Question re-Time Turner

[Jonathan House]

No: HPFGUIDX 61312

--- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, "Annette Hamel"
<annettehamel at h...> wrote:

<snip>

> I can understand that Hermione is using the time-turner to be in two
places 
> at once, I'm just confused on the relationship between "linear" time
and 
> "turned" time.  During the first hour while Hermione's in class A,
class B 
> is going on concurrently.  By the time she sends herself back to attend 
> class B, class B has already occurred in linear time.  So it seems
to me her 
> classmates are going through it twice.
> 
> And again, when the kids use the time-turner at the end of the book
in the 
> Buckbeak/Sirius scenes, they are aware that they've already lived
through 
> those moments and they know what is going to happen next.  They have
memory 
> of both times.  This is what confuses me.  If one was truly in "both
places 
> at once" then this memory wouldn't exist, as the event would have only 
> happened one time.
> 
> In other words ... if Hermione were in both classes at once, it
would be 
> more like "cloning" herself.  But the time-turner sends her back to
a time 
> that has already occurred.
> 
> I could be over-thinking this.
> 
> Annette
> =^..^=
> Today is the tomorrow we worried about yesterday.

If you are thinking in terms of "linear time" and "turned time", you
are already halfway there. There is two time frames that you need to
keep track of :

"World time" - which is linear. Everyone except for Hermione is
following this time line, and they experience every hour of the day
only once (24 hour day).

"Turned time" - this is the one experienced by Hermione and by HRH at
the end of PoA. This time frame implies two things - one is that
although from your perspective the day is linear, you may experience
the same hour of the day more than once from the perspective of
everyone else following "world time". The second thing that will
happen is that from time to time you will encounter either earlier
(yourself before you turned time) or later (yourself after you have
turned time) versions of yourself.

Let me illustrate this from the perspective of the two different time
frames. We'll use Harry and Hermione to represent the different time
lines.

Harry (who is on world time) arrives at class promptly at 9:00 AM. He
looks in the classroom and spots Hermione sitting at a desk. Then he
turns and looks down the hall and spots Hermione walking into another
classroom. At the end of the class at 10:00 he walks out with
Hermione, who then twiddles with something around her neck and
promptly disappears. Harry looks around in bewilderment until Hermione
walks out of the classroom he spotted her "double" going into before
class. She notes the puzzled expression on his face and asks "What are
you looking for?" (to which he responds "You! Where did you go?).

Hermione (turned time frame) is sitting in class when Harry walks in.
She notices him looking down the hall, and then sees him do a
double-take at her. Before she could ask what he saw, class began.

At the end of class Hermione walks out into the hall with Harry. As
she had promised Professor McGonagall (sp?) that she wouldn't tell
anyone about the time turner she lets Harry get ahead of her and
reaches into her robes and turns the time turner one half turn. Now
she is back at 9:00 AM in world time. She turns around and gives the
earlier version of herself a little wave and then heads into her other
9:00 AM class.

At the end of that class Hermione walks out into the hall and notices
Harry looking around in bewilderment. She walks up to him and says
"What are you looking for?" (to which he responds "You! Where did you
go?).

At this point Harry and Hermoine are back in the same time frame
(world time), but while Harry has only experienced a single hour of
time, Hermione has experienced two (the same world time hour twice).

Does this help? Time travel can get confusing real fast. This little
narrative didn't even touch on any of the potential paradoxes that
could occur in time travel. If you are interested in learning more
about if time travel is possible in the real world I'd suggest heading
down to your local bookstore and checking out a few books on
Relativity and Time - it's a fascinating subject.

Jonathan (playing Lucius Malfoy at a HP party tonite)