Prongs Patronus/REDHEAD ALWAYS

[GulPlum]

No: HPFGUIDX 53372

Norm wrote:

<snip>

>Just to make sure I'm getting it: I had been framing the issue in
>terms of: how does Harry1 survive in order to come back as Harry2 to
>be able to save Harry1. The real issue becomes: what happens if
>Harry2 *doesn't* save Harry1 (say, he just sits there waiting in vain
>for dear ol' Dad to show up and cast the Patronus)? Then, if I'm
>getting this right, *that's* what would alter the reality, and *both*
>Harrys would cease to exist, or perhaps only Harry2, and Harry1 would
>exist only as the shell of himself that would result from a
>successful Dementor's Kiss.
>
>Is that about right?

That's *exactly* right. At least, that's the way I understand it, based 
partially on what Harry tells Hermione.

And on a separate issue... I was going to write a second post in reply to 
Eroll's musings on REDHEAD ALWAYS, but I realised that the above partially 
ties in with what I wanted to say, and short posts are non-U on this list:

Eroll said:

>And if this reading of the nature of time travel is true, I find it very 
>disturbing `cause it sounds very much predetermined ­ almost like destiny.

I don't think I agree. The thing about future destiny (of the 
pre-determined kind) is that whatever choices we make, they are irrelevant 
because what we do has been pre-arranged on a cosmic basis, and our choices 
are in some respects foisted upon us in order to make our destinies happen. 
I agree that this is a distasteful thought.

However, when it comes to time travel, things get trickier. Regardless of 
the (theoretical) physical properties of time and which school of fictional 
time travel one wishes to follow, we are the sum of our experiences, both 
the small and major ones.

As Dumbledore tells Harry (although it's in respect of the future rather 
than the past),  "The consequences of our actions are always so 
complicated, so diverse, that predicting the future is a very difficult 
business indeed...." (PoA UK Ed. p 311). The same thing goes for our 
actions *in the past*. These things happened, and there's no way that we 
can change them. If we have the means (say, by possession of a Time-Turner) 
to attempt to do so, we would change who we are.

It's not so much a question of pre-determination, that the choices we made 
(either deliberately or just as a result of circumstances) which determine 
who we are were somehow "imposed" on us by some Great Cosmic Plan. It's an 
issue of things which have happened, and if they'd happened any differently 
we wouldn't be who we are, and the whole web of events which surround who 
we are would have turned out differently.

A banal example: my story of how I came to become a Potterholic. Having 
decided from what I'd heard previously that the Potter books were for kids, 
I'd never read them. However, I went to see the first movie at the cinema 
at a preview showing, which I do with almost all films (habit, rather than 
deliberate choice). I came out of the cinema with a question in my head 
(why Snape hates Harry) which the movie didn't answer. As it happens, my 
bus home was delayed (not because of any choice I made) and it was raining. 
I went into the bookshop next to my bus-stop to escape the rain and thought 
of looking for an answer to my question. My intention (choice) had been to 
flick through the book, but the shop was closing, so I bought a copy of the 
book (imposed choice). I started reading it on the bus home and finished it 
by the time I went to bed. The next day, I was doing my shopping and at the 
supermarket checkout, someone had left a copy of CoS lying around 
(happenstance). I picked it up, flicked through it and decided that I may 
as well read it, as I'd moderately enjoyed the first book. So I bought it, 
and by the time I'd gone to bed that night, had finished it. I then made a 
deliberate choice to buy the remaining books, and got involved in HP 
fandom. This changed how I have decided to spend a huge proportion of my 
time ever since, the people I know (and what we talk about), and perhaps 
(or perhaps not) made some small change to HP online fandom.

The thing is that had my bus not been delayed, I would have gone home and 
found the answer to my question online, which had been my intention 
(choice) as I'd walked out of the cinema. I don't *know* if I'd have ended 
up reading the book, or got as involved in HP fandom as I did, but I did. I 
don't believe that it was pre-determined that this should happen to me, but 
it did. It didn't involve a moral choice, and it's impossible to say what 
would have happened if things had occurred differently. Would I want to 
have changed the circumstances if I'd had the chance? Of course not, 
although I do recall being annoyed at the time by the delay to my bus and 
probably would have wanted to change the circumstances which had led it to 
be late.

Or, to return to what Dumbledore said, the effects of that bus's being late 
were far-reaching. I have no idea what effects it had on the other people 
waiting for it, but I'm sure that they'd have their stories to tell as 
well. From burnt dinners and waking up in the night with indigestion, to 
dogs left unwalked, etc, etc.

What am I trying to say? I don't believe that the bus was delayed in order 
to make some Great Cosmic Plan resolve itself. It happened. Big deal. But 
it had consequences, some of which were probably good, some were probably 
bad, and some were life-changing (as in my case). Changing any one of those 
consequences would have changed the present in some way, large or small. 
The moral of the tale is that whilst our choices (and yes, circumstances) 
can and do determine any possible futures, these futures are unwritten and 
unresolved. The past, however, *is* written, and there's no way that we can 
change it without changing who we are and the world we live in.

So if we have the means and opportunity to travel to the past, the changes 
we institute may be infinitesimal, but the *effects* of those changes may 
be enormous.

One of the reasons I adore the whole time-travelling plot in PoA so much is 
that is does not *change* the past any way whatsoever. I see this as an 
integral part of the often-repeated main "theme" of the books which is 
prejudice. In a very subtle way, we prejudge what is happening around us 
based on our point of view. If we had the opportunity to step outside 
ourselves and see ourselves from a different perspective, we'd see the same 
reality but in a different way. Perhaps we'd end up just a little wiser as 
a result.

And thus, fairly average Ron, by the very fact of going back and seeing the 
reality he's always known from a different perspective (i.e. Dumbledore's) 
becomes wiser, and indeed the wise man everyone Dumbledore knows to be. 
It's not just because he knows what's going on and what's going to happen 
which makes him *appear* wise.  It's because he can see these things from a 
different point of view which makes him inherently wiser. The fact that 
various disastrous things happen but he is powerless to change them only 
makes the whole idea more poignant.

As I said last night, I find the whole of REDHEAD ALWAYS utterly 
preposterous and don't for a moment think that it will pan out, but as an 
idea, it's utterly in keeping with the rest of the Potterverse 
thematically, narratively and in terms of characterisation.

--
GulPlum AKA Richard, who'd like to apologise for rambling and skirting the 
shores of Off-Topicality.