[HPforGrownups] Re: Time Travel Paradoces

[GulPlum]

No: HPFGUIDX 57730

Richelle Votaw admitted her brain already hurts before trying to understand 
time travel when she asked:

 >what I can't understand is how Harry escaped in the first place from the
 >dementor to go back and save himself.  The dementor is bending over him and
 >suddenly the patronus comes and he sees what he thinks is his dad, but is
 >himself.  But how did he get away from the dementor to get to the time
 >turner to go back in time and save himself (and Buckbeak & Sirius).

 From the perspective of an outside observer, there were two people. The 
person casting the Patronus was a separate person from the person writhing 
on the ground. The person casting the Patronus knew that the Patronus saved 
the person writhing on the ground.  The person writhing on the ground had 
no idea (or rather, the wrong idea) about who it was that had saved him.

The fact that both people happened to be Harry is incidental. The fact that 
Harry's survival from the Dementor is what permitted him to go back in time 
is equally incidental. :-)

The thing I love the most about the sequence is that Harry confirms exactly 
what had happened  when he says later on that "I knew I could do it this 
time because I'd already done it". Harry, writhing on the ground, sees a 
powerful Patronus. Later on, (time-turned)Harry, realising that the person 
casting the Patronus is himself, knows that he has it in himself to cast a 
powerful Patronus.

--
GulPlum AKA Richard, who has no idea if that makes things clearer or not. :-)