Time, Repetition and the Uber-Dimension (was: Narrative Function

[corinthum]

No: HPFGUIDX 79967

I wrote:

> >As soon as this happens, Harry1's 
> memories 
> > change to that which is recorded in the book.  Because Harry2 is in 
> > reality Harry1 plus three hours, his memories also change.  The 
> > result: the one and only Harry has only one memory, one which 
> > includes both present him and future him.  He interprets his 
> actions 
> > as being directly motivated by his memories, when in reality the 
> > opposite is true.  The must-go-back-in-time situation presents 
> itself 
> > only after the time travel has already ocurred.

And Laurasia replied:
 
> Who, then, *does* have memory of the inital incident? Dumbledore, 
> perhaps? But how did *he* escape the memory modification that time 
> caused? Perhaps *no-one* has any memory of the initial version. Is 
> it, perhaps, only trapped in Harry's subconscious mind (hence why the 
> Occlumency lessons were bringing it back)?

Me:

No one has any memory of the original version.  Not in this dimension,
anyway.  It wasn't a memory modification in the sense of memory
charms.  A person is only capable of being in one time dimension.  In
the dimension that we're concerned with, Harry2 saved Harry1.  It's
not an illusion, it's a fact.  The fact that other now non-existant
events triggered this reality is irrelevant.  I missed the
Occlumency-is-bringing-back-memories-of-a-parallel-dimension theory,
but this is impossible if this theory of time travel is correct.  


Laurasia:

> If no-one has memory of the initial incident I don't see how it's 
> going to come back into play. In fact, I don't see how it even 
> becomes relevant anymore because there is the completely internally-
> consistent version of events that Harry now believes. 

Me:

Exactly.  It's not going to come into play because it doesn't exist,
and never did exist, in the dimension we are concerned with.  

Laurasia:

> What's more- how did Harry manage to cast the Patronus? We have seen 
> that Harry wasn't able to cast a corporeal Patronus up until that 
> point. In the book (the modified memory version, if we follow this 
> theory) Harry states that he could only cast one because he knew he 
> already had. *BUT* in the memory-changing version of events he cast 
> the Patronus as a precaution even though he knew that someone else 
> was going to save him. He knows that he's already saved, but does it 
> as a precaution. That, to me, doesn't sound like a good enough reason 
> to be suddenly instilled with enough confidence to cast his first 
> ever corporeal Patronus strong enough to ward off a hundred Dementors.

Me:

The Patronus-as-a-precaution idea was just the simplest thing I could
think of.  Feel free to come up with a scenario that gives Harry more
motivation...an elaborate thousand page novel if need be.  As long as
it begins with Harry escaping the dementors and ends with him casting
a patronus to ward off the same dementors, the results will be the same.


-Corinth