Time Travel (was Re: OWLS)

[Robert Jones]

No: HPFGUIDX 97463

--- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, "Meredith" <msmerymac at y...> 
wrote:
The problem with this is the way JKR has established time travel in 
her books. Unlike the type of time that exists in something 
like "Back to the Future" or "The Butterfly Effect," you can't go
back in time and change things in HP, you can only fulfill what is
happening.

Bobby: I disagree.  It is clear that under JKR's theory you can 
change history.   True, time-traveling Harry and Hermione didn't 
change history in POA — they just participated in events as they 
were supposed to happen (if that is the right way to put it).

The problem is that JKR hasn't limited herself to just that — she 
has Hermione telling Harry that McGonagall said that "loads of [time-
traveling wizards and witches] ended up killing their past or future 
selves by mistake."  (POA 21, p. 399.)  That is definitely changing 
history.  (It also leads to paradoxes: if "time-traveling Harry" had 
accidentally killed "pre-time-traveling Harry" when he was across 
the lake or dropped his wand and could not produce a Patronus — 
either of which he could have done — there would be no time-
traveling Harry because pre-time-traveling Harry would be dead or 
have had the kiss administered and so would never have reached 
midnight to time-travel.)

Also notice in POA that Harry wanted to run out the forest where he 
and Hermione were hiding to get Wormtail and Hermione had to grab 
him and warn him about changing history.  If Harry had stopped 
Wormtail, all the events of that evening would have changed.  
Nothing but Hermione kept Harry from changing history.  

And if history has to be changed, why can't you just go back and 
kill off Tom Riddle?  Or why doesn't LV just go back before Harry 
was born and kill James Potter as a baby before all this started?  
LV traveled through the period once so he could know a safe time to 
do it.  And he can do in Neville for good measure while he's at it 
just in case.  That's why it's a lousy plot device.  If you can 
change history, well, you can do anything to the plot to make it 
come out the way you want.  The story doesn't have to be restricted 
to what came before.

All in all, if time-travel is used as a minor point (and I'm afraid 
time turning will come up again), that's ok.  But if it becomes an 
essential part of the final events in the series, I will feel 
cheated.  If JKR was going to use time-turning to solve the problem 
of LV, she could have just as easily had someone kill Tom Riddle off 
as a baby and avoid the whole problem.  Why bother writing these 
stories if she had a cure-all in mind all along?  She could pull 
anything she wants out of the hat unconstrained by logic or common 
sense.  I'll feel cheated if that is how this whole thing ends.  We 
will have been wasting time reading and thinking about an 
unsatisfying sci fi novel.