Time travel in PoA (was: Re: Remus is James and Time Travel)

[sharana.geo <sharana.geo@yahoo.com>]

No: HPFGUIDX 48934

Pip!Squeak,

I appreciate the time you are taking to answer my question.

Believe it or not I understand completely all the explanations you 
gave me, but I believe I have not been able to express clearly the 
reason why I am having trouble accepting your point of view of 
theory 3. Let's see if I manage it this time.

Pip!Squeak wrote:
> Prepare to be confused :0)
> In Theory 3 there is not, and never will be, a sequence of events 
> where Harry and Hermione did not go back in time. There is only
> one world. Harry 2 and Hermione 2 are always present in it.

It doesn't confuse me  :-)

This is exactly what I cannot accept. I can see no logical 
explanation to it. In all my life, I have never been able to accept 
something like this. It is something too sci-fi to me (Keep reading 
to understand why).


Pip!Squeak wrote:
> Because Harry 2 and Hermione 2 are present during the events of 
> Buckbeak's execution, the SS, and the Dementors, by the time Harry
> 1 and Hermione 1 get to the Hospital scene, the loop is already in 
> existence. It is not created by the Time Turner. The TT is just
> the mechanical means to keep the loop going.

If the TT does not create the loop, what does?

I cannot see how a time loop just exists; there must be something 
that generates it. 

For me to accept theory 3 as valid, I just need an answer to this 
question. What generates the time loop? God?



Several Sci-Fi movies and TV series address time loop issues.

In Stargate SG-1 there is a very funny episode called Window of 
Opportunity, where several planets (and everyone who lives in them) 
get caught in a time loop (kind of like Ground Hogs Day, which I 
haven't had the opportunity to see). Only 2 people realize that 
events repeat themselves every ten hours, no matter what happens in 
these 10 hours. They are the only ones to carry any memory about 
what happened in previous loops. After many loops, they realize that 
the event that triggered the time loop was a "machine" they 
activated in another planet creating a time bubble. Only those who 
were inside the machine room when it was activated are able to 
remember previous loops. It took them several months to figure out 
how to deactivate the machine (it was created by a superior alien 
race and they had to decipher the writings to understand how to use 
the machine). When they finally did turn the machine off, the time 
loops stopped, to everyone (in all the planets) that where inside 
the bubble, only ten hours had passed, but to the rest of the galaxy 
and the two that remembered the loops, several months had passed. 

I know this is a kind of time loop that doesn't exactly fit inside 
any of the 3 theories; to start with, you can end it at a specific 
time. and once the time loop is triggered, it automatically turns 
back 10 hours, no matter what you do in any loop (unless you shut 
the machine off).  But there is an event that triggers the time loop.


If it isn't the TT, I need to understand how the time loop (that 
makes Harry cast a Patronus to save his own life) is created. 

If you answer me something like "a time distortion is what generates 
the loop," then I must ask you what generates the time distortion.

But for now, by canon (and what I stated in the message you 
responded me to), it is easier for me to understand that things 
happened the way I explained in the message you just replied to me 
from, than to accept the fact that a time loop exists just because 
it does; and that the person to cast the Patronus (even the first 
time) is Harry, to me that just doesn't make sense.

To me Harry cast the Patronus because he did something very 
dangerous, which he was told not to do, he ran to the lake eager to 
see who cast the Patronus that had saved him (wishing to see his 
father). He wasn't supposed to do that, he wasn't supposed to be 
there. He got lucky he thought about casting the Patronus himself, 
at that moment, if he hadn't succeeded in casting the Patronus, or 
if he just sat there another minute, waiting for someone else to 
appear; he would have screwed up his life. 

As Hermione says (PoA, Page 398), nobody is supposed to change time, 
it is one of the most important wizarding laws. McGonagall told 
Hermione: "awful things have happened when wizards have meddled with 
time...Loads of them ended up killing their past or future selves by 
mistake!" This is the main reason why it was made a Law, to protect 
the life of all wizards.

Harry made the same mistake these wizards (the ones McGonagall talks 
about) did. He changed his past without fully realizing the 
consequences of what he was doing (he was just hoping to see his 
dad); only he was lucky enough to correct his mistake, without 
realizing it.


I believe this is a valid (and not too hard to understand) 
explanation. 

When any of you manage to answer me my question on what makes this 
time loop exist in the first place, then I will believe that there 
are two valid explanations to this time loop. (Believe me; I am 
really, really trying to understand it)

In advanced, I really appreciate your patience.

Thanks...

Sharana...