviously this question requires a Trekkie's insight.  The quick answer: yes,
you can grow old while you are using the TT.  This would imply certain
limitations on its use.  We have no canon that tells us how far back you can
go, but it would be impractical to go back more than a few days.  But before I
get too far into this, let's review what we know.

1. Hermione uses the TT one hour at a time throughout her 3rd year in order to
take two classes at once.

2. She appears to usually go to class with the boys first, since Harry usually
sees her in class, and then notices that she mysteriously disappears as they
are leaving class.

3. She gets more and more tired as the year progresses, which is the main
reason I conclude that you do age while you are Time-Turned.  Hermione is
actually experiencing 25- or 26-hour days, and perhaps even longer days if she
is also using the TT to gain needed extra study time out of class.  [Maybe she
should have done some nocturnal Time-Turning as well to get some extra sleep!]

If you take a bird's-eye view of somebody using the TT, you would see one
Hermione on her way to class with the boys.  Then another Hermione would appear
on the way to her other class, and you would see both in their respective
classes.  After class, the original Hermione (with the boys) would vanish, and
the second Hermione would continue on her way and meet up with the boys at
lunch or in the common room.  But from Hermione's perspective, she would
actually experience the same time period twice.  From this, I conclude that she
is actually a couple of weeks older now than she should be.

Now, your question was what would happen if you used the TT to go back several
years instead of just a few hours.  We have no canon either way, so for the
sake of argument let's say that you can somehow change the TT's unit of time to
a year (i.e. one turn takes you back one year, ten turns takes you back ten
years).  Again, you would experience the same time period twice.  Therefore, if
you are 10 years old, and use the TT to go back 10 years, then there would be
two of you (a baby and a 10-year-old).  These two you's would age normally for
the next 10 years.  At then end of that time, the younger you (now 10 years
old) would vanish, and the 20-year-old you would continue.  Additionally, you
would have to stay away from your other self for the whole 10 years.  All in
all, not very practical.  Even if you did this when you were older, so that the
age difference was not so apparent (say, starting at age 40 so that when you
got back where you started you would be 50), there are many complications to
consider.

Now, this brings up an interesting question to my Trekkie side.  Couldn't you
use the TT to *escape* into the past?  For example, what if you were about to
be Kissed for your various crimes as a Death Eater?  You could use a TT to go
back so far in the past that you would die of old age before you were born. 
There would be no possibility of meeting your other self because you haven't
been born yet, and you could live out your life, possibly even wreaking havoc
in another era.  Of course, this brings up all sorts of temporal causality
problems.  If you change anything in the past, which you would necessarily do,
you alter your own future.

There is nothing in canon to indicate whether the effects of the TT can be
canceled, i.e. if you go back in time and then decide to abort before the
repeated time period has elapsed.  There is also nothing to indicate whether
there is a future version of the TT, or whether turning it in the opposite
direction will take you into the future instead of the past.  These are all
possibilities that could be explored in later books.

I would conclude that the TT has limited applicability in the WW, due to the
various constraints (aging, meeting yourself in another time line, changing the
past and affecting the future, etc.).  I also suspect that McGonagall expected
Hermione to get so tired she would just drop her extra classes before the year
was up, never dreaming just how driven she is (although I have absolutely no
canon to support this suspicion).  I also *never* expected time travel to come
up in this series, even being a sci-fi fan, and was ever so delighted with
JKR's treatment of a subject that has vexed sci-fi writers for decades.

Sherry


=====
"The one thing that unites all human beings, regardless of age, gender, religion, economic status or ethnic background, is that, deep down inside, we ALL believe that we are above-average drivers."

      -Dave Barry, "Things That It Took Me 50 Years to Learn"

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