Time travel

[Christy]

No: HPFGUIDX 78899

> Melanie said:
> 
> p.s. I actually think that the most convincing evidence that there 
> *can* be multiple timelines in HP is that Hermione mentions at some 
> point in PoA that "wizards have killed their past or future selves" 
> when they encountered them due to time travel. Well, if there is only 
> one comprehensive timeline, a wizard would be able to kill his future 
> self, but NOT his past self -- that would prevent him from travelling 
> back in time in the first place. This is problematic ... but 
> personally I think Hermione is just mistaken. :)

This is a bit confusing, but I'm pretty sure that what's going on
isn't multiple timelines. Hermione's phrasing is a bit confusing, but
I think I've interpreted what she means (with a little help from my
extensive scientific background as well, and a little guesswork)

When Hermione says that wizards have gone back in time and killed
their past or future selves, she means something a bit different, and
I think it's why time-turners have been so controlled.

Assume there's one single time line, that moves forward. Events
happen, as they happen, and each individual remembers them. Now, allow
somebody to leave their original time and go back (to start) to their
past. Now say that they kill themself. Instantly, both versions of
that person would die. You've killed yourself, and therefore, changed
the future. You no longer exist, so you die, along with your past
self. The future is changed, based upon that event, so everything from
that point onward changes.

This could get pretty messy, when one starts to consider all the
events that then must change due to your never existing. And all this
would start to happen instantly.

Doing this in reverse (i.e. going into the future) would be slightly
different. Let's say you go into the future, and kill yourself. Well,
your past hasn't changed. BUT, if your future self kills YOU, then you
die and that future you vanishes, again changing the time line.

So basically, what's happening is that there is one time line,
affected by everything in it's past and future which by default
changes everything in the present. 

What I think is going on is that all the moments in time are happening
simultaneously, and changing one moment then affects all the others,
which would probably be obvious to any observers, especially if it
involved muggles. After all it'd be pretty odd to see somebody just
vanish in the middle of the street for no apparent reason. Not to
mention the chaos that would occur if lots of people had time-turners.
Think of the mess that would happen with all those people changing all
these little details all over the place. Pretty weird.

Complicated. Yup, but then again, time-turners are very regulated, and
it's nearly impossible to get ahold of one. With good reason, apparently.

Hope this helps (and doens't confuse any more!)
Christy