Snape and DADA

[tylerswaxlion]

No: HPFGUIDX 112327

> Thank you, again, PK, for attempting to open my eyes and enlighten 
> me.  I'm doing a little better with this now....  So, in JKR's 
> version of TT, you can only go back and see things as they happened 
> from a different perspective; you're not really CHANGING the events 
> and doing them over.  Did I at least get that much right??
> 
> Siriusly Befuddled Snapey Susan

Hey Susan, I just tried to answer this with Chancie, so let me see if
I can do a better job here.

Imagine the universe--the whole space/time continuum is a book. 
BigBang to the End.  We're in a god-like perspective now OUTSIDE the
book.  To us, Past, Present, and Future are all there.

To enjoy the book, we put ourselves in the characters point of
view--moving forward in time page by page from front cover to cover,
volume to volume.

Harry is one entity, living page to page, and at every point in the
book, he thinks he's
acting of his own free will.  I just re-read PoA, and that Harry
doesn't have a clue that Sirius is going to die.  He'd do things
differently, I'm sure, but those things haven't happened from his pov,
and he doesn't know about them till he gets to the pages where they do
happen.

I think the confusing part about time travel in PoA is in the
misinterpretations.  They make for a good story, but seem to lose
people along the way--but if you look closely, you see that the
timeline holds up.

Harry only thinks
Buckbeak has been executed when the Trio hears the axe fall.  He
continues to think Beaky's dead until he rescues him and sees that the
sound they heard was just the executioner throwing his axe.  At the
point when
the axe falls, we have 2 Harrys, one who's "heard" Beaky die, and one
who knows Beaky's not dead.  Buckbeak NEVER died.  Nothing was
changed.  Harry *always* saved him, but the Harry that saved him is a
future-self of the Harry who first thought Buckbeack died.  

We know for sure that this is the time-turning method that JKR is
using b/c of the Patronus Charm.  The first time Harry lives through
the dementors' attack, he thinks James has come to save him.  He's
wrong, just as he was wrong about Buckbeak dying.  From his
perspective, he thought the James-like person casting a spell was his
dad.

After he's time-turned, he's on the other side of the lake waiting for
James to show up.  He then realizes his mistake--that James was never
there.  HE--Harry of the future--cast the Patronus.  This knowledge
gives him the confidence to actually do it.  I don't have the book
handy, but Harry even comments on the fact that he was able to do it
b/c he KNEW that he had already done it.  His past self, living this
hour the first time saw his future self, living the same hour a second
time, cast the Patronus.  He figured it out right before he actually
cast the spell.

It's not a case of Harry going back in time and changing the past.  HE
WAS ALWAYS THERE TWICE.  If Harry wasn't in the past twice, he never
would have cast the Patronus, and he would have died/suffered the
Dementor's kiss.  

Dumbledore *seems* to send them back, but in reality, he's just
figured out what happened--*he* knows Beaky wasn't executed (though at
this point Harry still mistakenly believes he was) and now he's
figured out how Beaky escaped.  He currently--as of that page--knows
Sirius is locked up but not guarded, and he HOPES that the kids can
rescue him.  But he's already figured out that the kids have gone back
in time--b/c they must have let Beaky go.  

Let me try it another way:
Harry is a few hours older than he should be--I don't have my book
nearby, so say the events from Beaky's "execution" to Sirius' escape
last from 6-9pm.  Imagine Harry's wearing a wristwatch(that's
unaffected by timetravel).  The "first" Harry hears Beaky executed at
6pm.  The "second" Harry rescues Beaky at 6pm but this Harry's wrist
watch would read 9pm--b/c he's already lived through this time once.  

Say the Dementor attack was at 8pm. Time-travelling!Harry's watch
would read 11pm--2 hours after Beaky's rescue, but 3 hours since Harry
first heard the axe fall.  The Time-travelling!Harry knows he can cast
a Patronus charm b/c it happened in his past--according to his watch
it's now 11pm for him and he first saw the Patronus at 8pm.  

By the time they have rescued Sirius at 9pm, Timetravelling!Harry's
watch will read midnight, b/c he lived those three hours of 6-9pm
twice.  

Harry's unaffected watch will be 3 hours fast, as its 9pm-12am only
happened to HARRY.  Now that he's moved forward from where he
time-turned, he'll have to reset his watch to match up with
reality--he's jet-lagged!  

So 8pm always happens the same way, but if you time travel, you
experience it twice.  To Harry, he experiences it as 8pm and then
again as 11pm from different sides of the lake.  But to the rest of
the universe, there is only one 8pm.  Harry is on both sides of the
lake at the same time.

We as readers experience it twice b/c we followed Harry.  But from an
omnipotent-outside time viewpoint, Harry was always there twice.  (and
the actual times here are just made up for arguments sake)

UGh.  once again, I get it, and I know what I mean, I'm just not
convinced that I can get what's in my head across to anyone else. 
Sorry, I tried.

-TL