*MY* confusion about the Time Turner

[delwynmarch]

No: HPFGUIDX 123982



SSSusan wrote:
"The PERCEPTION of the events changed for the Trio, but the events 
themselves remained unchanged.

JKR actually muddies the waters a bit when she "allows" Hermione to 
say, "There must be something that happened around now that [DD] wants
us to change."  Similarly, Hermione's comment about lots of witches &
wizards having killed their past AND FUTURE selves did a disservice to
people's understanding.  "

Del replies:
For me, where JKR *really* muddied the waters is when Harry managed to
perform the Patronus Charm because he had seen himself do it. In this
instance, Future!Harry had a very definite influence on Past!Harry.
Past!Harry is able to do something in his own future because he saw
Future!Harry do it.

What bothers me is that Harry *managed* to cast the Patronus Charm
*because* he saw himself do it. Harry did have a significant
probability of not managing to cast the Patronus Charm. The only thing
that turned the odds in his favour is the fact that he saw himself do
it before. Had he not known he could do it, maybe he would not have
managed, in which case his past self would have died, in which case he
should be dead too. So basically, Harry survived because he saw 
Future!Himself, which is a direct violation of the "Time-Turning can't
change what happened" rule. It seems that in that case, there's a
significant probability that Time-Turning!Harry *did* change the past.

The only thing that reassures me is that Harry may be completely wrong
as to why he managed to cast the Patronus Charm. He had already
managed it once after all, so it is possible that he didn't need any
mental reassurance at all, and that he would have succeeded anyway,
even if he hadn't seen himself do it.

But this is not what he *says*...

Del