Time-turning as literary device (was: Just a comment about Lupin's malady)

[vmonte]

No: HPFGUIDX 109594

vmonte:
Perhaps, the reason the PoA time-line (in which Harry and Hermione
time-traveled) appears to look as though H&H never changed history
(we see Harry before he TTs saving himself, Buckbeak appears to have
never been killed, etc.) is only because DD's strategy always worked
in this instance. Dumbledore knew that H&H would be successful, and
the events unfold as though it had always happened in this manner.

Eleanor:
But they didn't follow Dumbledore's strategy. Harry let himself be
seen. Or do you think he really saw someone else originally, or that
his memory was changed, or something?

vmonte responds:

I always understood Hermione's comment about wizards that have killed 
their past and future selves via time-travel as meaning: 'Wizards 
that have messed around with time-travel have accidentaly killed 
themselves because they did not realize that the person they were 
seeing was actually themselves.' 

It would be like Moody bumping into another version of himself. Would 
he wait to ask questions or would he assume that it was a DE and 
accidentaly kill himself? 

Harry happens to look like his father, and he assumed that it was his 
father that was saving him.  The Harry that was being attacked by the 
dementors was really in no position to actually harm himself. So I 
think that Dumbledore's comment to Hermione, in this instance, was to 
make sure that no one else, besides themselves, spotted them.  

DD doesn't want both versions of Harry and Hermione to be spotted by 
a DE because they might then realize that time-travel was being used. 
That's all Voldemort needs to get his hands on, a time-turner. What a 
mess that would be.