[HPforGrownups] Re: Time-Turner

[Pen Robinson]

No: HPFGUIDX 39987

AmyZ wrote:

>I was wondering about the missed Charms class too.  But I still don't get
>it.
>
>Think of it this way:  Hermione does this routine every day.  When she goes
>to Muggle Studies, she is missing Divination.  Then she turns over the TT,
>goes back, and goes to Divination.  I understand what Deb is saying about
>the two Hermiones, but I don't understand why she couldn't use it to go to a
>missed Charms class.
>
>Had she kept her cool and gone back and gone to Charms, Harry and Ron (at
>least the ones in that time-thread) would remember her going to Charms.  By
>the same token, they remember her going to Divination every time, even
>though she was in both Divination and Muggle Studies; she went to one
>"first" and "then" the other, and no one in either class missed her--because
>she was there.
>
>Before you say "but that day, she *wasn't* in Charms," let me ask:  why
>wasn't she?  There's no difference between missing a class because you got
>stressed out and accidentally went back and took a nap in your common room,
>and missing a class because you went to your other class.  In each case, you
>use your TT at the end of the period you want to re-live, and re-live it.

She couldn't be in Charms because she hadn't been in Charms...

Let's say Hermione's 'normal' routine involved going to Charms and then
taking a twist through time to go to, oh, Arithmancy at the same time*.
That way, during the hour (say) 10 - 11, she would have been in Arithmancy
and in Charms.

If, one day, she went to Arithmancy first, but remembered just as she came
out of the classroom that she hadn't done Charms first as usual, she could
simply use the time turner and attend the Charms class.   She would still
have been in both classes, even if on this occasion it was FirstHermione in
Arithmancy and SecondHermione in Charms.

However...  on this occasion, Hermione didn't remember to go to Charms, and
so there was no Hermione in Charms.   If she had remembered to go to
Charms, she would have been in Charms... but she didn't, so she wasn't.
She couldn't go back from a later point in time, because she would then
have been altering the past - from a 10-11am in which there was no Hermione
in Charms, to a 10-11am in which there was a Hermione in Charms.

Hermione and Harry could return to rescue Buckbeak because - unbeknown to
them - they had been there, sneaking around in the background and rescuing
Buckbeak.   But if they hadn't been there, they couldn't have gone there...

Yeah, I know, it gives me a headache too.

Pen

*  Hmm.  Actually, Charms seems to be one of the compulsory classes which
everyone takes, so I can't see any good reason why Hermione should get
confused at this point - there shouldn't be an alternative class for her to
attend.  But never mind that.