Time-turning (was: Snape and DADA)

[tylerswaxlion]

No: HPFGUIDX 112535

--- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, macfotuk at y... wrote:
 
> Mac interjects:
> 
> I always saw this as a 'Schroedinger's cat' thing (not that I ever 
> understood this either!!!!), but esentially buckbeak is in an 
> unknown state when they TT - dead or alive? 


Uh...no.  Beaky is not in a box unobserved.  Dumbledore, Fudge, Hagrid
and the executioner all know they did NOT kill Beaky.  the sound that
the Trio mistakenly thought was Beaky dying was the executioner
throwing his axe.

But great physics reference!

>By intervening they 
> change this to alive. I think JKR gives a few suggestions that 
> before TT the state was in fact dead, but yes we don't know. 

Hence the dramatic tension.

>the 
> reality (sic) was that for a period of time there were two Harrys 
> and Hermiones, Harry 1 and Hermione 1 *believed* buckbeak dead but 
> because Harry 2 and Hermione 2 rescued him he wasn't, in fact. 

EXACTLY!

> Should a pupil or teacher check in two classes that Hermione was 
> taking simultaneously during the PoA year they would see her in both 
> and perhaps wonder how, but of course it doesn't happen because (a) 
> it shouldn't because it's unlikely and (b) it wouldn't serve the 
> plot.
>  

And Hermione has been warned to be very very careful about not letting
anyone see her.  I think she's slinking along to classes--remember Ron
wondering how she suddenly appeared in a class?  I think she just
snuck in, but it's also possible that she went to the second classroom
when it was empty, hid in a corner, and THEN time-turned her way into
the class.  Poof--she appears at the right time, walks out of hiding
to her seat.  

I don't think Hermione's TT moves her forward in time.  She "lives"
her way back to that time.

I do think JKR's world allows for forward time movement--we see that
hummingbird move back and forth from egg to bird to egg in OotP--and
truly bad things can happen when you mess with time--the DE with the
baby head on the adult body.

And the more we discuss PoA in depth, the more I really think that
McGonnigal and Dumbledore were extremely rash in allowing Hermione to
TT for more classes.  Yes, she's the brightest wizard of her age. 
Yes, she obeyed the rules and nothing "bad" happened.  But it cost
Hermione roughly a month or so of her life (living 1-3 or more "extra"
hours all school year--in effect 27 hour days in a 24 hour period).  

Sure a month isn't much time, especially to a teenager (and long-lived
wizards), but it was a price.  Why couldn't she just take summer
school courses?  Did anyone at Hogwarts consult with Dr. & Dr.
Granger, explaining the "lost month" of life?  There's no canon for
it, so we just have to guess, but it bothers me that the "good guys"
would do something so risky with a 13 y/o.

I guess I don't think Muggle Studies and Divination were worth the
price of a month of her life.

Of course, giving Hermione a TT was necessary for the plot of a fun
book and *Harry* is our protagonist.  But I still don't like it.

-TL