Paradox of Time Travel in PoA - Before & After

[davenclaw]

No: HPFGUIDX 137321

--- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, "Sandra Collins" 
<sandra87b at y...> wrote:
>JKR didn't allow 
> any consideration for what happened BEFORE Harry and 
> Hermione went time travelling. There was the original timeline, 
> which is the one where no seeds were chucked at the original 
> Harry (and flowerpot) at Buckbeak's, there was also a series of 
> events where no patronus charged to Harry's rescue, and there 
> was also a series of unfortunate incidents involving Sirius - all 
> on the original timeline. I'm amazed people are still having 
> difficulty with this, just because JKR chose to ignore it. 


Possibly the easiest way to understand why the "single timeline 
theory" doesn't work is this: when TT!Harry "enters" the timeline at 
6pm, he doesn't appear from nowhere.  He comes from the future.  He 
has a memory of what happened 6pm - 9pm or whatever the time frame 
is.  In other words, that time period has already happened once.  
Would the "single timeline" theorists actually posit that 10pm has 
already happened at 6pm?  But if not, how can TT!Harry have a memory 
of a time period that hasn't happened yet?

Imagine drawing the famous time "line" with a loop from 9pm to 6pm.  
As you draw this line, you first have to draw 6pm - 9pm before you 
can draw the loop back to 6pm.  This is how the time progresses as 
well.  Note that it isn't a straight line coming from nowhere 
entering the timeline at 6pm.  It's a loop from a time that has 
already been reached.  6pm - 9pm takes place before time traveling 
occurs.


- davenclaw