[HPforGrownups] Re: *MY* confusion about the Time Turner

[Tammy Rizzo]

No: HPFGUIDX 124005

> Del says:
> 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.

Now Tammy R says:
Actually, Harry seeing what he thought was his father casting the Patronus across the lake 
was no violation of the "TimeTurning can't change what's happened" rule.  It was a violation 
of "Don't be SEEN" rule, which is a rule set in place (I believe) simply to protect those 
wizards who are TTing from spooking themselves into killing themselves.

The "TTing can't change what happened" rule is actually a law.  Like the law of gravity, or 
the law of the speed of light.  TT!Harry didn't change the past by casting the Patronus.  He 
couldn't change the past.  It's impossible.  It's not that "you can't change the past" because it 
would cause problems.  It's that "you can't change the past" because it's impossible to do, 
because what has already happened has already happened.  Harry was able to cast the 
Patronus because he knew he could do it.  

Where does faith end and knowledge begin?  While Harry and Sirius were surrounded by 
the dementors, Harry wasn't able to cast a respectable Patronus from there, because he had 
very little faith in his ability -- after all, the only *real* Patronus he'd cast before had been at 
Draco, not at a *real* dementor.  He'd NEVER faced a REAL dementor since learning the 
Patronus, and now he had to deal with hundreds of them at once?  How could he NOT have 
lost faith in his ability to cast a real Patronus then?  But TT!Harry, watching from across the 
lake, knowing that SOMEONE had cast a spectacular Patronus from right where he was, 
WAITING for that someone to show up, REALIZING that *HE* was that someone -- any 
faith he used to have in his ability _or inability_ to cast a REAL Patronus was left behind in 
the sudden sure and certain KNOWLEDGE that he COULD do it, because he already had 
seen it done.

No paradox there at all.  No changing of the past.  It's all simply what already happened.

***
Tammy Rizzo
ms-tamany at rcn.com

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