Could Time-Turner be used to save Black?

[msbeadsley]

No: HPFGUIDX 82192

theultimatesen wrote:
<snip>
> I don't see why the time turner couldn't be used to go back to the 
> point where he *should have* used the mirror or something? I 
> haven't thought this whole thing through yet, but I do believe it's 
> entirely possible.
<snip>
> Sirius was a part of his past & a part of his parents.
<snip>
> I feel Harry *really* needs him in his life.
<snip>

Entirely *on* topic:  my best friend died when I was twenty-three. He 
was twenty-seven. I believed that he was my soul mate and that I 
would never find anyone else to be so close to. (In some ways I was 
right; and that was more than twenty years ago.) Death is something 
that *happens* to people other people "need." That's the whole point. 
JKR personally has mentioned one death in her life: her mother. No 
matter how much you deny, weep, wail, smash things, tear your hair 
out, want to die yourself, it doesn't matter. NOTHING brings back the 
dead. That is my experience, and I believe it is JKR's as well.

This isn't really about the time turner for me. We may or may not see 
more "time travel" in the books. I don't really care. I do care about 
Sirius, however. If JKR brings him back to any greater degree than 
she "brought back" Harry's parents (Mirror of Erised, Priori 
Incantatem), I will build a bonfire and burn the whole damn series. 
While HP is (or at least started out as) largely escapist fantasy, 
any major denial of life's realities like bringing someone greatly 
mourned back to life would be spectacularly immoral in a literary 
sense: it would be a poisoned lolly, for children of all ages. It 
would mock the grief of every person who has ever lost anyone in real 
life. Grief is about getting on with it and healing, scabbing over, 
learning to deal, finding ways to navigate around or plank over that 
great, bloody hole in your life. It's about coping. (Bringing Sirius 
back would be a dirty trick; it would say, hey, you don't have to 
grieve your dead, just leave that gaping wound in your psyche 
permanently open (for just anything to fall into and infect) in case 
somehow they find a way to come back to you. (The Monkey's Paw, 
anyone? Joyce (Buffy's Mom) Summers?))

(Don't you think someone (Dumbledore?) would have time-turned James 
and Lily back to life if it had been possible? Death Eaters have no 
scruples. Wouldn't they have used a time turner to re-embody (or even 
*find*) Voldemort after the events at Godric's Hollow? But that isn't 
really the issue. I believe we will not see it because JKR will not 
indulge in literary necromancy; she will not so blatantly insult the 
vast majority of Harry's readership.)

Perhaps there should be a poll (list elves? I know some of you a bit 
better now; shall I beg?) where list members could weigh in on a 
question like, "Do you believe JKR will bring Sirius back as a 
living, breathing part of Harry's life?" or "Should JKR bring Sirius 
back?" or "Would you be insulted if JKR brought Sirius back?" 
or "Could JKR bring Sirius back without a major literary cheat?" Then 
if (who am I kidding? *when*) this comes up again, the response could 
be mercifully brief, just a guide to the URL where the (I believe, 
and a poll would ascertain) overwhelmingly clear results would be 
kept. (I hereby volunteer to help however I can with such an effort.)

Sandy, who had thought she might (hah!) be done with her soapbox