Time Travel Paradoces

[darrin_burnett]

No: HPFGUIDX 57720

Gulplum, confusing the hell out of me:

> 
> Actually, as I said a few days ago, I absolutely adore JKR's version of 
> time travelling, because she makes that an impossibility. In a nutshell, 
> "you can't change what has already happened".
> 
> Buckbeak wasn't executed, Harry saw himself (his future self) cast the 
> Patronus.

Wait. I thought Buckbeak WAS executed. Hermione heard the thunk and 
began to sway on the spot...

WAIT! This is where McNair slammed the axe into the wood in frustration, isn't 
it? Hermione heard that the first time because other Hermione and Harry had 
already rescued Buckbeak. Is that where you're going?

But, then Dumbledore made a comment about "you can save more than one 
innocent life tonight," meaning Buckbeak.  But, the critter should have already 
been killed by then...

So, Dumbledore, before he suggested to Hermione that she use the Time-
Turner, already KNEW that they would be successful? He'd already realized 
that Hermione and Harry had helped the critter escape -- because as soon as 
he saw that Buckbeak had escaped, he thought, "Well, I must have had them 
go back in time and they must have done everything right and they must have 
fought off the Dementors?" 

"I'd better remember to do that when I see Harry and Hermione again."

This is the Bill and Ted version of time travel! 

> If the Potters hadn't been attacked, nobody would've known to go back to 
> save them. The Potters *were* attacked and very quickly killed - there's no 
> way to change that fact. Therefore there is no point in going back to save 
> them, because it's already known that they were dead.

So, what you're saying is that because no one went back in time to save Lily 
and James, they were impossible to save, but, on the other hand, no one 
would have known they needed saving until AFTER they had been killed.

OK, I give up. Explain it like I'm a two-year-old with a learning disability.

Why couldn't someone have gone back in time and just gotten Lily and James 
and Harry out of there?

Darrin
-- Who still says a time limit on the time turner is the best way to go